According to a team announcement, the Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Charlie Coyle to a six-year, $36MM ($6MM AAV) extension. Coyle was considered one of the top available unrestricted free agents heading into the offseason.
Earlier this morning, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK reported that the Blue Jackets and Coyle were nearing an extension. Shortly thereafter, Pierre LeBrun of TSN added that both sides were ‘working on language’ as the talks progressed.
This contract will take Coyle through the 2031-32 season, when he’ll turn 40 years old. The length ties his previous high in contract years signed in Boston when he extended with the Bruins after the 2018-19 season.
The 34-year-old forward was set to be an unrestricted free agent coming off a six-year contract that paid him $31.50MM ($5.25MM AAV). Coyle finished the 2025-26 season in Columbus, resurging back to his former scoring ways. He was fourth on the Blue Jackets in scoring, tallying 20 goals for 58 points in his fifth consecutive season playing in 82 games. That mark with Columbus was his second-highest point total within that six-year contract span, with the highest production coming out of his 2023-24 campaign, where he reached 60 points in the Bruins centennial season.
Coyle’s new extension provides him with some stability in a time of his career where he has bounced around, to say the least. Coyle was a victim of the Bruins’ reset, where they dealt away the majority of their outer core to recoup future assets. The Weymouth, MA native was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche and produced 13 points in 19 regular-season games and added an assist in their seven-game, first-round loss to the Dallas Stars. The Avalanche then sent him to Columbus over the summer, where he played out the remainder of his deal before this extension.
Originally a first-round pick of the San Jose Sharks, Coyle never donned the teal and orange after he was selected 28th overall in the 2010 NHL draft. He became a key part of the package traded to Minnesota in exchange for Brent Burns, where Coyle signed his entry-level contract. After providing back-to-back 30-point campaigns in his early twenties, the Wild extended Coyle to a five-year, $16MM ($3.2MM AAV) contract. In the final year of that deal, they dealt him to Boston for Ryan Donato. Coyle proved himself as a key piece in Boston, providing 16 points in 24 playoff games en route to the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, where Boston lost in seven games. The Bruins signed him shortly after to the contract that he just finished up in Ohio.
Coyle will assumbly finish out his career in Columbus, adding a blend of scoring, steady two-way play, and veteran leadership to a team that is on the cusp of making the dance in a tough Eastern Conference.
Columbus entered their offseason with over $40MM in cap space before the Coyle extension. Now the Blue Jackets have around $34MM to work with in a summer where they’re looking to build off a 92-point campaign that saw them fall seven points short of an Eastern Conference Wild Card spot that would’ve snapped their Stanley Cup Playoffs drought dating back to the 2019-20 season.
Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell will need to make several decisions this summer to supplement Coyle’s return. Unrestricted free agents for Columbus include forwards Mason Marchment, Danton Heinen, and captain Boone Jenner, as well as defensemen Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Smith. Along with Cole Sillinger and Egor Zamula as restricted free agents, former third overall pick Adam Fantilli, who scored a career-high 59 points at age 21, and goaltender Jet Greaves, who finished ninth in the NHL with 16.5 goals saved above expected, are restricted expiring deals.
They’ll have some added money from the expirations of buried and bought-out contracts from Adam Boqvist, Alexander Wennberg, and Ivan Fedotov. All three will come off the books and contribute $3.55MM to the space they can use to bring back key players.
lol
my thoughts exactly
good for Coyle….bad for CBJ in 4yrs
2 or 3
Front office decisions like this are why no one will ever take CBJ seriously.
This is braindead, And, Funny at the same time.
He’s 34. They are smoking in CBJ
Certainly does seem like he got alot of term without any notable paycut for his inevitable decline after three years. Strange decision. Should have been 6 at 4.5 or so if you have to sign him for so long…
Good player,but this contract will age like milk under a hot sun. CBJ will not get a good ROI on this contract.
Inflation everyone. Good for him, the cap strapped a bunch of teams and guys from making better money.
This is what is going to happen. Too much money chasing around too few goods.
Solid player for sure, honest effort, full value… In 4 years, if the world is still afloat, everyone will be making 6mm.
The AAV itself is not terrible, what with the rising cap and all, but six years!?
He would have landed a 6-year-deal on the FA market so this was probably “the deal” whether he re-signed with CBJ or went elsewhere. The alternatives on the open market were bleak, so CBJ pulled the trigger. I’m guessing this means Boone Jenner is gone.
Yeah, but the problem is with all the cap space out there and lack of notable FAs, he would’ve gotten it on the open market this summer. As we’ve seen with many players, when there’s a will, there’s always a way out of the contract…
I could be wrong, but I genuinely fail to see anyone lining up to give 34 year-old Coyle a 6-year deal.
It’s as if Waddell isn’t planning to be in Columbus in 3 years’ time. Because by that time, this contract will become a glaring evidence of his incompetence.
First day of free agency will be a real hoot this year. 😒
FA will be over in 1 hour!!! 😣
I get they have some money to burn and can be guilty of slightly overpaying like the Hawks have but 6 years? Feel like a bit more AAV for shorter term would have fit them better.
Was actually thinking he could’ve gotten more than 36m. Not that it was a good idea for a team to give it to him.
Idiocy
Thought He was going to get worse free agent contract looks like that will be true. Unless someone signs Darren Raddysh to similar contract.
Ouch. That term is atrocious. If it was 2 or 3 years for 6 AAV that would’ve been a lot more reasonable. This will be an untradable contact in 3 years time
Any contract is tradable; did you know Shea Weber’s almost $8M contract was a member of the Chicago Blackhawks this year?