The opportunity for other teams to speak to Ryan Johansen and restricted free agents alike opened up on July 1, and fans of many teams are calling for an offer sheet of Johansen.
If you've been living under a rock, I'll summarize the current situation for you.
Johansen is a 21-year-old coming off a 33 goal, 63 point campaign where he helped lead the Blue Jackets to their 2nd playoff appearance in franchise history.
Talks between his camp and Jarmo Kekalainen haven't been going well. Johansen wants a long-term deal, while Kekalainen wants to see how he can develop over the next couple years before committing to Johansen. As such, the two sides aren't exactly making a lot of progress and they have hit a standstill.
If you're an NHL GM, the potential of landing a player of Johansen's caliber for money and future draft picks is certainly attractive, but the fact of the matter is Johansen is not going anywhere.
Whether he signs an offer sheet or not - regardless of the terms - he'll be playing for Columbus next season and beyond.
Columbus has upwards of $20 million in cap space with essentially a fully complete roster, so no amount of money would scare them off of Johansen.
They have almost $40 million in space next season with Nick Foligno, Brandon Dubinsky and Sergei Bobrovsky highlighting their top players in need of deals next summer, so they'd have flexibility to fit a big cap hit from Johansen on the team next year as well.
Factor in the salary cap is expected to steadily increase in the coming years, and any offer sheet Johansen signs would look better and better as it went on.
Kekalainen is aware of the potential risk when leaving RFAs unsigned into July, and he's put himself in a situation where there's no way he can get burned.
He'd like to give Johansen a short-term deal, as I said. Johansen wants a long-term deal. If a general manager comes in from Team X and signs Johansen to an offer sheet for seven years at $6 million per ($42 million total), do you really think Kekalainen wouldn't match?
If Johansen continues on his current path he'd be making similar money in a couple years anyway, so Kekalainen would thank you for concluding negotiations, match the offer sheet and carry on with another $14 million to improve his club should he desire to do so.
There's no reason to panic, Blue Jackets fans. Johansen isn't going anywhere.
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