By Joe Coopersmith
AUGUST 21, 2024
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed center Cole Sillinger to a two-year, $4.5 million contract ($2.25 million AAV) through the 2025-26 National Hockey League season, club President of Hockey Operations, and General Manager Don Waddell announced today.
“Cole Sillinger is a very smart, two-way center who competes extremely hard at both ends of the ice,” said Waddell. “He played over 200 NHL games before turning 21 and is coming off his best season, so we are looking forward to his continued growth as a player. He is going to be an important part of the present and future of this club.”
Sillinger, 21, has registered 32 goals and 42 assists for 74 points with 105 penalty minutes and 398 shots on goal, while averaging 14:26 of ice time in 220 career games with the Blue Jackets since making his NHL debut as an 18-year-old in 2021-22. He was selected by Columbus in the first round, 12th overall, at the 2021 NHL Draft.
The 6-1, 199-pound forward set single-season career highs in assists, points, penalty minutes and shots on goal in 2023-24 with 13-19-32 with 46 PIM and 157 shots on goal in 77 contests with the Blue Jackets. He skated in his 200th career NHL game on March 5 at Pittsburgh and is the third player in franchise history to record 30 goals (32) prior to their 21st birthdays, joining Rick Nash (58) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (47). He recorded the then third-most goals (tied; Boone Jenner in 2013-14) and seventh-most points by a rookie in club history with 16-15-31 in 79 games in 2012-22.
Born in Columbus, Ohio and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, Sillinger added 2-4-6 and 12 penalty minutes in 11 career American Hockey League contests with the Cleveland Monsters in 2022-23. He spent the 2020-21 season with the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League, notching 24-22-46 and 39 penalty minutes in 31 games to win the league’s Rookie of the Year award. He registered 22-33-55 and 22 penalty minutes in 52 career Western Hockey League appearances with the Medicine Hat Tigers from 2018-20.
