Columbus Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets announced Wednesday they had reached an agreement with head coach John Tortorella on a two-year contract extension through the 2020-21 NHL season.

General manager Jarmo Kekalainen said of the move:

"Our team has been one of the winningest in the NHL over the past two seasons and John Tortorella has played a critical role in that success and in raising the level of our team's play since his arrival. His passion and commitment to being the best has permeated our team and we believe will lead to even greater success in the future."

Columbus hired Tortorella in October 2015 after the team started the 2015-16 campaign with seven consecutive losses.

Although the Jackets missed the playoffs that season, they have qualified for the postseason each of the past two years after accumulating 108 points in 2016-17 and 97 points in 2017-18.

Tortorella won the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach for the team's 2016-17 success.

After Columbus was eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals in last season's playoffs, the 60-year-old coach stressed it was time to raise expectations.

"We're going to talk about how there was some progression within our game, within the individuals, but we're six games and we're done," he told reporters in April. "That's what I want to get away from. I want us to be more aggressive in our thinking and expect some more, not be satisfied as far as the process."

Tortorella owns a 129-87-23 record with the Blue Jackets to bring his career mark to 575-462-37-101 across 17 years as an NHL head coach. He previously coached the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks and led the Bolts to the Stanley Cup in 2004.

OddsShark notes the Jackets are early 30-1 to capture next season's championship.

The NHL rumor mill has cycled down for the summer, it seems. As the draft approached, it felt like we were on the precipice of one of the busiest runs in recent memory.

John Tavares was set to alter the course of recent history. Erik Karlsson seemed as good as traded. Max Pacioretty appeared destined for a new zip code and, at the last moment, we learned that Artemi Panarin had decided he wasn't interested in re-signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets "at this time."

Tavares obviously bolted for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but none of the other big moves happened, and hockey fans have been waiting for them to unfold ever since.

Yes, we're in the doldrums of summer, but that lack of activity earlier in the offseason means that there are a handful of moves yet to be made. Who knows? Karlsson could be traded on some sweltering day in mid-August while the rest of us are at work or trying to stay out of the heat.

          

Status Quo for Artemi Panarin and Columbus

Supporters of the Columbus Blue Jackets received a serious (and unforeseen) gut punch in mid-June when Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that Panarin didn't have an interest in re-signing with the team at this juncture.

Comments that his agent, Daniel Milstein, made to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic were even more troubling than Friedman's initial report. This is what you call a money quote:

"We're not holding out for more money, because if I called [general manager] Jarmo [Kekalainen] right now, he'd probably drive up to my house and we'd put a deal together. [Panarin's] biggest thing is...he loves the team, he loves the coach. It's not the team or the way they treat him. It's about, does he want to spend the next eight years in Columbus? That's the only thing at stake right now."

Yowza. Columbus isn't that bad, Artemi. Have you ever been to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum? It's rad.

Kekalainen recently met with the forward in Europe, and fans hoping that this meeting would generate some kind of forward progress were once again left disappointed.

Meeting between Jarmo Kekalainen and Panarin took 45 minutes. Told that Artemi is still not ready to sign a long term deal #CBJ

— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) July 16, 2018

This isn't one of those no-news-is-good-news situations. This is a star player—demonstrably one of the best forwards in professional hockey—telling a team that he likes them but not where they are located. That's impossible to fix or do anything about (unless Kekalainen has Magneto on the payroll), and the situation has led pundits such Tom Reed of The Athletic to believe that trading Panarin sooner rather than later would be the best route forward.

That's a tough sell for a team that is battling perception issues as it is, though. It's an even tougher sell to the fans in Columbus who bought Panarin sweaters last season as he emerged as the most outstanding and electric player in franchise history.

Plus, as Adam Gretz pointed out for NBCSports.com earlier in July, the odds of trading Panarin and getting similar value in return are virtually nonexistent: "...it is nearly impossible to trade a player like Panarin and end up coming out ahead when it comes to value (just ask the Chicago Blackhawks)."

