After thirteen seasons as a hometown bargain, Columbus Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner faces a murky future. Will the Blue Jackets pay their veteran leader, or will they let him test free agency and leave for a big financial payday?
The Columbus Blue Jackets had another sub-par season this year, finishing fifth in the Metropolitan Division and in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
But while the Blue Jackets made news a couple of weeks ago by signing center Charlie Coyle to a six-year, $36-million contract extension, there’s one Jackets fixture whose future is uncertain – and that’s team captain and veteran center Boone Jenner, who is slated to be a UFA on July 1.
For 13 years, Jenner has been a staple for the Blue Jackets – and at a salary of $3.75-million for the past eight seasons, he’s been one of the better bargains in the NHL. Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, Jenner generated 71 goals and 124 points.
Jenner has indeed struggled to stay healthy in recent years, as he hasn’t played 70 games in a single season since 2019-20. But at a time when experienced centers are at a premium, you have to imagine Jenner is going to be sufficiently paid this summer, either from Columbus or another team.
In some ways, the optics of the Jackets letting Jenner go to market are not a good reflection on Columbus management. If they were going to let Jenner leave without giving him a competitive offer, they could’ve told him that and ended the uncertainty he’s currently dealing with. Instead, it feels disrespectful, in a sense, to leave Jenner hanging.
The Blue Jackets presently have $32.3-million in salary cap space, so it’s not as if Columbus GM Don Waddell is hurting financially. And while it’s true some of that cap space will have to go to RFAs Jet Greaves, Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger, as well as UFA left winger Mason Marchment, there’s still plenty of cap space to spend on Jenner and improve the team in other areas.
If Columbus doesn’t want to employ Jenner anymore, that’s well within their rights. But any team seeking a second-line center will be interested in Jenner’s services, even if he’s not a first-rate, second-line pivot. Jenner definitely won’t break the bank on his next contract, even if his next salary rises to between $5 and $7 million per season.
Jenner may want to play on a team that regularly makes the playoffs, and right now, that’s not something you can say about the Blue Jackets. So Jenner could be forgiven for taking less to sign with a legitimate Stanley Cup front-runner than he would have played for in Columbus. He’s given the Jackets a hometown discount for his entire NHL career, and it’s now time for the organization to return the favor to the 32-year-old.
This could be the last chance for Jenner to cash in. While it sure seems like there’s an internal salary cap for forwards right now, as nobody earns more than the $6 million that Coyle and right winger Conor Garland are making.
Fantilli’s next contract will set a new high-water mark for Blue Jackets forwards. So giving Jenner his financial flowers is something Waddell can do, if he wants to.
As it stands, though, the lack of news regarding a Jenner extension speaks volumes. If the two sides were close together in negotiations, the team and Jenner, who recently changed agents and is now represented by Newport Sports’ Pat Morris, would’ve announced an agreement by now.
They haven’t done that, and every day that passes between now and July 1 makes it easier to persuade Jenner that he has to go to market and see what he’s valued at outside of Columbus.
The Athletic's Aaron Portzline wrote on May 19 that "it’s easy to see a scenario in which the once-hard-to-believe may come true: that Jenner gets squeezed out of the mix in Columbus."
That won’t sit well with Blue Jackets fans who’ve watched Jenner represent the organization.
But if Waddell is intent on starting a new era in Columbus, allowing the Jackets’ captain to walk away might be the big move that turns the page for the team.
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