{"id":130977,"date":"2022-07-21T09:44:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=130977"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:44:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:44:47","slug":"nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-winger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/07\/21\/nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-winger\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Big Decision Looms for Columbus Blue Jackets Winger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We may be deeper into the offseason, but we have plenty of NHL rumours to go around. A total of 24 players filed for salary arbitration last week, but teams likely don&#8217;t want to go that round. However, Columbus Blue Jackets forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lainepa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrik Laine<\/a> wasn&#8217;t one of those players. The Jackets are still working on a Patrik Laine contract as a deadline looms.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Patrik Laine Contract Talks Ongoing<\/h3>\n<p>Aaron Portzline of The Athletic looked into the critical week for Laine and Columbus in a recent article. The Blue Jackets did extend a qualifying offer of $7.5 million to the Finnish winger. However, he has yet to sign that offer. Laine has until 5 p.m. Friday to sign the qualifying offer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Athletic: Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering<br \/>1. \u201cBut \u2026 why?\u201d Landing Gaudreau a big break for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CBJ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CBJ<\/a><br \/>2. Gaudreau\u2019s impact will be immense<br \/>3. Laine won\u2019t file for arb, but this is a big week<br \/>4. Snacks: Gudbranson\u2019s fit; Kadri interest, Cup in Cbus, etc.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8mmarenZqf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/8mmarenZqf<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/40lP5IiP6c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/40lP5IiP6c<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Aportzline\/status\/1548724742915592194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The contract would be for one year at $7.5 million. He would become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season if he does accept the qualifying offer.<\/p>\n<p>The negotiations seems to be slow, but there isn&#8217;t a hostility between the two sides. Blue Jackets general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kekalja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarmo Kekalainen<\/a> said the two sides have been in communication for quite a while.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll keep talking,\u201d Kekalainen said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we haven\u2019t been negotiating in good faith. We have been, the whole time. At some point, it\u2019ll be decision time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Blue Jackets did make an offer to still UFA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kadrina01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nazem Kadri<\/a>, but that offer was pulled when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gaudrjo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Johnny Gaudreau<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/07\/13\/report-johnny-gaudreau-contract-signed-leaves-calgary-flames\/\" target=\"_self\">signed his big-money contract<\/a> to move to the Ohio capital.<\/p>\n<h3>What it Means<\/h3>\n<p>If Laine does sign with the Jackets, that means Kekalainen will have to clear out some salary cap space. That could be around $5-6 million that needs to be moved off the books to make Laine&#8217;s deal fit.<\/p>\n<p>The two sides will have until Dec. 1 to get a contract done if Laine doesn&#8217;t except his qualifying offer. If a deal isn&#8217;t done by December, the forward won&#8217;t be eligible to play this season. He could accept the offer, but still work on a longer term extension. That extension could only be signed after the new year.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Blue Jackets&#8217; Patrik Laine: &#8216;I want to stay here for sure.&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZoSWPNVesI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZoSWPNVesI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xO3hnZiNab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xO3hnZiNab<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 theScore (@theScore) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theScore\/status\/1391920179244937228?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 11, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We may be deeper into the offseason, but we have plenty of NHL rumours to go around. A total of 24 players filed for salary arbitration last week, but teams likely don&#8217;t want to go that round. However, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine wasn&#8217;t one of those players. The Jackets are still working on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":130978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4321,11,4547,4548],"tags":[5982,286,249,235,662,436],"class_list":["post-130977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-bluejackets","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-columbus-blue-jackets-rumours","tag-jarmo-kekalainen","tag-johnny-gaudreau","tag-nazem-kadri","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-patrik-laine"],"modified_by":"Alex Metzger, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}