The Columbus Blue Jackets Avoid Arbitration With Two Players

The Columbus Blue Jackets and breakout goaltender Jet Greaves agreed on a three-year extension with an AAV of $5M. The Blue Jackets also agreed to terms with forward Cole Sillinger, also with a three-year extension with an AAV of $4.625M. The organization still needs to extend forward Adam Fantilli, which sounds like it should be done soon.

In the days and hours leading up to his arbitration hearing, Jet Greaves and the Blue Jackets were said to be far apart in salary request. Greaves was said to be seeking a $7.5M AAV while the organization was offering $2.8M.

With the extension, Jet Greaves is getting a significant raise from the close to $800,000 he made last season. Starting 53 games, Greaves posted some impressive numbers, being above league average with a 2.60 goals-against average and .908 save percentage while posting a 26-19-9 record.

Greaves does have a fairly small sample size profile given that he only has 76 games in the NHL under his belt in less than one full season. The Blue Jackets feel comfortable with his development, which is why they invested.

With five NHL seasons under his belt and having found his niche in the organization, forward Cole Sillinger is also getting a nice bump in pay. His former AAV was $2.25M and will now be $5M.

In each of the past two seasons, Sillinger has 33 points. Spending much of the season on line with Charlie Coyle and Mathieu Olivier, making that line one of the toughest to match up against in the NHL.

There were said to be multiple teams interested in trading for Sillinger, but the Blue Jackets view the 23-year-old as an indispensable middle-six forward they wanted to hold on to, given his grit and other intangibles he brings to the third line.

By signing both Greaves and Sillinger, the Columbus Blue Jackets have never gone to arbitration with any player.