On July 13, 2022, the Columbus Blue Jackets pulled off a move that nobody in the league saw coming. They signed Johnny Gaudreau, and in the moment it felt like one of the biggest free-agent coups in NHL history. Players of that level usually never make it anywhere near the open market.
The reaction was instant, and at first, disbelief came before celebration. Rumors started bubbling up while people were checking their phones and trying to make sense of the noise.
Even then, the idea sounded too wild to be real. As the source recalled, “There’s no way he’s actually coming to Columbus, Right?”
Then the confirmation hit. NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman posted, “Johnny Gaudreau is going to Columbus”.
That still didn’t fully settle it for everyone, especially since the Blue Jackets had already held their presser and signed Erik Gudbranson earlier that day. But once Columbus officially announced Gaudreau’s signing, the franchise had its moment.
For a fan base that had spent years hearing that no star would want to come back to Columbus, the move landed like a reset button. The old narratives about the city and the team suddenly looked a lot less convincing.
The backlash from outside Columbus came quickly. Flames fans, stunned that Johnny Hockey would leave Calgary at all, were especially furious that he was headed to the Blue Jackets. They took to Twitter to vent, but Columbus fans had no interest in letting the noise spoil the moment.
The excitement in Columbus kept building. Season tickets started selling in record numbers, and the anticipation only grew as summer rolled on. People were waiting to see what Gaudreau would look like in Union Blue, and the buzz around the city was impossible to miss.
His first game in a Blue Jackets sweater came on October 14 at home against the Lightning. The crowd was ready for it, and Gaudreau didn’t waste much time giving them something to cheer about.
Just 2:21 into the first period, with assists from Justin Danforth and Boone Jenner, he scored his first goal as a Blue Jacket. Nationwide Arena nearly came apart.
Gaudreau’s first season in Columbus ended up being solid, especially considering how banged up and difficult the team was around him. He finished with 21 goals and 74 points, added 21 power-play assists to match a career high, and missed only two games on a roster that lost more than 500 man-games to injury.
His second year was a different story. Gaudreau played 81 games and put up 60 points, doing what he could on a team that was again plagued by injuries and poor play. Patrik Laine spent much of that season dealing with his own injury issues, and later left for the Player Assistance Program and has probably played his last game as a Jacket.
Gaudreau’s third season in Columbus never happened. On the night of August 29, 2024, he and his brother Matthew were tragically killed while riding their bikes in New Jersey.
Almost three years later, Johnny Gaudreau still stands as a Columbus legend, even though his Blue Jackets career lasted only two seasons. July 13, 2022 remains one of the defining days in franchise history, the day the Jackets landed one of the biggest free agents the NHL had ever seen.
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