NHL Rumors: Columbus Blue Jackets and Seth Jones working on extension

The Columbus Blue Jackets and restricted free agent defenseman Seth Jones are attempting to work out an extension.

When the Columbus Blue Jackets traded center Ryan Johansen to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Seth Jones, the Blue Jackets filled a huge team need by getting a young potential first pairing defenseman. Now they must justify the trade by signing him to an extension. The two sides are attempting to work something out.

Extending Jones is going to be a lot more difficult than it sounds because the Blue Jackets have a very dire salary cap situation, to say the least. According to General Fanager, they have under $4 million of cap space for next season and they are already committing 26 percent of their payroll to defensemen. In order to sign Jones, they will need to shed some cap space by the start of the regular season. Teams are allowed to go over the salary cap ceiling by up to 10 percent during the offseason so that should help them get something done.

Jones is a very important player for the Blue Jackets to keep because he and Ryan Murray were about the only bright spots on the Blue Jackets’ blue line during the 2015-16 season. He had a career best 31 points during the 2015-16 season, including 20 points (two goals and 18 assists) in 41 games with the Blue Jackets. Jones averaged 24:27 of ice time per game with the Blue Jackets. They allowed him to get the first pairing minutes that many believed he should have gotten in Nashville and Jones proved to be very capable of handling those tough minutes. Now Columbus must pay him what he has earned.

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