Charlie Coyle is staying in Columbus. The Blue Jackets signed the 34-year-old center to a six-year, $36 million extension on May 12, locking him in at a $6 million average annual value through the 2031-32 season.
The deal gives Columbus a veteran scorer after Coyle finished the 2025-26 season with 20 goals and 58 points in 82 games, his fifth consecutive season reaching that durability mark. He ranked fourth on the Blue Jackets in scoring and helped stabilize an offense that needed it. Coyle was one of the top unrestricted free agents available heading into the offseason, but Columbus moved quickly to keep him off the market.
The extension also resets the financial picture for a team that entered the offseason with more than $40 million in cap space. After the new contract, Columbus has around $34 million to work with, leaving general manager Don Waddell with room but also with a long list of decisions. The Blue Jackets finished with 92 points and missed the Eastern Conference wild card by seven points, extending a playoff drought that dates to the 2019-20 season.
Coyle’s season in Columbus marked a return to the kind of production that has followed him through a long NHL career. He had 60 points for Boston in 2023-24 before being traded to the Colorado Avalanche, where he posted 13 points in 19 regular-season games and added one assist in a seven-game first-round loss to the Dallas Stars. Colorado then sent him to Columbus over the summer, and he answered with another strong year.
The path to this extension has stretched back more than a decade. Coyle was selected 28th overall in the 2010 NHL draft by the San Jose Sharks, later moved to Minnesota in the Brent Burns trade and signed a five-year, $16 million contract there. The Bruins later signed him to a six-year deal worth $31.50 million after the 2018-19 season, and now Columbus has added a third major contract to a resume built on size, scoring touch and consistency.
For the Blue Jackets, the move buys certainty at a position they did not want to revisit. Columbus still has unrestricted free agents including Mason Marchment, Danton Heinen, Boone Jenner, Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Smith, so the summer is far from finished. But keeping charlie coyle on a long-term deal gives the club one established forward as it tries to turn a near miss into a playoff return.
