Johnny Gaudreau Buys Former Blue Jacket's Columbus House After Basically Getting Him Traded
Johnny Gaudreau reportedly purchased the former Columbus residence of now-Seattle Kraken Oliver Bjorkstrand, which is ironic because Gaudreau's signing led to Bjorkstrand being traded in the first place.
The Blue Jackets signed Gaudreau to one of this summer's biggest tickets when they inked a seven-year, $68 million contract.
Gaudreau's signing created a sudden cap crunch for Columbus, so they sent Bjorkstrand to Seattle in exchange for a pair of draft picks. The least Gaudreau could do was give the Dane a good deal for this house. And in this economy? No doubt Bjorkstrand made out okay.
The Danish forward joins a Kraken team that should be a lot of fun to watch in 2022-23. So far this summer, Seattle added Bjorkstrand, Cup-winner André Burakovsky, fourth-overall pick Shane Wright, and Ryan Donato to their forward group. It also looks like 2021 second-overall pick Matty Beniers is set to join the team on a full-time basis.
Meanwhile, Johnny Gaudreau will look to settle into his new digs and get started in Columbus. The Blue Jackets have an interesting group this year. They will add 2021 fifth-overall pick Kent Johnson into the mix, who could end up centering Gaudreau and Patrik Laine. GM Jarmo Kekäläinen sent it this summer, but there are some serious doubts about the team's composition.
Neither team makes the playoffs -- in my humble opinion -- but each side should play some fun contests this season. And hey, perhaps one of them can surprise and make a playoff run, who knows?
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mikko Rantanen | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Connor McDavid | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jack Eichel | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Anthony Cirelli | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jonathan Drouin | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Roman Josi | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kirill Marchenko | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kyle Palmieri | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Artemi Panarin | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Evan Bouchard | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matt Duchene | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||