Columbus Blue Jackets sign Justin Danforth to one-year, $1.1 million extension
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed winger Justin Danforth to a one-year, $1.1 million contract extension.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed forward Justin Danforth to a one-year, $1.1 million contract extension through the 2024-25 NHL season.
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Danforth, 30, was in the final year of a two-year deal with a $975,000 cap hit that he signed with the Blue Jackets as an extension late in the 2021-22 season. His new deal will be the first time that he has a cap hit of more than $1 million. His cap hit comparables will be Nils Hoglander, Ross Johnston, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, and Blue Jackets teammate Mathieu Oliver.
Danforth missed a majority of the 2022-23 season due to a torn labrum, playing only six games and getting just two goals, one assist, and three points on the year. His pay raise likely comes in the hope that he can build on his rookie season, where he had 10 goals, 4 assists, and 14 points in 45 games.
Danforth was an undrafted free agent signing by the Blue Jackets in 2021 after he had a strong season in the KHL with 23 goals, 32 assists, and 55 points in 58 games with Podolsk Vityaz. Before that, he had spent two seasons from 2016 to 2018 bouncing between the AHL and ECHL after he had graduated from Sacred Hearts University, and he then eventually departed to Finland and Russia for three seasons before signing with Columbus.
The signing comes a day before the Blue Jackets play their first game of the 2023-24 season against the Philadelphia Flyers. They’ll look to improve upon last season, which saw them finish with the second-worst record in the league at 25-48-9.
The one positive to a poor finish is that it got the Blue Jackets their biggest addition of the offseason in third-overall pick Adam Fantilli. In fact, he was their only signing once free agency started, as Columbus had gone more than three months without another signing before Wednesday’s extension of Danforth. They did make a couple of trades, acquiring the rights to Damon Severson to get a head start on negotiations with him, as well as bringing in Ivan Provorov in a three-team trade with the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings.