Darren Dreger: The Blue Jackets rejected a two-year offer from Ryan Johansen’s camp. They are only focusing on a short-term deal. The offer remains on the table.
Chris Nichols: Elliotte Friedman: “There is no evidence here whatsoever, at this point, that Ryan Johansen wants to be traded or the #CBJ want to trade him.”
Nichols on Hockey: Darren Dreger on TSN 1050 talking Ryan Johansen’s contract situation.
“The latest is that Kurt Overhardt, who represents Ryan Johansen, has submitted a new two-year proposal to the Columbus Blue Jackets. I don’t get the sense that it was warmly received. But I’ll leave that to John Davidson and Jarmo Kelalainen to colorfully explain when they’re wanting to do that. But I don’t get the sense that there was any bridge gapped in this. But I know now that Johansen is committed to a two-year term. He’s not interested in a long year term now. They’ve shifted their sole focus to that two-year bridge contract. But again, in the last 20 minutes or so, collecting the information that I have, I don’t get the sense that there’s been much progress.”
“Not with bridge money. They want money that’s reflective of the market of a player produces the way that Ryan Johansen produced last year. They’re not going to get it. And look, you know, Dave has known John Davidson for a long, long time. We get that this guy is an emotional guy. He gets fired up. But he’s respectful and he’s never going to put his organization in a position where they’re going to be looked at negatively and all of that. So for him to lash out in the fashion that he did, man, that says a lot about where – they’ve pitted in in this one.”
Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: The Blues have about $2.7 million in cap space and are looking to re-sign Jaden Schwartz to a reasonable deal. Schwartz can’t sign an offer sheet and doesn’t have a lot of leverage.
“I think the thing that’s probably best for the process is to keep that between Jaden’s representatives and myself from this point forward,” Armstrong said. “The next time I’ll talk publicly about Jaden is when we sign him.”
The Blues and Schwartz appear to be about a $1 million apart.