The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Blue Jackets seeking fifth straight playoffs
COLUMBUS » The Columbus Blue Jackets managed to achieve two of their most pressing offseason goals, but not without some friction.
Coming off their fourth straight playoff appearance, the Blue Jackets traded for some help at center, getting Max Domi from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for forward Josh Anderson. The 25-year-old Domi, who had 17 goals and 27 assists in 71 games, and three more assists i n 10 postseason games, immediately signed a two-.year, $10.6 million contract with the Jackets.
Done deal. Next. Days before the Jan. 4 opening of training camp, Columbus tied down one of its most important players, top-line center Pierre-Luc Dubois, with a new contract — but it wasn’t the long-term deal the organization had expected to announce with happy feelings on both sides. Dubois, an unrestricted free agent at age 22, signed a twoyear pact worth $10 million, but it’s been floated to other teams that the young star may be looking for a change of scenery sooner rather than later.
Dubois, who has 65 goals and 93 assists in three seasons with the Blue Jackets, wouldn’t answer questions about the situation during a session with reporters.
“Our goal was to get a contract for camp,” he said. “The team, my agent and
I have held talks, private talks, and they’ll remain private.”
It will be up to coach John Tortorella and captain Nick Foligno to make sure the Dubois situation doesn’t become a distraction, as it did when star forward Artemi Panarin and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky were playing out the 2018-19 season while making it clea r they didn’t want to stay in Columbus.
“I think you know how we run things here,” Foligno said. “I mean if you’re here, you’re committed to being here until we hear otherwise, we’re told otherwise. So, you know, I think we’ve dealt with it in the past. You know, it’s outside chatter that really doesn’t affect our room, and we’ll have our own conversation with (Dubois) like any player, and know that he’s gonna be ready to go.”
Lining them up
The Columbus forward ranks are crowded, but expect Oliver Bjorkstrand, last season’s top goalscorer, to play on one side of Dubois with 21-year-old Alexandre Texier on the other. Foligno and veteran Cam Atkinson are good candidates to anchor the second line on either side of Domi.
Bjorkstrand signed a five-year, $27 million contract extension Jan. 6.
The Blue Jackets will be without forward Gustav Nyquist, who had surgery to repair a torn labrum last fall and may not be back this season.