{"id":67930,"date":"2020-02-07T16:44:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=67930"},"modified":"2020-02-07T16:44:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:44:28","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-sign-dean-kukan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/02\/07\/columbus-blue-jackets-sign-dean-kukan\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Blue Jackets Extend Dean Kukan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/blue-jackets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> have announced that they have signed defenceman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kukande01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dean Kukan<\/a><\/strong> to a two-year contract extension. The extension carries a cap hit of $1.65 million and carries him through the 2021-21 season.<\/p>\n<h2>Dean Kukan Signs Two-Year Extension with the Blue Jackets<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">?Kuks signs two-year deal through 2021-22 season?<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1sMa6l5soc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/1sMa6l5soc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJacketsNHL\/status\/1225829024628400129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 7, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nDespite being sidelined due to a knee injury, Kukan inked a new deal with the Blue Jackets that will keep him with the club for at least another two years.<\/p>\n<p>In 33 games this season, Kukan has scored one goal and added four assists while averaging 15:58 minutes of ice time per game.<\/p>\n<p>Over his career, Kukan has scored one goal and 13 assists for 14 points in 77 games.<\/p>\n<p>Kukan was originally signed as a free agent by the Blue Jackets on July 1, 2015.<\/p>\n<h3>Kekalainen Solidifies Blue Jackets Defence Depth<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/bluejackets\/news\/blue-jackets-sign-dean-kukan-to-two-year-contract-extension\/c-314762068\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">When speaking of the Kukan deal<\/a>, Jarmo Keklainen said; &#8220;Dean is a smart and quick, puck-moving defenseman that has improved steadily since joining our organization in 2015. &#8220;We are very happy that he will continue to be an important part of our club&#8217;s deep and talented group of defensemen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kukan rounds out a solid defence group lead by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/werenza01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Werenski<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesse01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seth Jones<\/a><\/strong>. This group along with goaltenders <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/merzlel01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elvis Merzlikins<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/korpijo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joonas Korpisalo<\/a><\/strong> have been outstanding this season. They currently sit second for least goals against with 133. Trailing only the Atlantic Division-leading <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/bruins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old has represented his country Switzerland at both the IIHF World Junior Championships as well as the IIHF World Hockey Championships. He also helped the Lake Erie\/Cleveland Monsters capture the Calder Cup Trophy during his time in the AHL in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>While his numbers don&#8217;t jump out at you, as Kekalainen mentions is a very capable puck mover who skates extremely well. He possesses the tools teams want in a defenceman in today&#8217;s NHL. The signing guarantees that the Blue Jackets will keep most of their current defence group intact until the end of the 2021-22 season as they have five defenceman locked up until the end of that season.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"N8beiL1tSCBTm3jdk72pCw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1197212945\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'N8beiL1tSCBTm3jdk72pCw',sig:'JLGHoUFbduBCjn3oBHf469lFJAZ4e6MS8iGFwXg7f8w=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1197212945',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that they have signed defenceman Dean Kukan to a two-year contract extension. The extension carries a cap hit of $1.65 million and carries him through the 2021-21 season. Dean Kukan Signs Two-Year Extension with the Blue Jackets ?Kuks signs two-year deal through 2021-22 season?https:\/\/t.co\/1sMa6l5soc \u2014 Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2506,"featured_media":67936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[11,34],"tags":[111,2929,351,528],"class_list":["post-67930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejackets","category-news","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-dean-kukan","tag-seth-jones","tag-zach-werenski"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67930","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\/2506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}