Laine and Columbus reached an agreement and signed a four-year contract extension. The team has work to do to get under the salary cap.
22:29•Updated 22:42
The NHL club Columbus Blue Jackets has signed a four-year contract extension Patrik Laine with. The contract is worth 34.8 million dollars. Laine earns 8.7 million a year.
Columbus initially offered Lainee, 24, a Qualifying offer, a one-year base offer worth $7.5 million per year. However, it was not enough for the paint cannon, and Laine and Columbus rubbed the deal for a long time. Speculations about the arbitration of the contract were commonplace. In the end, however, no legal action was taken
– Laine’s extension contract was one of our most important priorities. He is a special player, one of the NHL’s true top scorers. He’s been a really good fit with our group since he came in, the GM of Columbus Jarmo Kekäläinen comment.
Laine, who moved from Winnipeg to Columbus in January in the middle of the 2020–21 season, scored exactly 56 points in 56 regular season games last year. During his six-season NHL career, the man from Tampere has forged 176+151=327 in 407 games.
Columbus is building a big name team. It recently captured a true superstar when Johnny Gaudreau unexpectedly moved from Calgary to the Blue Jackets.
With the agreement, the club’s projected salary expenses exceed the salary cap for the first season According to the Capfriendly website (you will switch to another service) for about $6.4 million. In addition, it has 25 players on its roster, while the maximum number allowed is 23. So the club has to sell players in order to get under the salary cap.
The salary cap for the upcoming season is $82.5 million.
– Yes, we will solve it and we have many options on the table here. Other clubs also know our situation and we have already received many contacts asking what you really mean. Yes, we will solve this, Kekäläinen commented to Urheilu a week ago.