In the seemingly unending saga of Ryan Johansen and the Columbus Blue Jackets' attempts to come to terms on a contract extension, a new twist has revealed itself in the form of KHL offers.
That's right. Offers. Plural.
According to TSN's Farhan Lalji, via ProHockeyTalk, CSKA Moscow was expected to offer Johansen a one-year $5 million contract on Friday night, supposedly only one of seven KHL offers that have been made to Johansen and his agent Kurt Overhardt.
That's quite a bit of money and one season isn't that long, though whether or not it's worth it for the Vancouverite to play in the far reaches of Russia after experiencing success in the early stages of his NHL career, is for the enigmatic Johansen to decide.
On Saturday however, CSKA Moscow general manager, and former Blue Jacket, Sergei Federov denied the report, stating that, "the team had conversations about Johansen, but did not and will not make an offer to the center."
Overhardt, in a conversation with ESPN's Pierre LeBrun, confirmed that his client has received "several offers" from various KHL teams, but that Johansen is committed to finding a way to get a deal done with Columbus.
The toughest part for Johansen is that he really doesn't have negotiating leverage. His choices really come down to signing, sitting out, or leaving the NHL altogether. An offer sheet from another team is technically an option, but as proven to be the case time and again, teams will match almost any offer.
Meanwhile, the Jackets have attempted to move forward in Johansen's absence, the first step of which has been Coach Todd Richards' move of winger Boone Jenner to center on the top line.
Jenner is a natural center who moved to the wing to accommodate Johansen.
"If Johansen's here, we may have (Jenner) on the wing but we'd still be trying him at center," Richards told the team's website. "You take a player like that, a fierce competitor...I haven't seen him take a draw yet, but I bet he takes a draw like he plays a game. You better be ready."
Richards seemed optimistic, but allowed that it was too early to draw conclusions on the viability of the experiment.
"It's tough in practice," he said. "We have conversations after practice about who you like and didn't like, and sometimes as a coach when you're running practice you miss a lot of the individuals. You're watching drills, making sure you're doing it right and little details rather than watching one particular person."
There, of course, has been no movement toward the two sides finally signing a pact, so it seems that for the time being, the media squabbling and rumor mongering will continue.