With the Karlsson situation grinding to a halt recently, Panarin Watch has become the most intriguing part of this offseason. Especially when you know that the Blue Jackets just watched the New York Islanders lose their heart and soul for zilch, zip and nada on July 1.

           

Chicago Blackhawks Diving Headfirst into Cap-Space Pool

They had to give up Vinnie Hinostroza to get the Arizona Coyotes to take on Marian Hossa's dead-money contract, but the Chicago Blackhawks now have plenty of cap space to play with in the coming weeks. It was a nine-player deal when the dust settled, but Chicago general manager Stan Bowman continues to find ways to convince other organizations to help break them out of cap hell.

Despite having four roster spots to fill, it doesn't sound like the Blackhawks are trying to make incremental upgrades to a team that last season missed the playoffs for the first time since Transformers movies didn't have vague and meaningless phrases tacked on to them for branding purposes.

Told the Blackhawks have been in talks with Montreal about Pacioretty and Carolina about Skinner. Chicago has approx $8.5M in cap space after today's trade. Possible these talks pick up steam now.

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) July 12, 2018

Pacioretty slotting in beside Jonathan Toews or Jeff Skinner flying down the ice alongside Patrick Kane are fun things to visualize, but neither of those players would come cheap. One has to wonder whether Bowman has the chips to seriously engage in chatter concerning Skinner or Pacioretty.

Prospect whiz Peter Harling ranked Chicago's farm system 16th, noting that "the pipeline is a little thin" after a near-decade of championship contention. And after missing the postseason in 2017-18, Chicago might not be interested in moving its first-round pick for 2019.

Regardless, Scott Powers of The Athletic reported after the Hossa trade that the Carolina Hurricanes' asking price for Skinner is Nick Schmaltz and a first-round selection. It will be interesting to see whether Bowman bites on something along those lines or sticks with the 22-year-old Schmaltz as his No. 2 center.

             

Will Jason Zucker Remain with the Minnesota Wild?

Over the past three seasons, only Eric Staal has scored more goals for the Minnesota Wild than Jason Zucker. He set various career highs in 2017-18, scoring 33 times, keeping pace with the likes of Auston Matthews, Claude Giroux and Phil Kessel and rocketing past the 60-point barrier for the first time in the NHL.

Zucker has evolved into a dependable top-six forward for the Wild during regular-season play. The knock on him, however, is that he's now appeared in 31 playoff games and has scored just four times. Since 2015, he has lit the lamp once for Minnesota during the postseason.

As such, his future with the Wild is up in the air to some degree. When new GM Paul Fenton took over for Chuck Fletcher, who had been at the helm for almost nine years, it was evident that changes needed to be made to the Wild's roster.

Jason Zucker responds to #mnwild trade talk. "I want to be here." @sarah__mclellan writes: https://t.co/NghnvfjrO3 pic.twitter.com/HLjk4bvPXo

— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) July 11, 2018

Sure, they continue to make the playoffs, but they typically manage to do no damage once there. They have never gone beyond the second round and haven't won a division title since signing Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to matching 13-year, $98 million contracts back in 2012.

With Zucker a sort of figurehead for Minnesota's good-during-the-regular-season-but-bad-during-the-playoffs problem, it's no wonder the restricted free agent hasn't yet settled on a new deal with the Wild. As Dane Mizutani of TwinCities.com recently noted, Zucker has had his name "floated around regularly" since Fenton was named GM in late April.

Scoring goals is a hard thing to do, and the 26-year-old seems to have a knack for it. Yet his days in Minnesota may be numbered if the right deal comes along for Fenton.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed young star Alexander Wennberg to a contract extension on Friday. 

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen announced Wennberg's new deal was for six years. TSN's Darren Dreger reported Wennberg's extension will pay him an average annual salary of $4.9 million.

"We are excited to have signed Alexander to a long-term contract through the 2022-23 season," Kekalainen said in a statement announcing Wennberg's extension. "He has shown steady improvement throughout his young NHL career and is coming off a very good 2016-17 campaign. At just 22-years-old, he has tremendous opportunity to become an integral player for our organization for years to come."

