Jet Greaves spent last season proving he’s the Columbus Blue Jackets’ No. 1 goalie. Now he wants the paycheck to match.
The two sides filed arbitration numbers Tuesday, and the gap is significant. The team offered $2.8 million. Greaves wants $7.5 million. That’s a $4.7 million split, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
The hearing is set for Thursday. And once arbitration starts, there’s no settling. So you’ve got about 48 hours of frantic phone calls ahead.
Greaves was undrafted, which makes his rise even more unusual. He signed with Columbus out of the OHL, spent time in Cleveland with the Monsters, and got his first NHL call-up in January 2023. Last season he played 55 games, posting a 26-19-9 record with a .908 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average. He also finished eighth among all goalies in goals saved above expected, which is the kind of stat that gets you paid.
Then he went to the IIHF World Championship in May and played for Team Canada. Six wins in eight starts, a .920 save percentage, a 1.88 GAA. That didn’t hurt his leverage either.
He just finished a two-year, $1.63 million deal signed in July 2024. So he’s due for a raise. The question is how big.
The Blue Jackets have cap space — more than $23 million, according to PuckPedia — but they’ve still got restricted free agents Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger to sign. Sillinger’s arbitration hearing is scheduled for July 27. So the front office is balancing a few moving parts here.
Greaves has already passed Elvis Merzlikins on the depth chart. Phoenix Copley is the third option. So Columbus doesn’t have a ton of internal competition pushing Greaves. That helps his case.
AFP Analytics projects a one-year deal around $4 million or a two-year contract worth $6 million annually. Arbitration awards usually fall somewhere between the two filings, so $5 million is a reasonable guess. But with a maximum two-year term available through arbitration, Greaves could hit unrestricted free agency in summer 2028 if he takes a short deal.
That’s the thing about these hearings: they force both sides to get real about what a player is worth. Greaves has one full season as a starter. One very good season. But it’s one season. The team is betting on sample size. He’s betting on trajectory.
Thursday will tell us who’s right.
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