Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia. We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, next up are the Blue Jackets.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Current Cap Hit: $79,157,499 (below the $95.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F Adam Fantilli (one year, $950K)
D Denton Mateychuk (two years, $886.7K)
Potential Bonuses
Fantilli: $3.2MM
Mateychuk: $750K
Total: $3.95MM
Fantilli was drafted with the hope that he could become a legitimate number one center. He appears to be on his way to getting there after being moved back down the middle full-time last season while building off his rookie season nicely. The $1MM in ‘A’ bonuses could very well be hit if he progresses as expected in 2025-26, putting him in a good spot to bypass a bridge contract if that’s a route GM Don Waddell wants to go. A long-term agreement could run past the $9MM per season mark.
Mateychuk was a midseason recall and quickly earned the confidence of head coach Dean Evason. He was a very productive blueliner in AHL Cleveland before the promotion but hasn’t had a big chance to showcase that part of his game yet. If he gets that chance this year, he could have a chance to earn some of his three ‘A’ bonuses but if he remains in more of a fourth or fifth role, that will be tricky. As things stand, Mateychuk appears likelier to land a bridge agreement on his next contract but if he locks down a more prominent spot on the depth chart by 2027, that could change.
Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level
F Zach Aston-Reese ($775K, UFA)
F Yegor Chinakhov ($2.1MM, RFA)
F Charlie Coyle ($5.25MM, UFA)
G Jet Greaves ($8.125K, RFA)
D Erik Gudbranson ($MM, UFA)
F Boone Jenner ($3.75MM, UFA)
F Cole Sillinger ($2.25MM, RFA)
Coyle was acquired from Colorado this offseason to give the Blue Jackets some extra depth down the middle. He’s coming off a quiet year that saw him record just 35 points but he’s only a year removed from a 60-point campaign. Assuming he’s able to get back to at least the 40-point range, Coyle should be able to hit the UFA market next summer with a shot at matching his current price tag on a three or four-year agreement. Jenner has been a very effective two-way center when healthy. However, he has missed significant time in five straight seasons which will affect his next contract. When he’s healthy and in form, he’s a big center who is above average on faceoffs and scores more than 20 goals a season. That player would normally get $6MM or more on the open market. But with the injuries, his market value might dip closer to $5MM or so.
Sillinger just turned 22 and already has four NHL seasons under his belt and has taken some gradual strides offensively but isn’t quite proven as a second-line middleman just yet. Notably, he’ll only be two years away from UFA eligibility next summer while also having arbitration rights. If the sides can’t agree on a long-term pact, a one-year second bridge contract could run the team around $3.5MM while a medium-term agreement might land closer to $5MM per season. On the other hand, if he takes a jump forward and Waddell is ready to lock him up long-term, the price tag could push past the $6MM mark. It’s not often someone this age is in this contractual spot since few 18-year-olds play in the NHL right away and with his development so far, there’s a wide range of outcomes.
Chinakhov has been in the media a lot lately with his trade request being made public in recent weeks. He’s only one year removed from putting up 16 goals in 53 games but injuries and a long stretch as a healthy scratch limited him to just seven in 30 outings last season. If he gets back to his 2023-24 form, he’d be in line for a short-term deal that pushes past $3MM per season but if he’s used as he was down the stretch, he could conceivably enter non-tender territory next summer as well. Aston-Reese was an training camp waiver claim from Vegas last fall and earned this one-year extension soon after. As a fourth liner who typically plays limited minutes, he’s likely to stay at or near the minimum salary moving forward.
Gudbranson’s contract came as somewhat of a surprise three years ago given that he was more of a fourth or fifth defenseman at the time. It actually has held up a bit better than expected although last season was largely a write-off due to injuries. In a perfect world, he should be more of a third-pairing player by the time his next contract begins so at least a small dip should be expected. That said, right-shot defenders often get paid more than expected so perhaps he surprises again.
Greaves needs to get into at least seven NHL games this season with at least 30 minutes played per game to actually remain a restricted free agent. If not, he’d become a Group VI UFA. Considering that he projects to be part of the goaltending tandem next season, it’s safe to say that he’ll easily get there, barring injury. He was a big part of their late-season push but still has just 21 NHL games under his belt right now. A solid showing this season could move him closer to the $2MM mark while if he takes over as the starter moving forward, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him more than double that on a deal that buys out a couple of UFA seasons.
Signed Through 2026-27
D Jake Christiansen ($975K, UFA)
F Kent Johnson ($1.8MM, RFA)
F Isac Lundestrom ($1.3MM, UFA)
F Kirill Marchenko ($3.85MM, RFA)
G Elvis Merzlikins ($5.2MM, UFA)
F Dmitri Voronkov ($4.175MM, RFA)
Voronkov received his bridge deal just last month on the heels of a solid second NHL season that saw him record 24 goals and 23 assists. The short-term contract made sense for both sides to better assess if he can become even more impactful offensively before locking in a long-term agreement. Assuming he stays on this trajectory, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his next contract surpass the $6MM threshold. Marchenko appears to be well on his way to an even bigger raise on his next deal. He very quietly put up 31 goals and 74 points last season, legitimate top-line numbers for a middle-six price tag. He has surpassed the 20-goal plateau in each of his three NHL seasons and at the rate salaries are set to increase, he could plausibly double his current price tag two on his next contract.
