The Columbus Blue Jackets have been unable to retain their stars in recent years, with names like Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Matt Duchene all leaving in free agency. The next big name on that list is Seth Jones, who will enter the final season of his six-year, $32.4MM contract in 2021-22 with unrestricted free agency right around the corner. Though the Blue Jackets would obviously love to sign the Norris contender to a long-term contract to keep him in Columbus, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on Hockey Night In Canada that the 26-year-old will not sign an extension with the team at this point.
We can tell you that sometime in the last week or so, Seth Jones informed the Columbus Blue Jackets that he will not be re-signing. I’m saying ’for now’ at this point because I don’t like to deal in absolutes. But it does appear as if he is prepared to test free agency and we’ll see how Columbus decides to handle this over the next little while.
If Jones has told the team he intends to go to the open market, it means the Blue Jackets will be forced to at least test the market to see what kind of return would be available with one year remaining on his deal. The team is coming off a brutal season that saw them fall to the very bottom of the Central Division standings at 18-26-12, parted ways with their head coach, and traded away their captain Nick Foligno.
Moving Jones would be a huge transaction, but it wouldn’t be the first time the star defender was traded. He arrived in Columbus in a blockbuster five years ago, swapped for up-and-coming center Ryan Johansen. Since then he has turned into one of the very best all-around defensemen in the league, able to contribute offensively while also matching the other team’s best on any given night.
Of course, the Blue Jackets could decide to( and have suggested in the past that they will) keep him and use the next 12 months to attempt to change his mind. Jones’ next contract will likely make him one of the highest-paid defenders in the entire league and as long as the Blue Jackets are willing to pay market value, any growth this summer and next season should be seen as positives.
The Jones situation in Columbus will be one of the most interesting to keep an eye on through the summer and up to the 2022 trade deadline.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Overrated!
Offer Marner for Jones while Marner still has value. Wait, that’s a bit harsh. He’ll still have value. Just not to any teams hoping for playoff success. Columbus is perfect.
What does this even mean
This is so typical for leafs fans. The kid is what 24, 25…and he’s written off as a failure. Oh but he puts up huge numbers in the regular season…perhaps Toronto’s playoff failures don’t rest on one persons shoulders but the team collectively.
Would love to see him come to Dallas and play for his hometown team.
@jjschwertner9 – Thinking of a Jones-Heiskanen tandem back there? That would be impressive.
Yes, and let klingberg walk or trade him as he is in last two years of his contract.
What the heck is going on in this organization?
Coach wanted to leave, but stayed after being asked… so we cannot blame him for this year.
Players are either all in or all out.
The GM makes some solid moves, but cannot seem to retain talent… excepting Bobrovsky who is not-so-talent apparently.
I mean they retain bob in the long run… seems like they all hated torterella and upper management didn’t seem to care what their players thought too much
But Torts wanted out a year ago. Is it just the management are hard-cases? Which is subjective because you wanna build a winning team and not toss money around like candy… which is how I see players as individuals.
Rangers Deal top defense prospects Reunenan and Zac Jones plus add in young big winger Julian Gauthier for Seth Jones.
Why do Rangers fans continue to talk like the Salary Cap doesn’t exist or impact them? They already have Trouba, Fox will need a big new contract, so yeah another RH defenseman who needs a big contract probably doesn’t work in a cap world.
It’s so true! For every singe big name player that is rumored to become available, there is a rangers fan putting together a package. The package never seems to include anything of value either. I’m curious what these guys think all these star players would sign for when you want to scoop up every good player out there
Rangers will have money off the books after next season so for every arm chair gm maybe you should investigate the cap and understand the rangers will have flexibility after next season. If they trade for Eichel they will not.
Will they still have flexibility after giving Fox 7-8 million?
They have cap space, because they only have 3 forwards, 4 defenseman, and no goalies under contract. Therefore, my point of spending 8 million on Trouba,even giving Fox a bridge contract will be like 5 million,and no way jones takes less than 9 million and all play on the right side is stupid. So yeah, I agree, “every arm chair gm maybe you should investigate the cap and understand the rangers”
Hi Gavin again,
Can you fix the sentence of the word ‘to(‘? Please & thank you.
“Of course, the Blue Jackets could decide ‘to(‘ and have suggested in the past that they will) keep him and use the next 12 months to attempt to change his mind’.
Hi Josip, will you please stop correcting people. It’s a free website/app. Grammatical mistakes will happen, stop being so entitled.