Jet Greaves' official arbitration hearing with the Columbus Blue Jackets was set for Thursday morning, but the two parties agreed to a contract before meeting with an arbitrator, and the verdict was a three-year, $5 million-per-season deal.
Those contract details come after the team and player were $4.7 million apart on their original arbitration filings. The Blue Jackets laid out a $2.8 million value while Greaves and his representatives set $7.5 million.
The $5 million annual salary that Greaves has signed falls somewhere in between the original filings. It is also a nice salary increase for the 25-year-old goaltender, who was earning $812,500 per year over two seasons on his previous deal.
Nonetheless, this new contract for Greaves propels him to a new standard in how he performs in the crease for the Blue Jackets, and potential beyond the NHL level.
Going into the 2025-26 campaign, there wasn't much for Greaves to lose in terms of expectations going into the season. Before this past year, Greaves had never featured in more than 11 NHL games in a season, though he did show signs of being a great goaltender.
This past year, the undrafted netminder announced himself as a real NHL goalie, and one who could win games for his team single-handedly.
He ended the campaign with a 26-19-9 record while posting two shutouts, a .908 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average across 55 appearances. That was certainly a positive season for the player, but also for the team, seeing the talent they have between the pipes.
Greaves was also called to represent Team Canada for the first time at the professional level, competing at the 2026 IIHF World Championship. The Cambridge, Ont., native was lights out for his country, registering a .920 SP and a 1.88 GAA in eight games.
He specifically had a spectacular showing against Team USA in the quarterfinal, blanking the Americans on 34 shots in a 4-0 win for Canada.
With this new contract and an almost certain pay raise on his next deal following 2028-29, too, those types of performances are expected to come more regularly. Consistency is often what sets apart good and great goalies.
At his cap hit, Greaves will be earning in the same stratosphere as other netminders such as Joey Daccord, Darcy Kuemper, Spencer Knight and Logan Thompson. Two of those goaltenders were called up for the 2026 Winter Olympics. By the time the next best-on-best international competition comes around, Greaves should be expected to be in the mix to represent Canada.
Not to mention, particularly Kuemper and Thompson, they have been categorized with the Vezina Trophy recently. Thompson is coming off a season in which he finished fourth in the Vezina Trophy voting. And Kuemper was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy in 2024-25.
Even Knight was showing to be one of the best goaltenders in the league at the start of the year, averaging a .919 SP in his first 19 contests of this past campaign.
Now, for Greaves, he's going to have to reach a completely new level of performance and consistency, just like the other netminders close to his pay grade.