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Charlie Coyle Blue Jackets

Columbus Blue Jackets center Charlie Coyle explained why he signed an extension with the team instead of testing free agency.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Blue Jackets re-signed Coyle to a six-year, $36 million contract for him to remain in Columbus until he is 40 years old. For Coyle, the deal gives him six years of security and a ton of guaranteed money, while for the Blue Jackets, it keeps one of their top forwards under contract for likely the remainder of his NHL career.

But in an offseason where the NHL is spiking up to $104 million, an $8.5 million increase from last season, there are going to be a lot of teams that have extra cap room to play with. Given there aren’t many big-name free agents this offseason, it’s a bit surprising that Coyle signed this extension now instead of testing the free-agent waters in July to see if there was more money out there for him. But he has his reasons for doing so, and they make a lot of sense.

Charlie Coyle Explains Signing Extension With CBJ

After officially putting ink to paper on Tuesday, Coyle explained why he signed his extension with the Blue Jackets instead of testing the free-agent market this summer and seeing if there were superior contract offers out there for him. For the veteran American center, the Blue Jackets’ rise after bringing in Rick Bowness as the team’s head coach, and the fact that GM Don Waddell chose not to trade him at the deadline, are the main factors why he decided to sign this contract extension, keeping him in Columbus for six more years.

“He kept me around to help me with sticking here and working with my teammates to try and make a playoff run. He was loyal to me, so I have a sense of loyalty to him. He was a guy who stuck his neck out for me. I want be there for that for him and keep building on what we’ve worked on,” Coyle said of Waddell (via Sportsnet).

Waddell, in turn, admitted that Coyle was going to be a hot commodity on the free-agent market, so he decided to make a move and offer him a long-term contract to stay in Columbus after a successful debut season in Ohio’s capital.

“The market was going to be out there looking for him, and we just felt that he’s such an important part of our franchise moving forward that that’s how we locked up the deal,” the GM said.

Blue Jackets Have Other Moves to Make This Offseason

After playing the first 13 years of his NHL career in Minnesota, Boston, and Colorado, the Blue Jackets acquired Coyle in a trade from the Avalanche last offseason for a package of draft picks and prospects. He turned in a terrific season in Columbus, scoring 20 goals and 58 points while playing all 82 regular-season games, and helping the Blue Jackets stay in the playoff mix until the final week of the season. That’s why the team felt the need to re-sign him to a long-term deal.

Still, the Blue Jackets missed the playoffs by six points this year, so they have some work to do this offseason to get back into the postseason next year. Re-signing Coyle was one of the team’s main priorities this offseason, so now that it’s out of the way, the team can get to work on doing some other things to get back in a postseason spot.

The Blue Jackets will have roughly $40 million in cap room this offseason, and the team has to improve in its forward core and defense if it wants to remain competitive next season in an Eastern Conference that is constantly getting better. The good news is that the Blue Jackets have plenty of talent on their roster, so with a few tweaks, they should be firmly in the playoff mix next year.