Columbus Blue Jackets Lock In Sillinger and Add Granato While the Fantilli Wait Drags On

For a team six years removed from the playoffs, the Columbus Blue Jackets sure generated a lot of Columbus Blue Jackets news this week — almost all of it the good kind. Cole Sillinger signed a three-year deal on July 25 that wiped his arbitration hearing off the calendar. Don Granato joined Rick Bowness's bench on July 30. And the front office keeps chipping away at a summer to-do list that now has exactly one enormous item left on it: Adam Fantilli. The 21-year-old (fine, 21-going-on-franchise-center) remains unsigned as August begins, and until his name hits a contract, everything else in Columbus is a warm-up act.

Columbus Blue Jackets News of the Week: Sillinger Signs for Three

Start with the deal that actually got done. Sillinger, 23, agreed to a three-year, $13.875 million contract — a $4.625 million cap hit — on July 25, days before an arbitration hearing would have put a number on him the hard way. He'd filed on July 5 along with goaltender Jet Greaves, and general manager Don Waddell clearly preferred handshakes to hearings, calling Sillinger "a hard-working, reliable two-way forward who plays the game the right way" in the team's announcement.

The numbers are the numbers: 33 points (8 goals, 25 assists) in 81 games last season, 140 points in 367 career games since Columbus took him 12th overall in 2021. That's not star production, and $4.625 million is a bet on the version of Sillinger who drives play, kills penalties and wins matchups rather than the one who shoots eight percent. Sillinger, for his part, sounded genuinely happy to stay, talking about the commitment running both directions. Three years buys the Blue Jackets his prime-adjacent seasons and buys him runway to prove there's another offensive gear. Reasonable deal, both sides.

Greaves Gets Paid — Twenty Minutes Late

The Sillinger deal came two days after the summer's better story. Jet Greaves and the Blue Jackets went all the way to the brink: per Aaron Portzline, agreement on a three-year, $15 million contract came at 9:20 a.m. on July 23 — twenty minutes after his arbitration hearing was scheduled to start. The $5 million a year is a real number for a goalie with one full NHL season as the guy, but what a season it was: a 26-19-9 record across 55 appearances, a 2.60 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage on a team that missed the playoffs by inches. With Elvis Merzlikins stumbling to a 3.40 and an .883 in 30 games, Greaves wasn't just the better goalie — he was the reason the season stayed interesting into April.

The contract runs through 2028-29 and, per cap-tracking sites, still leaves Columbus roughly $20 million in space. Which matters, because of the next section.

The Fantilli Watch Drags On

Fantilli is the last restricted free agent standing, and the silence is starting to hum. The No. 3 pick from 2023 put up 24 goals and 59 points in 2025-26 — 140 points in 213 career games overall — and enters his fourth season as the presumptive first-line center on a team that badly needs one. Columbus media spent the week gaming out the shape of the deal, with projections clustering around four to five years at a $13-14 million average annual value. That would instantly make him the franchise's highest-paid player, and with offer-sheet mischief around young centers becoming a real feature of this NHL summer, nobody in Columbus will exhale until it's signed.

The good news: the cap math works, even at the top of the projected range. The less-good news: every week that passes is a week of leverage-flexing on both sides. There's no indication of acrimony — just two parties negotiating a contract that will define the roster for half a decade. Still, if you're looking for the one piece of Columbus Blue Jackets news that could break this month, it's this.

More Columbus Blue Jackets News: New Voices on the Bench and in the Booth

Bowness, retained on April 16 after going 21-11-5 following his January promotion when Dean Evason was let go, spent the week filling out his staff. On July 30 the club hired Don Granato as an assistant coach and Cody Ward as video coach. Granato, 58, is a legitimate get for an assistant role — he ran the Buffalo Sabres bench from 2019 to 2024, coached the U.S. men's team at the 2026 World Championship, and even has Columbus roots from his playing days with the Chill in the early '90s. "I've known Donny for many years and have great respect for him as a coach, but more importantly as a person," Bowness said. Ward arrives after four seasons with San Jose's video staff.

The week's other change was less celebrated. The club is consolidating its TV and radio coverage, simulcasting Steve Mears and Jody Shelley's television call to 97.1 The Fan — which ends Bob McElligott's 17-year run as the radio voice of the Blue Jackets. Cost-driven, almost certainly, and a genuine loss for anyone who spent long Ohio winters with McElligott's goal calls.

The Bigger Picture: A 92-Point Team With a New Look

Zoom out and the offseason has been a quiet renovation of a team that went 40-30-12 for 92 points, finished fifth in the Metropolitan, and missed the playoffs for a sixth straight spring — though this one hurt differently, because they were legitimately good down the stretch under Bowness. Zach Werenski (22 goals, 81 points, First-Team All-NHL and a Norris nomination) reportedly used his no-movement clause to shut down trade speculation, including a rumored Dallas scenario, and stays as the cornerstone. Kirill Marchenko led the team with 27 goals.

The churn around them has been real, though:

• Out: Captain Boone Jenner, the franchise's games-played leader, left for Washington on a four-year, $23 million deal after 13 seasons. Mason Marchment, a December trade addition, walked to San Jose.
• In: Valeri Nichushkin, acquired from Colorado before the draft for a second, a third and a fifth — a legitimate top-six power forward when healthy and engaged.
• Depth: Ryan Lomberg (two years), goaltender Pheonix Copley, and a returning Erik Gudbranson round out the summer's additions.

Losing Jenner's leadership is not nothing — the captaincy question now looms over camp — but swapping his contract for Nichushkin's ceiling, locking up the goalie of the future, and upgrading the coaching staff is a coherent plan for a team that finished five points out of the dance.

What Comes Next in Columbus

August should bring resolution on Fantilli, and possibly clarity on the captaincy that Werenski seems destined to inherit by default or by ceremony. Training camp opens in September, and for the first time in a while the Blue Jackets will arrive with a settled net, a settled bench, and internal expectations that include the word "playoffs" without anyone laughing. The Metropolitan is unforgiving, and 92 points will need to become 97 or 98 for the drought to end. But between Werenski's Norris-caliber blue line work, Marchenko's finishing, Greaves's emergence and whatever number ends up next to Fantilli's name, the Columbus Blue Jackets news cycle finally reads like a team building toward something rather than explaining something away. One signature to go.