Wennberg was drafted 14th overall by the Blue Jackets in 2013. After spending the 2013-14 season with the Swedish Hockey League's Frölunda Hockey Club, he joined the Blue Jackets roster. 

The 22-year-old had a breakout season in 2016-17 with career-highs in games played (80), goals (13), assists (46), points (59) and a plus-minus rating of nine. 

The Blue Jackets set a franchise record with 50 wins and 108 points last season, making the playoffs for the third time in 16 years before being eliminated in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

With a talented young core featuring Wennberg, Cam Atkinson and Nick Foligno, the Blue Jackets figure to remain among the Eastern Conference's elite for years to come.

The Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets completed a blockbuster trade Friday that sent forward Brandon Saad back to the Windy City in exchange for forward Artemi Panarin, the Blackhawks announced.

According to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, the Blackhawks also received goalie Anton Forsberg and a 2018 fifth-round draft pick, while the Blue Jackets got forward Tyler Motte and a 2017 sixth-round draft choice.

The trade continued a busy draft day for the Blackhawks, who had earlier traded defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson to the Arizona Coyotes for defenseman Connor Murphy and forward Laurent Dauphin.

In Panarin, the Blue Jackets will receive a 25-year-old who topped 30 goals and 70 points in each of the past two seasons.

The Russian won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 2015-16, and he formed a dynamic partnership in Chicago with Patrick Kane.

Saad previously spent three seasons with the Blackhawks, and he was traded to the Blue Jackets prior to the 2015-16 season.

The 24-year-old registered 53 points in each of the past two seasons, scoring 31 goals in 2015-16 and 24 last season.

Saad won two Stanley Cups during his first stint with the Blackhawks, and as pointed out by NHL.com's Brian Hedger, he and captain Jonathan Toews had great chemistry:

Kane had two seasons with Panarin and they lit up the reg season.

Toews had three seasons w/Saad & won the Cup twice.#Blackhawks

— Brian Hedger (@BrianHedger) June 23, 2017

Per NHLNumbers.com, both Saad and Panarin have $6 million cap hits, but Saad is under contract for four more years, while Panarin has just two years remaining on his deal.

With regard to the other pieces involved, Forsberg is a 24-year-old goalie with just 10 games of NHL experience who could replace Scott Darling as Chicago's backup goalie.

The 22-year-old Motte put up seven points in 33 games for the Blackhawks last season and 16 points in 43 AHL contests for the Rockford IceHogs.

After getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, the Blackhawks have gone back to their roots and made a move that could make them better built for postseason success, while Columbus landed a dynamic playmaker.

Columbus Blue Jackets boss John Tortorella won the NHL's Jack Adams Award as the league's premier coach on Wednesday evening at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Tortorella bested the Edmonton Oilers' Todd McLellan and Toronto Maple Leafs' Mike Babcock for the coveted honor. He has now captured the Jack Adams Award twice after first doing so after the 2003-04 season. 

CONGRATS, COACH!#CBJ https://t.co/9stFyhznOP

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) June 22, 2017

Tortorella joined the Blue Jackets seven games into the 2015-16 campaign after they fired Todd Richards, but the 2016-17 season was his first full year on the job—and he didn't disappoint. 

Over the course of the franchise's most successful season to date, Tortorella led the Blue Jackets to a franchise-best 50 wins and 108 points en route to a third-place finish in the Metropolitan Division. 

Tortorella also led the Blue Jackets on a 16-game winning streak that fell one victory shy of tying the Pittsburgh Penguins' mark set during the 1992-93 season. 

"Our guys have come a long way," Tortorella said in January, per NHL.com's Jon Lane. "No matter what our record is, no matter what happens with the winning and losing, I know our guys have improved on being pros and it's good to see. Because if the organization takes more steps in the right direction, that room has to be theirs, and they're beginning to take that over."

But for all of their regular-season success, the Blue Jackets were tripped up in the playoffs when they fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a five-game first-round series. 

Looking ahead, Tortorella and the Blue Jackets will attempt to make that loss a thing of the past and chart a course to extend their postseason stay next year. 

