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Star striker Johnny Gaudreau signed a seven-year deal worth $ 66.5 million with the Columbus Blue Jackets Wednesday night. Photo by Gavin Young / Postmedia
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If you had drawn up a list of potential destinations where Johnny Gaudreau was going to end up this summer, you would have had to put Calgary at the forefront.
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But when on Tuesday it was reported that the 28-year-old, who was expecting a child with his wife, wanted to be close to his family, suddenly New Jersey and Philadelphia became favorites. And if not them, somewhere near home, like Long Island.
And then, out of nowhere, he went and chose … Columbus?
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Is Ohio considered, which is about an eight-hour drive and two states closer to Salem, NJ? Or was it something else?
It was certainly not about money, with Gaudreau surprising everyone by leaving cash on the table and signing a seven-year contract worth $ 68.25 million with the Blue Jackets. The $ 9.75 million he will earn next season is well below the $ 10.5 million Calgary had last offered, especially if you consider that the Flames offer included an eighth year.
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So Gaudreau turned down $ 15.75 million to play Columbus instead of Calgary. And possibly more had gone to the Devils or the Islanders.
How strange.
Money aside, the contract is even more baffling if you consider what else he turned down. An opportunity to play in a city where he was treated like a superstar. An opportunity to play on a team that finished first in the Pacific division last year. An opportunity to continue playing alongside Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm in what was the best line of hockey last season.
Good luck finding him with the Blue Jackets, an insignificant team in a college football city, which doesn’t have a No. 1 center and has spent its existence as a bubble team at best.
This last part should change with the addition of Gaudreau, although you are not so sure.
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A big reason Gaudreau enjoyed his career last year last season, scoring 40 goals and tying for second place overall with 115 points, was preached by his surroundings. Calgary was a deep offensive team. The line in which he played was incredibly deep, with Tkachuk and Lindholm scoring 42 goals each and the trio adding 300 points.
Last season, none of the Blues scored more than 28 goals. His top scorer finished with 62 points.
Still, Gaudreau, along with former Flames defender Erik Gudbranson, who signed a four-year contract, are improving on the Blue Jackets. But it doesn’t make them a playoff team. Not yet, anyway. This is a team that finished 10th in the East last season, losing last place by 19 points.
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This is a lot of ground to recover. Especially for a young team that had spent the last two years in a queen or rebuild or whatever you want to call it.
Columbus, which features Patrik Laine and Jakub Voracek and Zach Werenski, also has five players under the age of 23. This year, the Blue Jackets had the No. 5 and 12 draft picks. A year ago, they had three first-round elections.
His time was not now. Like Detroit or Ottawa, probably in a year or two.
But on a day when the underdogs became aggressive, with the Red Wings adding Andrew Copp, David Perron, Dominik Kubalik and Ben Chiarot, and Senators signing Claude Giroux after previously switching to Alex DeBrincat and Cam Talbot, the landscape of the East has changed rapidly.
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And it changed in a way that no one saw.
What does Gaudreau see in Columbus? It is a question that will be asked a lot in the coming days.
He could not have relied on the opportunity to play with No. 1 center-back Jack Roslovic, someone who has never scored more than 45 points. Nor could it be based on playing with Laine, as both are left-wing. You can’t rely on head coach Brad Larsen, who has only been at work for a year.
He left Calgary, where he could have racked up more than 100 points again for a safe playoff team, why? Or a chance to play in New Jersey with two recent No. 1 general elections that are both central? Or the New York Islanders, where he would have looked great on a line with Mathew Barzal for a team that went to the conference finals in two of the last three years?
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Because? What are we missing here? What does he see that none of us see?
Maybe it was sold for Columbus’ future. You may see that the team exchanges Laine, who is a restricted free agent, has not been a fit until now, in exchange for someone who can pass the record to Gaudreau. Maybe he sees something in those elections and prospects where it was worth investing in, which was worth getting to ground level. Perhaps he believes in GM Jarmo Kekalainen, who after a great game for years finally got a star player to agree to play Columbus, and his vision for the future.
Maybe the question isn’t what he saw in Columbus, but what did he not see in Calgary? Or in New Jersey, Philadelphia or the New York Islanders?
It’s a question a lot of Brad Treliving and several other GMs have to ask right now.
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