Blue Jackets set to sign Mikhail Grigorenko from KHL in low-risk, high-reward move
By Mary Clarke
The Columbus Blue Jackets have gone to the KHL well to sign 25-year-old forward Mikhail Grigorenko to a contract for the 2020-21 season.
Update April 21, 4 p.m. ET: The NHL has since rejected the contract Columbus offered due to incorrect use of the filing window. The Blue Jackets will be able to sign Mikhail Grigorenko to a contract for the 2020-21 season on July 1. Original story as follows.
Mikhail Grigorenko has not played on a sheet of NHL ice since the 2016-17 season, but that has not stopped the Columbus Blue Jackets from taking a flyer on the forward. On Monday, the Blue Jackets announced the signing of Grigorenko to a one-year, $1.2 million deal that will run through the 2020-21 season.
Grigorenko has spent the last three seasons in the KHL with HC CSKA Moscow, where he put up 116 points (46 goals) in 147 games over that time span. Previously, the 25-year-old forward had played with the Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche before playing in the KHL starting in 2017.
The signing comes as a bit of an off-the-radar surprise, but it’s clear the Blue Jackets scouts saw something in Grigorenko as the forward’s three-year contract in the KHL expired. Columbus is a team with cap flexibility, and the addition of Grigorenko for one year at just over $1 million is a steal, given his potential.
The contract is very much a “show me” contract for a player that has had success in the KHL recently, but has yet to see that translate at the NHL level. After being drafted 12th overall by the Sabres in 2012, Grigorenko has played 217 games across two teams, but has only crested the double digit threshold in goals just once during his 2016-17 season in Colorado.
In total, Grigorenko has 64 points in 217 games at the NHL level, not nearly the production a former top first-rounder would like to have.
However, this contract gives Grigorenko the chance to prove his worth in the NHL and for the Blue Jackets to potentially hit big on a player out of the KHL. The skillset is there for Grigorenko as a first round pick, and this new contract from the Blue Jackets provides a low-risk, high-reward way to prove it.
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