COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 As of earlier this week, the Columbus Blue Jackets and their four pending unrestricted free agents \u2014 forwards Charlie Coyle, Boone Jenner and Mason Marchment, and defenseman Erik Gudbranson \u2014 had not engaged in serious negotiations regarding contract extensions.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s coming, general manager Don Waddell said. But he\u2019s spent the first two weeks of the NHL\u2019s Olympic break talking with the players and their respective agents to see how they feel about extending their stay with the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf guys want to stay here, I\u2019ll find a way to keep them here,\u201d Waddell said. \u201cI\u2019ve said that before, and I have a very good history of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what has he found?<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody wants to stay here,\u201d Waddell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got something going here.\u201d<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t so much a question about Jenner or Gudbranson, two stout veterans who have ingrained themselves in both the organization and the community.<\/p>\n
But Coyle, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Colorado Avalanche, and Marchment, who joined the Blue Jackets in a mid-December trade with the Seattle Kraken, are just getting familiar with Columbus.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely, too, that Coyle and Marchment are Waddell\u2019s two biggest priorities, perhaps the two biggest dilemmas \u2014 trade them or keep them? \u2014 if either should reach the March 6 trade deadline without an extension.<\/p>\n
Of course, the Blue Jackets would want them for their playoff push. But the trade market for each player would be enticing enough that Waddell would have to listen, especially if the Jackets stumble out of the break in their five games before the deadline.<\/p>\n
For now, the plan is to sign them and keep them, Waddell has said. But there would be no reason to talk term or dollars if Coyle and Marchment didn\u2019t want to stay with the Blue Jackets and in Columbus.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to go where your family is comfortable and you can win, where you like the group,\u201d Coyle told The Athletic this month. \u201cThis fits all of that, especially the way we\u2019ve been playing (leading up to the Olympic break).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not many negatives to playing here. It\u2019s hard to think of one, actually. We\u2019ve really enjoyed our time here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Coyle, the family fit is crucial, and that\u2019s been a smashing success, he said. But he\u2019s also smart enough to know that the clock is ticking on his career.<\/p>\n
Coyle turns 34 on March 2, and while he\u2019s never missed the playoffs \u2014 his string of 13 straight seasons in the postseason is the longest active streak in the NHL \u2014 he\u2019s never won the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
In 2019, while playing for his hometown Boston Bruins, he came one game away, losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the St. Louis Blues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to win,\u201d Coyle said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main thing. You never know how much time you\u2019ve got left in this league. You want to make sure you do what you can and put yourself in a good situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets\u2019 history, of course, is not the best argument here. Coyle has played 126 playoff games in his career. The Blue Jackets franchise has played in 41 playoff games in its first 24 seasons, only once making it past the first round.<\/p>\n
But the here and now has been promising.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets went on an 11-1-0 run, including seven straight regulation wins, before the Olympic break, pulling them to within four points of both the second wild-card spot (currently held by Boston) and third place (currently the New York Islanders) in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n
A big part of that surge has been the arrival of coach Rick Bowness, who has the Blue Jackets more dialed-in defensively, more aggressive all over the ice and, suddenly, playing with a ton of confidence.<\/p>\n
But the midseason acquisition of Marchment has been huge, too.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s played on the Blue Jackets\u2019 top line with center Adam Fantilli and right winger Kirill Marchenko, and since his acquisition, only Coyle (10) and Marchenko (nine) have more goals than Marchment (eight).<\/p>\n
Marchment was traded from Dallas to Seattle last June. He won\u2019t say much publicly, but it\u2019s clear his time with the Kraken didn\u2019t go well. He was traded to Columbus on Dec. 20, his third move \u2014 with his wife and now 5-month-old son \u2014 in seven months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun when you\u2019re playing team hockey and everyone is buying in,\u201d Marchment said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019ve got that here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long year for me and my family, moving around, a lot of obstacles. But when I came here it was an easy fit. I\u2019m having fun, enjoying myself and finding the love of the game, just working hard. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waddell wanted Marchment for his energetic, agitating style of play. The Blue Jackets were guilty early in the season of wading into games and letting other clubs dictate the pace of play, but that\u2019s been less of an issue since Marchment\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s one of the players Waddell has cited when voicing his belief that the Blue Jackets, with their size and depth, could be a challenging opponent in a seven-game series.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s too far in the future for now. The Blue Jackets have five games to play between now and the trade deadline, beginning with a Feb. 26 matchup in Boston.<\/p>\n
They also have some contracts to negotiate. It should be an interesting few weeks in Columbus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 As of earlier this week, the Columbus Blue Jackets and their four pending unrestricted free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[392,385,99],"class_list":["post-479946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}