Blue Jackets give Jack Adams winner John Tortorella 1-year contract extension

The Columbus Blue Jackets signed head coach John Tortorella to a one-year contract extension, the team announced Monday. The deal keeps the 2017 Jack Adams winner under contract through the 2018-19 season, so he’s no longer entering the upcoming season with lame duck status.

“John Tortorella and his coaching staff have done a terrific job since his arrival nearly two years ago,” Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen said in a statement. “He is one of the top coaches in our game and we are excited about what lies ahead for our club with John as our head coach.”

Tortorella, 59, was hired by Columbus on Oct. 21, 2015 after the team fired Todd Richards with a 0-7-0 record. The Blue Jackets would go 34-26-8 under Tortorella for the remainder of the season, but fell short of reaching the playoffs following that brutal start.

The second season under Tortorella in Columbus went much better. Led by a Vezina-winning performance by Sergei Bobrovsky, the Blue Jackets won 50 games and reached the postseason for the first time since 2014. Things didn’t go well in the opening round, however, as the Penguins knocked the Blue Jackets out in five games.

Columbus is trending in the right direction, though, and should be one of the most dangerous teams in the league next season. The Blue Jackets traded Brandon Saad for Artemi Panarin to add offensive upside to their top six. They also have a fierce defensive one-two punch in Zach Werenski and Seth Jones that’s the envy of most of the league.

Those players responded to Tortorella last season, and rather than leave him as a lame duck without a contract beyond 2017-18, the Blue Jackets expressed confidence in their current coaching staff by locking him in another year. Now the team can keep building on what it did last season, and possibly make its deepest playoff run in team history.