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski will miss the remainder of the playoffs after being hit in the face with a puck in Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella made the announcement Monday. Werenski was hit by a puck in the second period before briefly returning in the third. 

Here's Zach Werenski back on the ice for the #CBJ, wearing a full face shield.

STREAM the third period: https://t.co/xXFhprS8S5 pic.twitter.com/Jv3dOB7g7B

— FanDuel Sports Network Cincinnati (@FanDuelSN_CIN) April 17, 2017

Hockey players are a different kind of tough, and Zach Werenski is no exception.

The 19-year-old rookie defender for the Columbus Blue Jackets took a puck to the face during their Game 3 matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

Bloodied by the hit, Werenski left the game to tend to his wounds. But it wasn't long before he made his way back to the ice, though he was sporting a full face shield.

You can't teach that type of heart.

Update: 10 p.m. ET Sunday, April 16

After the game, Werenski posted an update for his Twitter followers on the extent of his injury.

Playoff hockey... pic.twitter.com/4GNoLYVECu

— Zach Werenski (@ZachWerenski) April 17, 2017

Kudos to you, Mr. Werenski. You're a tougher man than most.

Update: 6:40 p.m. ET Tuesday, April 18

On Tuesday, one of Werenski's fans created a shirt with the cringe-worthy image:

@NHLonNBCSports @NHL @TSNBobMcKenzie #CBJ #MarchOn pic.twitter.com/GSDMrkYRjQ

— Drew Robertson (@drobertson2323) April 18, 2017

---End of update---

Columbus Blue Jackets winger Matt Calvert has been suspended one game for cross-checking Tom Kuhnhackl of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference playoff series. 

Calvert's suspension was announced by the NHL's department of player safety on Twitter.

The incident occurred in the final minute of Pittsburgh's 4-1 victory in Game 2 on Friday. 

Calvert broke his stick across Kuhnhackl's back on a cross-check and came back for a second check immediately as Kuhnhackl was doubled over trying to gather himself. 

The Penguins lead the series 2-0 with Game 3 in Columbus on Sunday. 

                

For more news, rumors and related stories about Matt Calvert, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the NHL, check out the NHL and Blue Jackets streams on Bleacher Report's app.

Great stuff from Matt Calvert at the end of the PIT-CBJ game pic.twitter.com/DKx788BZf6

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) April 15, 2017

Columbus Blue Jackets winger Matt Calvert may have been just a bit frustrated at the end of Friday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, if his interaction with Tom Kuhnhackl is any indication. 

As the contest was coming to a close, Calvert gave a quick cross-check to Kuhnhackl's back and snapped his stick in the process. 

To add insult to likely injury, Calvert shoved Kuhnhackl to the ice immediately afterward.                  

The Blue Jackets lost 4-1, giving the Penguins a 2-0 series lead in Round 1 of the 2017 NHL playoffs.    

[Twitter]                  

Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky notched his 34th win of the season in Sunday's 3-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils, breaking the team's franchise record single-season record, per Sportsnet Stats. He has 18 games remaining to add to that mark.

Steve Mason set the previous record of 33 wins in 2008-09, but he also took 20 losses and seven ties or overtime losses. Bobrovsky also sports much better stats than Mason did during his campaign, posting a 2.09 GAA and .929 save percentage versus Mason's 2.29 GAA and .916 save percentage.

The 28-year-old netminder experienced a down year in 2015-16, posting a 2.75 GAA and .908 save percentage in an injury-shortened campaign. His turnaround this season has been a key piece of the team's success.

Columbus currently sits in a tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference behind the Washington Capitals. Only the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks have more points in the West.

He's turned up his play even more recently, posting two straight shutouts to begin March. The Russia native has also allowed just three goals total in his last four starts. Two of the three wins over Bobrovsky's last four starts came against teams currently slated to make the playoffs—the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers.

The Blue Jackets have made the playoffs just twice since the franchise's inception in the league prior to the 2000-01 season. While they aren't locked into a playoff berth yet, the club sits in a great position with just 18 games remaining in the regular season.

Perhaps the play of Bobrovsky down the stretch and into the postseason will result in Columbus' first postseason series win in team history.