Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering: Arbitration avoided after Kirill Marchenko signs (2024)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets:

Item No. 1: Stay put, Kirill

Monday was going to be a big day for the Blue Jackets.

With Kirill Marchenko’s arbitration hearing set for Wednesday in Toronto, the interested parties were set to file their briefs on Monday with the arbitrator — on one side Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell and assistant GM/contract guru Josh Flynn; on the other side Marchenko and his agent, Dan Milstein.

Later on Monday, Marchenko was scheduled to fly from Russia to Toronto — at minimum a nine-hour flight — so he could attend the arbitration hearing on Wednesday.

That all began to change on Sunday. Waddell and Milstein had agreed to terms on a three-year, $11.55 million contract when Marchenko was fast asleep, putting the two sides only one step away from a figurative handshake.

“The contract was sent to Kirill by 11 p.m. our time on Saturday,” Waddell said, “so that when Kirill woke up (on Sunday), he had it there to look at.

“Josh and I were joking about it. Does this kid (Marchenko) really want to get on a plane to come to Toronto in the middle of the offseason?”

Marchenko canceled his ticket. The Blue Jackets and Milstein could start using their briefs as scratch paper or a doodle pad. They were no longer set for filing. The Blue Jackets, as they’ve always done in their three decades in the league, avoided arbitration.

The contract will pay Marchenko $3.6 million this season and $3.975 in 2025-26 and 2026-27. It carries a $3.85 salary-cap hit. Marchenko will still have one year of restricted free agency remaining when the contract expires after ’26-27.

The two sides were close recently on a two-year deal, Waddell said, but Marchenko and Milstein’s request for a three-year contract gave Waddell a bit of pause and forced him to do extensive work on the player, beyond his obvious offensive skill.

“The three-year (salary) number (Milstein requested) was appealing to me,” Waddell said. “I was thinking two years and then we’d revisit it with the player, but when they said three years … I needed to get comfortable going to three years.

“Just getting here a couple of months ago, I don’t really know the player. So I talked to everybody I could about him, because some guys react differently to term.”

The #CBJ signed RFA Marchenko to 3 year $3.85 cap hit deal:

See Also

Official Columbus Blue Jackets Website | Columbus Blue JacketsDon Waddell, Dean Evason arrive with Columbus Blue Jackets, continue a decades-long quest

Year 1 $3.6M
Year 2 $3.975M
Year 3 $3.975M

On expiry will be RFA with 3.975M QO & 1 year from UFA

Rep’d by @HockeyAgent1 @GoldStarHockey https://t.co/piVqOYpW7H

— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) July 28, 2024

Waddell was really impressed with what he heard: unanimous praise about Marchenko’s attitude, commitment and role within the dressing room.

“What came back from everybody is that this is a very good person, a good teammate,” Waddell said. “He’s driven. He’s motivated from within to get better, and he really has a positive effect on those around him.

“There were no negatives as far as whether you should avoid going out three years with him. So after hearing that, we really got comfortable with the term. Then it was just the rest of it.”

Waddell also watched a significant amount of video on Marchenko. The goals — 44 combined in his first two seasons — jump off the film, of course, but so did some attributes on the other end of the ice.

“(New coach) Dean (Evason) is really going to help a guy like this,” Waddell said. “We have to make him a better 200-foot player. If you’re going to be a player who is going to score a lot of goals, you’re going to get paid a lot of money. You have to be a 200-foot player.

“What I saw in a few instances is that he could have been better in his own zone. Those are teachable components. A coach can’t teach you how to score goals, but they can teach you how to play defense.

“I do really like his offensive instincts, for sure. He has a bigger body, can protect the puck. He’s still a young player, and with the right players around him and the right coaching staff, I think this is going to be a really good player in a short amount of time.”

Marchenko is a top-six fixture for the Blue Jackets. Evason may have new ideas about the forward lines, but there’s a chance Marchenko could land on the top line with center Sean Monahan and left winger Johnny Gaudreau.

In that scenario, he could easily exceed 30 goals. If that’s the case, the contract signed on Monday will be club-friendly.

“If you get to 30 goals,” Waddell said. “You’re a $5.5 million guy, automatically.”

Item 2: The Evason effect

Word began to spread among the Blue Jackets last weekend, ahead of the Monday announcement, that Evason had been hired to replace Pascal Vincent. There was excitement in the ranks because, based on Evason’s reputation, the days of the Blue Jackets playing a non-descript, reactive style would appear finished.

Evason’s Minnesota Wild teams were not among the NHL’s most talented, especially because they had over $13 million in dead salary-cap space after the costly buyouts of defenseman Ryan Suter and forward Zach Parise after the 2020-21 season.

But the Wild under Evason were among the NHL’s toughest outs and most physically competitive (combative?) clubs.

“Everybody knows they weren’t working with a full salary cap,” Waddell said. “I was surprised they could even get into the playoffs, to be honest.

“My former club (Carolina), we were in Minnesota two years ago and they beat us pretty good. I remember wondering and talking as a staff about how they won a lot of games. They had (Kirill) Kaprizov, they had good players … but they just worked their asses off.”

One could imagine tough guys Erik Gudbranson and Mathieu Olivier smiling and then working a speed bag after learning Evason was coming to Columbus. You could imagine physical players like Sean Kuraly, Boone Jenner, Monahan, Adam Fantilli, Cole Sillinger, Dmitri Voronkov and others grinning at the thought of being turned loose.

“I’ve heard only good things,” Kuraly said. “I’m really excited to have somebody like him, a veteran coach. He’s been around for a while. It seems like it’s going to be pretty black and white. That’s what we’re looking for as a team, somebody who is going to push us.”

