The Adam Foote Saga revisited 15 years later

He is still one of the most talked about Jackets ever.

In 2005, Adam Foote signed a 3-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. At the time, it seemed like a wonderful thing. A long-time star chose to sign with a young expansion team, things were looking up. He would be joining a team with guys like Rick Nash, Sergei Federov, Todd Marchant, and Geoff Sanderson. After just a few months, Foote was given the C after Luke Richardson stepped down from the captaincy.

In his first season with Columbus, he would play in 65 games. He scored six goals and had 22 points, which was good enough for third among defensemen on the team. The 2006-07 season saw him play 59 games. Foote only scored three goals and had 12 points. His first two seasons in Columbus weren’t going too well. In the third and final year of his contract, he would play in 63 games for the CBJ, scoring one goal and totaling 15 points. He was actually on pace to have his best year in a CBJ uniform.

On February 26^th of 2008, Adam Foote would be traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a pair of draft picks. The rumor was that Columbus was trying to re-sign Foote, but Foote was pricing himself out of Columbus. The rumors back then were that Foote and his agent set their contract demands so high because they knew Columbus wouldn’t accept them, essentially forcing his way out of Columbus.

The initial demand by Foote was for two years, $8 million. The Jackets offered 2x$3m initially and then bumped it up to 2x$3.5m, but Foote refused to budge. According to reports at the time, when then-GM Scott Howson suggested that both sides continue to negotiate, Foote responded by threatening to be a “bad teammate, a bad captain, and a bad player” for the rest of the season if he wasn’t traded to Colorado or re-signed.

The Jackets made one last attempt to get Foote to consider their offer by telling him to consider everything that the organization had done for him. When then, according to reports he responded by saying that he “doesn’t owe anybody anything”. That was it, Howson had to give in and trade him.

Adam Foote had a private plane waiting for him and everything he needed was waiting for him in Calgary. Some say Foote got nasty because everyone knew his plans, and when the CBJ didn’t want to accommodate those plans, that’s when it went off the rails.

For the record, Foote has denied saying that he would be a bad teammate and Captain, saying he’s a professional. But after the trade, on June 30^th, 2008, Foote signed a two-year deal with the Avalanche worth $3 million a season. So, did he force himself out after all? He took less money to go back to the only franchise he’d ever played for before coming to Columbus.

We may never really know what happened, but one thing is for sure, fans will never forget what took place in 2008. He got boo’s every single time he came back to Columbus. Some fans even boo his son Cal, who now is an unrestricted free agent after not being offered a contract with Nashville.

Will that Adam Foote saga ever be forgotten by fans? Probably not.