Cole Sillinger signed a three-year, $13.875 million contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, avoiding an arbitration hearing. It has an average annual value of $4.625 million.
"First of all, I’m super excited," Sillinger said. "I’m happy to obviously get it out of the way and have a commitment to me and me committing to Columbus for three more years. I guess throughout the entire process the main focus was to find a deal that made sense to both sides and we agreed on three years and the deal got done.
The 23-year-old forward had 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) in 81 games for the Blue Jackets last season.
“Cole is a hard-working, reliable two-way forward who plays the game the right way, has outstanding character and continues to grow and improve,” Columbus general manager Don Waddell said. “He has played a lot of games in this league at a very young age, and we are excited about his future and his contributions to our organization.”
Sillinger filed for arbitration on July 5; the date of his scheduled hearing was not announced.
Selected by Columbus with the No. 12 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, Sillinger has 140 points (51 goals, 89 assists) in 367 regular-season games.
"I think the No. 1 thing is that they believe in me," Sillinger said. "I think when a team sees value in me and sees ultimately me as an individual, every single day that a team that drafted me, I have connections in Columbus, I was born in Columbus. So, throughout this entire negotiation process, there was no doubt in my mind that something was going to get done.
It was just a matter of what the deal was going to be and how long the term was.
"Just the teammates, everything about it. Just in general, I never really thought of myself being on any other teams and that’s special.
Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves also avoided arbitration when he signed a three-year, $15 million contract ($5 million AAV) with Columbus on Thursday.