The Blue Jackets picked up their third consecutive preseason win last night, but the over shadowing storyline continues to be Ryan Johansen's contract dispute.
While his camp's demands of $6 million or more per season on a short term deal have dropped dramatically - Pierre LeBrun reports they tabled an offer of $4.7M per - the two sides are still not close to an extension.
Why? Because of how the two-year proposal was laid out. Not only is $4.7M a little rich for the Blue Jackets', but the way the deal is structured the Blue Jackets would have to pay $6M in the 2nd year of the deal. That, of course, means a qualifying offer could be no lower than that, so even if he struggled they'd have to pay him that or lose Johansen all together.
Columbus doesn't want to sign off any deal that could pin them in a corner at any point, so they continue to remain adamant on a two-year deal with a low cap hit and similar salaries for each season.
It's encouraging that Johansen's camp is demanding less money than when negotiations started, but there's still a ways to go and the two sides are running out of time.
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