Jackets, Harrington agree on 3-year deal

The Blue Jackets have solved another piece of their offseason puzzle.

The team re-signed defenseman Scott Harrington to a three-year contract extension Friday worth $4.9 million. Harrington, 26, was a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights and had one year left before unrestricted free agency.

He could have filed for salary arbitration by the deadline of 5 p.m. Friday but instead reached agreement on a contract that has an average annual value of $1.63 million per year against the salary cap — keeping his

rights under team control through his first two unrestricted seasons.

“Scott Harrington is a very smart, reliable defenseman who made great strides to become a regular contributor on our blue line last season,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in a news release.

Harrington was one of two pending restricted free agents the Blue Jackets had on the NHL roster. Zach Werenski is now the team’s only unsigned restricted free agent at the NHL level.

Werenski’s entry-level contract had a salary-cap hit, before performance bonuses, of $925,000 per year. He might command as much as $6 million to $7 million per year on his next deal.

Harrington’s salary is not in the same ballpark as what Werenski will likely get, but he was due for a significant raise from the $700,000 he was paid last season.

After playing sparingly in his first two seasons with the Blue Jackets after being acquired in 2016 from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Harrington became a lineup regular last season. He matched his NHL career-high with two goals and set career marks in games (73), assists (15), points (17), rating (plus-6), shots (54), blocked shots (81) and hits (73).

Harrington skated primarily on the third defense pairing and averaged 13:03 per game.

He was also steady in the Stanley Cup playoffs, averaging 13:36 in ice time and adding four assists in 10 games.

“I’m proud of how the season went, personally. It was an opportunity to show, ‘Here’s what I can do,’” Harrington said. “I also realized that while it was great to get into the lineup and show my stuff, I know that I’ve got a lot more to prove, and I think management knows that, too.

“Our team’s got a lot more room to grow. Yeah, it’s exciting that every year we keep making progress in the last three years, but we’re still not there yet.”

Harrington was the fourth player, and third pending restricted free agent, to sign a contract with the Blue Jackets this week. He joined defenseman Ryan Murray, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and free-agent forward Gustav Nyquist, who signed Monday.

According to Capfriendly.com, the Blue Jackets now have $15,765,918 in cap space to fill the final two spots of a 23-man roster that has 12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies signed.

Werenski would make eight NHL defensemen on the roster, and that doesn’t include Vladislav Gavrikov, a 23-year-old Russian rookie who is expected to play for the Blue Jackets.

Should Kekalainen and his hockey operations staff explore the trade market, they have valuable depth on the blue line.