As one Blue Jackets staffer put it this week: “He’s a cross between Turk and Torts.”

That would be long-ago coach Gerard Gallant, a noteworthy former NHL player with a reputation for being a players’ coach, and John Tortorella, an intense, demanding coach known for getting his clubs to play consistently above their talent level.

“There are 32 teams in this league who can play hard,” Waddell said. “And we all say, ‘Oh, our team works hard.’ But there are some teams that go a step above.”

Evason’s style, he has said, will be tweaked to better fit the Blue Jackets’ personnel, which has been overtaken by young, skilled forwards since the club decided to rebuild three seasons ago.

But the demand that players of all skill levels and attributes empty the tank each night will never waver. That’s been true in all of Evason’s stops — from the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL and then, most recently, the Wild.

“We’re going to play with great detail, with great structure,” Evason said at his introductory press conference. “But we’re also going to give them the opportunity to be creative in the offensive zone and through the neutral zone. The game is made of mistakes. You have to build your system to allow the player to make those mistakes but still have success.”

There was room in Minnesota’s system for Kaprizov to become a 100-point player. There was room for Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala to reach career highs in points.

But there was also room for players like Marcus Foligno, Jordan Greenway, Ryan Hartman, Matt Dumba and Brandon Duhaime to become physical forces. And, of course, room for the likes of Ryan Reaves and Nicolas Deslauriers to be feared fighters.

In Evason’s three full seasons with the Wild, they finished 12th, third and sixth in penalty minutes. So get ready for some combative nights in Nationwide Arena.

No. 3: Snacks

• Evason will be allowed to bring one or two assistants coach with him, Waddell said, but that’s still to be determined. Until it’s determined, the fate of current Blue Jackets assistants Jared Boll, Steve McCarthy and Mark Recchi remains in limbo. Evason was planning to meet with all three of them last week, and a decision is expected to come soon. If he brings one assistant, it’s possible all three will be retained. The departure of assistant Josef Boumedienne opens up a spot on the staff. “We’ll make the adjustments we can this year and we’ll continue to evaluate,” Waddell said. “This whole year is going to be an evaluation, not just of staff but players, too.”

• Forward Kent Johnson’s name was crossed off Waddell’s to-do list on Saturday. He’ll make $1.6 million this season, $1.8 million in 2025-26 and $2 million in 2026-27. When the contract expires after the 2026-27 season, he’ll still be a restricted free agent. Johnson had a 16-goal, 40-point rookie season in 2022-23 but struggled last season — he was even sent to AHL Cleveland — before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury at the end of February. He has been skating with a large contingent of NHL skaters in Vancouver this summer and said he’ll be ready for the start of training camp.

• That leaves Sillinger as the Jackets’ only unsigned player. Late last week, Waddell said a deal for Sillinger will “100 percent get done.” With Marchenko off the table, look for Sillinger to sign soon. The two sides have discussed several different options, Waddell said. He has four years before he hits unrestricted free-agent status.

• So, now that Patrik Laine trade talks can commence, where might Laine be traded? That’s tough to say. There are only six clubs (Anaheim, Calgary, Carolina, Detroit, San Jose and Utah), according to PuckPedia, that currently have $8.7 million (or more) in cap space, or enough to add Laine’s salary without a contract coming off the books or without Columbus retaining a portion of Laine’s salary. The list more than doubles if you assume the Blue Jackets will take on $4.7 million of his salary, either by taking a player in return (Waddell’s strong desire) or if a portion of that is in retained salary. Put another way: There are plenty of destinations. If we had to pick two: Anaheim and Carolina, with Montreal an outside shot.

• August is the quietest month on the NHL calendar. It’s been said that the only way to get an NHL player (or an executive) to leave his summer cabin is with a tee time. But this summer has been busier than most for the Blue Jackets, who will likely spend the early part of August trying to land a trade for Laine. How usual is an August trade? The Jackets have only had two of them in their 24-year existence, and both took place in the early, unsettled days of the franchise. On Aug. 16, 2000, the Jackets traded a sixth-round pick to Detroit for forward Kent McDonell. One year later, on Aug. 29, 2001, they traded a second-round pick to Dallas for forward Grant Marshall. (With that pick, the Stars selected Loui Eriksson.)

• Forward Martin Rysavy, who the Blue Jackets selected in the seventh round (No. 197) in 2021, signed with Bili Tygři Liberec in Czechia’s top pro league, the Extraliga. The Jackets still own his rights for one more year since they drafted him out of Europe before he came to North America to play for Moose Jaw of the WHL, but the Jackets have never been compelled to sign him, and now he’s returned home to play. It’s probably wise to scratch him off your list as a future Blue Jacket.

• The NHL and the Blue Jackets this week announced plans for ticket sales to the Ohio Stadium outdoor game March 1 vs. Detroit. Tickets go on sale Tuesday. More details here.

• As noted in this space previously, the Blue Jackets are no longer traveling to Traverse City, Mich., for the annual NHL prospects tournament. Instead, they’re taking part in Buffalo’s NHL prospects challenge. We haven’t seen an official announcement yet from the Sabres, but the tentative dates for the Blue Jackets’ games are Sept. 13, 14 and 16 with an off day on Sept. 15.

• It’s time for the Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering’s late-summer hiatus. The Athletic will continue covering the Blue Jackets — there’s no stopping that — but the weekly notes column will take a break until mid-September, just before the prospects tournament and training camp. Enjoy what’s left of summer.

(Photo of Kirill Marchenko: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)