Kirill Marchenko signs new deal worth over $10 million.

In spite of the fact that lack of progress in the negotiations seemed to be forming something of a rift between the two sides, forward Kirill Marchenko and the Columbus Blue Jackets have managed to come to terms on a new deal.

The news was broken on Sunday morning by Marchenko's agent Dan Milstein who confirmed on social media that his client had agreed to terms on a new 3 year deal, one that will carry an average annual value and salary cap hit of $3.85 million per season.

This is great news for the Blue Jackets as Marchenko had previously been vocal about the fact that he had not received any offers from the Blue Jackets leading up to this point. That, at least to me, suggested that the player wasn't entirely happy about the situation at the time, but it seems that this will be a case of all's well that ends well.

At just 24 years of age, Marchenko is the kind of player that the Blue Jackets should be looking to retain as they look towards the future, especially coming off of back to back seasons in which he put up 20+ goals for the Blue Jackets. Last season Marchenko appeared in 78 regular season games, scoring 23 goals and adding 19 assists for a total of 42 points, this in spite of the fact that the Blue Jackets were one of the worst teams in the National Hockey League last season.

This 3 year deal comes just one day removed from the signing of Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson, who agreed to a new 3 year deal on Saturday. This appears to be a deliberate plan on the part of new Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell, giving himself a few years to evaluate his young talent under contract before having to potentially make big decisions 3 years down the road.