Gaudreau signs seven-year, $68.25 million contract with Blue Jackets
Forward tied for second in NHL with 115 points for Flames last season
The 28-year-old forward led the Calgary Flames and was tied for second in the NHL last season with 115 points (40 goals, 75 assists) in 82 regular-season games. He led the NHL with a plus-64 rating and set NHL career highs in goals, assists, points, game-winning goals (nine) and shots on goal (262).
"I've gotten to play here many times and every time I play here, it's a lot of fun to play here," Gaudreau said Thursday. "The fans are into it. They've got a lot of buzz there in the arena. I was really excited about that. They've got a good young group here, I think that attracted me a little bit too. Me and my wife thought it was a really good fit for us. We looked at some other options, but I think this is the best one for us personally, where we are at in our life. It just made the most sense."
Gaudreau, who led the Flames in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 12 games, grew up in New Jersey and wanted to be closer to home.
"I've always wanted to play a little bit closer. The east, I grew up here, not in Columbus but on the East Coast," Gaudreau said. "It's somewhere I always wanted to play. I was in Calgary for 8-12 years from when I got drafted to when I started playing. I always dreamed about playing a tad closer to home. But it didn't matter where I was signing. Our decision was it was best for us not to go back to Calgary and then we decided to figure out what was the best option for us and Columbus was right on top of the list. No reason on whether it was close to home or not, they were the team I was excited about."
Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said the team "got to work" when they realized signing Gaudreau was possible.
"We were excited and we had to crunch numbers and look at different things and we all agreed that we just can't pass on an opportunity like this with a player of his caliber wanting to come here," Kekalainen said. "Obviously, he was wanted by a number of teams. We had watched him I don't know how many times with our scouting staff and continued talks with his agent and it came through fairly quickly after we realized that we both wanted this. There was a deal to be made and we signed it."
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On Tuesday, Flames general manager Brad Treliving announced Gaudreau decided to test free agency and leave Calgary, where he has played his entire nine-year NHL career since being selected in the fourth round (No. 104) of the 2011 NHL Draft.
"It's a disappointing day to say the very least," Treliving said.
"I sat in front of you, those who are local here, at the end of our season, and I think my line was, 'We would move heaven and earth (to sign Gaudreau).' I can assure our fans we've done everything possible to keep Johnny in Calgary. I want to wish Johnny, his family, his wife Meredith -- he's going to be a dad in the upcoming months -- I want to wish his family the very best. He gave us eight wonderful years here, great memories. It's difficult. The hard part of this business is we do have to move on."
Gaudreau has 609 points (210 goals, 399 assists) in 602 regular-season games and ranks fifth in assists and points, and ninth in goals in Flames history. He has 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 42 playoff games.
"It was a tough decision," Gaudreau said. "It went right down to probably 11 o'clock the night before free agency where I decided I wasn't going to go back. It was a really hard decision, but it's something that me and Meredith, we talked for a long time. It was difficult, but it was the best for us. We were super excited to sign here in Columbus. They were one of the teams we were really interested in and when they called, we had all smiles yesterday. It was exciting."
The Blue Jackets (37-38-7) finished sixth in the Metropolitan Division last season, 19 points behind the Washington Capitals for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"Players this caliber are not very often available," Kekalainen said. "He wanted to come here, so you can't pass up an opportunity like this. That's basically the main reason. I think he was pretty much No. 1 on everybody's board, I would assume, but I can't speak on anybody else's behalf. But once we knew that this was a desired destination for him, we went for it."
Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen echoed those statements.
"He's an elite player. He's established. He's been a producer his whole career," Larsen said. "... His will to want to come here, we know how important that is and what it means to Columbus, the city. There's a lot of factors that go into it. His skillset is rare, what he does at pace and the way the NHL is played now. ... His speed, his ability to make plays at high speed, he instantly makes your power play better. There's all these things that run through your head."
