Jarmo and company certainly saw something they liked early in the sixth round of Saturday’s NHL Draft. Columbus Blue Jackets brass traded away a 2019 fifth round pick to Detroit in order to select Swiss defenseman Tim Berni with the 159th pick. Without reading into it too much, they just barely traded up to snag the 18-year-old Berni.
The 5-11, 175lb. blue liner finished last season playing in eight games for ZSC Lions in Switzerland’s top league, the National League. He didn’t register any points in ZSC’s title run, but he did score 15 points (5G, 10A) with the Lions B-team in the previous 36 games.