The Columbus Blue Jackets re-signed defenseman Ivan Provorov to a 7-year contract extension on Monday. The $8.5 million dollar AAV on his deal will make him the second highest paid player on the team beginning next season.
Provorov played in all 82 games for the Blue Jackets last season, scoring 7 goals and 33 points in the process. In his two years in Columbus, he hasn't missed a single game, quietly showing up each and every night with his underappreciated game. With that said, I'm not sure we can call him underappreciated any longer.
Ivan's new deal places him behind only Norris Trophy runner-up Zach Werenski on the team's salary structure. The 6'1", 213 pound defenseman now gets some longevity in Columbus after being traded here two summers ago by the Philadelphia Flyers; who drafted him one slot ahead of Werenski at the 2015 NHL Draft.
A veteran of 696 NHL games, Provorov has established himself comfortably as a top-four defenseman in this league. At this point in his career, we can't expect much more than the reliability he brought to the team last season.
He will move the puck well, chip in some secondary offense, and generally not do much harm while he's on the ice - especially with the puck on his stick. Defensively, things have been far from perfect here; which is why a lot of people expected the team to move on from him this summer. However, there are certainly worse guys to have in the fold than Ivan. He ate up a ton of minutes last season, after all.
The concern moving forward, however: Just how do the Blue Jackets expect to overhaul their team defense that finished 25th in the NHL last season? They will return all 7 lineup regulars on defense after extending both Provorov and Dante Fabbro over the last two days.
Also returning is long-time starting goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. Don Waddell even doubled down on his coaching staff; retaining assistant coach Steve McCarthy to run the defense. At this moment, it's hard to say. We'll explore what all of this means in the coming days.
Did Don's summer plan fall apart?
Ultimately, it feels like Waddell tried to do some other things, failed, and then quickly pivoted to running it all back. In this case, my immediate reaction is that it feels like he overpaid Provorov not only in term, but also in AAV.
Ivan is a good player, and a good guy to have around the team. Whether or not that's going to be the case in years 5-7 of this contract, will have to wait and be seen.