Columbus Blue jackets nearly forced to go to arbitration with player after missing NHL deadline
Photo credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Columbus Blue Jackets came 20 minutes from making franchise history on Thursday.
They asked for a delay instead.
Aaron Portzline told Oilers Now that both sides asked to push back a hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. in Toronto because they were that close.
The paperwork was done at 9:20.
Re Jet Greaves extension/Blue Jackets: "They had to literally delay the start of the arbitration, both sides asked for a delay because they were that close to a deal; they got it done at 9:20 when the arbitration was supposed to start at 9 am."
- Aaron Portzline
- Aaron Portzline
Jet Greaves signed for three years at a $5 million average annual value, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. Columbus had filed at $2.8 million and Greaves at $7.5 million.
The hearing room nobody uses
That 20-minute overrun is the closest the NHL has come to an argued arbitration case in three years.
All 15 restricted free agents who filed in 2026 settled before a hearing, per PuckPedia. NHL.com reported the same outcome for all 13 filers in 2025.
The last players to receive actual rulings were Jeremy Swayman, Ilya Samsonov and Philipp Kurashev in 2023.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have never had a player reach a hearing in 26 seasons.
Why the frozen record book matters
Here is the consequence nobody is tracking. Arbitration awards are the only NHL salaries set by a neutral third party, and that ledger has sat untouched since 2023.
Every goaltender negotiation since then, including this one, leans on comparables produced by deadline pressure rather than by a ruling.
That is why Greaves landed near the midpoint. Neither side wanted to be the case that reset the goaltending market for everyone else.
Greaves went 26-19-9 with a 2.60 goals-against average last season while Columbus missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a sixth straight year.
Don Waddell followed it a day later with Cole Sillinger at three years and $4.625 million a season.
Rick Bowness gets a settled crease.
The league gets another summer where arbitration worked perfectly by never actually happening.
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