After arbitration seemed very likely as late as Wednesday morning, the Columbus Blue Jackets managed to avoid it when the team re-signed restricted free agent defenseman Marc Methot to a two-year, $2.025 million contract.
The deal will pay Methot $975,000 in ’09-’10 and $1.05M in ’10-’11, The Seventeenth Member has learned. Howson acknowledged the deal as an accomplishment to get a player they really like under contract.
This morning, all reports were that this was headed to arbitration. “There’s a huge gap,” GM Scott Howson said after reviwing the brief given by Methot’s agent, Larry Kelly. “I expect this to go to arbitration based on the positions put forward by the two of us.”
Both parties had already flown to Toronto to prepare for the hearing when the deal was struck.
This marks the third time a Blue Jackets player has filed for arbitration, the team has been able avoid the hearing all three times.
In other news, the Blue Jackets also re-signed restricted free agent Mike Blunden to a one-year, two-way contract. He will be invited to training camp with a shot at earning the center spot on the Jacket’s forth line.
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