Johnson received a bridge deal last summer on the heels of a tough season. That contract already looks like a big bargain as he locked down a full-time spot in the top six and had more points than his previous two seasons combined. At this rate, he could get into the $6MM or $7MM range as well with arbitration rights when his deal is up. Lundestrom comes over from Anaheim after the Ducks elected to non-tender him. He has been more of a depth player in recent years, unable to live up to his first-round billing. The fact he can kill penalties gives him some utility but he’ll need to be a lot more impactful if he wants to get past the $2MM threshold on his next deal.
Christiansen was a full-timer on the NHL roster for just the first time last season which didn’t give him much leverage in contract talks. He also averaged just 12:32 per game in 2024-25 which was one of the lower marks for a regular. If he can work his way up to 15 or 16 minutes a night, he could push closer to $1.5MM on his next deal. It also wouldn’t be overly shocking if he was on waivers at some point on this deal if he’s pushed out of a roster spot.
While Merzlikins showed promise early in his career, he simply hasn’t been able to play at the level of an NHL starting goalie with much consistency. Frankly, his performance has been that of a backup at best more often than not. At this point, landing a deal paying half of what he’s getting now could be a challenge barring him turning things around over the next couple of seasons.
Signed Through 2027-28
D Zach Werenski ($9.583MM, UFA)
Werenski’s contract raised some eyebrows at the time it was signed but after they lost Seth Jones to Chicago, they weren’t in a spot where they could risk losing their top defender. After injuries wrecked the first year of the agreement, he has played at a true number one level, an all-situations player who logs heavy minutes and puts up plenty of offense. He led the Blue Jackets in scoring last season, averaging just over a point per game while finishing second in Norris Trophy voting. Given the inflationary trend of the market (particularly on the back end), Werenski appears to be on his way to landing another raise three years from now on another long-term agreement.
Signed Through 2028-29
D Dante Fabbro ($4.125MM, UFA)
F Sean Monahan ($5.5MM, UFA)
F Miles Wood ($2.5MM, UFA)
A few years ago, Calgary paid a first-round pick to clear the final year of Monahan’s contract. But he stayed healthy to earn this contract and while he missed significant time with injury, he still potted 57 points in 54 games, scoring at close to the best rate of his career. It’s likely Fantilli will take his top-line role in the near future but even if he holds down a second-line spot as a 50-point player, this contract should age well. Had he been on the market this summer, he’d have landed a fair bit more than this. Wood had a good first year in Colorado but last season was one to forget between injuries and general struggles. The Avs attached him in the Coyle trade to clear out these final four years which is a clear sign of his current value. However, if he can return to his usual form, the cap charge for a mid-20-point player is reasonable.
Fabbro will go down as one of the top waiver claims in recent memory. Cast aside by Nashville, Columbus claimed him in November and immediately became an impactful player, playing well defensively while logging over 21 minutes a game. There’s some risk with this contract given his play with the Predators but if he can maintain this level, this will become a team-friendly pact pretty quickly.
Signed Through 2029-30 Or Longer
F Mathieu Olivier ($3MM through 2030-31)
D Ivan Provorov ($8.5MM through 2031-32)
D Damon Severson ($6.25MM through 2030-31)
Olivier picked a great time for a career year, scoring more goals last season than the rest of his career combined. While his reputation is that of a fourth-line pugilist, he actually has played higher in the lineup over the last couple of years and as long as he can legitimately hold down a third-line role, this should age relatively well. But if he’s pushed down as other prospects join the lineup, this could become pretty pricey.
This contract for Provorov feels like the Werenski situation repeating itself. They couldn’t afford to lose him for nothing so they paid an above-market price to keep him. It worked out great with Werenski but this could be harder to get positive value on. Provorov is a top-four defender but he hasn’t been able to get his production back to his early Philadelphia days when it looked like he was on his way to being an impactful player on that side of the puck, not a secondary contributor. Had he made it to the open market, he probably would have landed something close to this price tag given the short supply but this looks like a fairly steep overpayment relative to his recent performance.
Something similar could be said for Severson, whose contract seemed high at the time of the sign-and-trade with New Jersey and that remains the case today. He’s a serviceable second-pairing player but was notably scratched down the stretch, hardly an ideal situation for a player signed for six more years. He turns 31 this week and those final couple of years could be an issue. They likely weren’t thinking the first few would be an overpayment as well.
Still To Sign
D Daemon Hunt
F Mikael Pyyhtia
Buyouts
D Adam Boqvist ($533.3K in 2025-26)
F Alexander Wennberg ($891.7K in 2025-26)
Retained Salary Transactions
None
Carryover Bonus Overage Penalty
None
Best Value: (non-entry-level) Marchenko
Worst Value: Provorov
Looking Ahead
Last season, the Blue Jackets narrowly operated above the cap floor following the tragic death of Johnny Gaudreau. While they’re further above the minimum now, they’re still closer to that than the cap ceiling so Waddell will be in position to try to leverage that extra flexibility at some point during the season barring any budgetary restrictions.
But this core group is going to get a lot more expensive in a hurry. New contracts for their younger players over the next two summers could add more than $20MM to the books, outpacing the projected increases to the Upper Limit. Even with that, however, there still should be ample room for Waddell to continue to try to add to the core. While there are some above-market contracts, they shouldn’t prove to be overly problematic anytime soon as Columbus has one of the cleaner sets of books moving forward.
Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.