The Blue Jackets went into the free agency period in need of 4 things and 1 like to have's. GM Scott Howson accomplished 2 out of the 4 needs and is still wanting on the like to have.

Howson started at little after 6 p.m. eastern standard time with the announced signing of Samuel Pahlsson. This officially put an end to the Manny Malhotra's time with the Blue Jackets. Pahlsson will take over the 3rd line duties that Malhotra would have manned. Pahlsson signed a 3 year contract worth $2.65 million per year.

Pahlsson has registered 54 goals and 92 assists for 146 points with 260 penalty minutes in 557 career NHL games with the Boston Bruins, Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks. He has added 9-19-28 and 54 penalty minutes in 81 career Stanley Cup Playoffs games. In 2008-09, he combined to tally 7-11-18 and 34 penalty minutes in 65 games with the Ducks and Blackhawks. He tallied 2-1-3 and two penalty minutes in 13 regular season games and added 2-3-5 and four penalty minutes in 17 Stanley Cup Playoffs games after joining Chicago at the March 4 trade.

“Sami Pahlsson is a very good two-way center who can play against the top players in the league and strengthens our hockey club at the center ice position,” said Howson. “He won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim two years ago, played in the Finals in 2003 and won a gold medal with Sweden at the last Olympics, so he brings valuable experience at the highest level of competition to our dressing room.”

Not long after the Pahlsson annouced signing, the Blue Jackets announced that they had signed a much need backup goalie in Mathieu Garon. The contract for Garon is for 2 years and $1.2 million per year.

Garon, 30, has compiled a 94-83-13 record with a 2.84 goals-against average, .905 save percentage and 14 shutouts in 204 career NHL games with the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins. He split last season between Edmonton (6-8-0, 3.17 GAA, .895 SV% in 15 games) and Pittsburgh (2-1-0, 2.91 GAA, .894 SV% in four games), where he was a member of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup championship team.

“One of our priorities this off-season was to sign an experienced goaltender to team with Steve Mason and by adding Mathieu Garon we have done that,” said Howson. “Mathieu has been a successful goaltender in this league and we think he will be an important addition to our organization.”

The other positional need for this off season was to pick up a puck moving defenseman that can help an extremely poor power play. That didn't happen today and now looks as if a trade will need to be made to make it happen. The Blue Jackets are over loaded with quality wingers and my guess is that 1 or more will be packaged together to get the Dman that the CBJ need.

The Blue Jackets would love to move Modin but with his contract, declining skills and injury proneness over the last couple years; no team in their right mind would want him. My guess is that Huselius might be a player that Howson would target to move. Juice's less than stellar play in the playoffs left a bad taste in the Blue Jackets mouths and might make it easier to move him than others. With a top 6 of Rick Nash, Derick Brassard, Jakub Voracek, Nikita Filatov, Antoine Vermette and R.J. Umberger; the CBJ have the needed players to fill out a nice top 6 without Juice. We will see.

The other and most important thing for this organization is to sign Rick Nash to a contract extension. The Blue Jackets put forth their first offer and after Nash and his agent reviewed it, they were none too please.

According to the Dispatch, Nash was very disappointed.

“Things didn’t line up the way I anticipated them lining up,” Nash said. “I thought we had a solid chance of getting (a contract) done, especially with all the interest they said they had going into this.

“If this doesn’t happen in the next week, and we can’t hit a number where we’re both satisfied and we both feel it’s fair … if they want me that bad, they’ll get it done.”

The Dispatch also learned that the contract was for 5 years.

The statement reported in the Dispatch that sent Blue Jacket fans running to their phones to call their therapist was when Nash said, “There were tons of teams throwing some pretty big money around (yesterday). If this doesn’t get done, I’m sure I won’t have a problem getting signed by somebody next summer.”

Gulp!

I will tell you that it is a little concerning when Nash comes with such harsh comments so early in the negotiations but it is really early. Nash's camp is going to send a counter offer on July 2nd and then everyone will know what the floor is and the ceiling. They will meet somewhere in the middle like it usually does.

The like to have that didn't get done and Howson isn't in a rush for is a 4th line center. Mike Zigomanis or Marcel Goc could be good answers for that position but it won't be hard to find what they want out of that spot.

In other Blue Jacket news:

The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed defenseman Brent Regner to a standard three-year entry level contract, General Manager Scott Howson announced today. Regner, 20, was the Blue Jackets’ seventh pick, 137th overall, in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. He scored 15 goals and added 52 assists for 67 points with 42 penalty minutes and had a plus/minus rating of +65 in 70 games for Vancouver of the Western Hockey League in 2008-09. He ranked second in the WHL in plus/minus rating and was second among league defensemen in scoring. He added 2-11-13 and six penalty minutes in 17 playoff games.

Aaron Rome signed a 1 year contract worth $550,000 with the Vancouver Canucks.

No news on O.K. Tollefsen, Manny Malhotra, Christian Backman, Jason Williams, Wade Dubielewicz, Jiri Novotny or Chris Gratton.

Fire The Cannon!

Eric Smith
Eric.Smith@HockeyBuzz.com

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