Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau Signs With Columbus as NHL Free Agency Gets Underway

Day 1 of the NHL’s free agency signing period got off to a rousing start with several top shelf players moving on to new teams. The biggest blockbuster move was a big surprise, not because the player moved on, but rather, it was which team he signed with.

The Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau is one of the NHL’s superstars. Last season he scored 40 goals and had 75 assists; his 115 points were tied for second best in the league. Both the goals and points figures are career highs for the 28 year old winger. Gaudreau had informed the Flames that he was hitting the free agent market, so it was a foregone conclusion he would be gone, despite Calgary’s best efforts to retain his services. Speculation was that Gaudreau, a New Jersey native, would likely sign with either the Philadelphia Flyers (his childhood favorite), New Jersey Devils, or New York Islanders. The Flyers made an early exit, as they could not clear salary cap space for the big money that Gaudreau would command on the open market.

That left the Devils and Islanders, but Gaudreau surprised everyone by signing a seven year, $68.25 million contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Last year, Columbus was 37-38-7 (81 points) and failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row. Calgary finished with 111 points, won the Pacific Division, and beat Dallas in the first round of the playoffs before losing to Edmonton in the second round. Gaudreau had three goals and 11 assists in 12 post season games. Columbus also signed another Flame, defenseman Erik Gudbranson.

The Blue Jackets have dealt away several veteran players the last year or so after making the playoffs four years in a row from 2016-17 to 2019-20 but failing to make it past the second round in that stretch. They have been retooling with younger talent and draft choices acquired in those trades and they actually performed better than expected last year. Signing Gaudreau sends a message to their own players and those on other teams who might be interested that they are serious about becoming a contender sooner rather than later.

Here’s a Johnny Gaudreau highlight reel from last season: