Columbus Signs Tortorella to a Two-Year Extension

The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed head coach John Tortorella to a two-year contract extension.

One-day before the Blue Jackets are set to open training camp, their bench boss has been signed through the 2020-21 season. Tortorella, who was entering the final year of his contract, is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins.

Since taking over the team on October 21st, 2015, Tortorella’s Blue Jackets are 129-88-23—good for the 12th best record in the NHL over that span. Columbus fared well despite posting the eighth worst power-play% (17.6) and 16th best penalty-kill% (80.5) over that stretch. 

Entering his fourth season, the 2016-17 Jack Adams Trophy Winner, has one of the deeper lineups in the NHL. Led by Artemi Panarin, who is seventh in the league in points (233 in 243 games) since breaking into the NHL in 2015-16. Up front they are expecting second-year centre Pierre-Luc Dubois to take another step forward. On the back-end, they have one of the best D-pairings in the league in Zach Werenki and Seth Jones—they rank as the No.3 top-pairing in the NHL according to CorsicaHockey Player Ratings. Between the pipes is Sergei Bobrovsky, who is one of the league’s best when healthy. He grades out as the No.2 netminder (per CorsicaHockey). 

Overall, this team is ranked as having the 21st best offense, 12th best defense, fifth best goaltending tandem and rank 19th overall according to CorsicaHockey. However, some models like them a lot more. Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) has a model that has projected the Blue Jackets to win the President’s Trophy with 114 points this season. 

Either way, there are high expectations in Columbus and Torts is the their man for the next three seasons.