SAN JOSE, Calif. — It wasn’t yet another third-period collapse that foiled the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, but they still found a way to add insult to defeat: They lost to a player who is still on their payroll.
Alex Wennberg, whose contract was bought out by the Blue Jackets after the 2020 season, had a goal and two primary assists — not to mention a crucial third-period faceoff win — in the San Jose Sharks’ 5-2 win before 16,258 in SAP Center.
The Blue Jackets are paying Wennberg $891,667 this season, the final year they’re on the hook for his buyout.
It was all part of another frustrating game for the Blue Jackets, who looked completely overmatched for most of the second period, trailing 2-0, before surging to life in the final minute of the period.
Zach Werenski scored off the rush with 44.7 seconds left to make it 2-1, beating Sharks goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic with a slick wrister just inside the upper right corner of the cage.
Then, off the ensuing faceoff, Blue Jackets’ tough guy Mathieu Olivier asked his San Jose counterpart, Ryan Reaves, for a fight, and Reaves obliged. It was a thunderous affair, with both fighters deciding seconds into the scrap that they’d simply trade rights.
It was Olivier who landed a heavy one to Reaves’ chin that staggered him, and a follow-up punch that felled him. Olivier tried to hold onto Reaves’ sweater, he said, to help break his fall, but Reaves still appeared to strike his head on the ice.
He left the ice under his own power and was right back out to start the third period.
“(Reaves) has been doing this for so long,” Olivier said. “It’s very impressive he’s had the career he’s had and has been doing it year after year after year. It was an open fight, and, you know, anyone can get caught.
“I was happy he was all right. He looked like nothing even happened.”
The Jackets trailed 2-1 for much of the third, but they couldn’t get the equalizer. Werenski tried to pass the puck from low-to-high in the zone, but missed his target and instead sprung the Sharks on a breakaway for a 3-1 lead.
“We thought going in (to the third period) that the momentum was on our side,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “We just couldn’t find that one to give us a little more life and continue the momentum.
“Probably with a couple of the opportunities we had, we need to finish in order to gain and keep that momentum. With (Werenski’s) goal and that fight (by Olivier) … yeah, I think it’s a different story if we maybe found one.”
The Blue Jackets pulled to 3-2 on Sean Monahan’s put-back goal off a rebound with 3:55 remaining, but the Sharks added two empty-net goals in the final 2:14 to pull away.
Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves, who made a career-high seventh consecutive start, finished with 31 saves. He had 17 in the second period when the Sharks skated circles around Columbus.
“It’s a good hockey team,” Werenski said. “They played hard. They have a lot of skill on that team. I felt like they were playing with a lot of pace, backing us off, making plays. They did a good job of executing our game play and playing their style at home, and I felt like it took us a while to kind of push back.”
Z WITH A PERFECT SHOT! 🚨
CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/LnNAuEfwlE
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 7, 2026
Wennberg, who signed a three-year, $18 million contract extension with the Sharks on Sunday, had the primary assist on Pavol Regenda’s breakaway goal with 48.4 seconds remaining in the first.
A power-play goal by Wennberg at 4:14 of the second period made it 2-0. And, just seconds after the Blue Jackets pulled Greaves for an extra skater when they trailed 3-2 with 2:14 to play, Wennberg won a defensive-zone faceoff that led to San Jose’s first empty-net goal.
Tuesday was an eventful day for the Blue Jackets.
GM Don Waddell announced that Laurence Gilman, who has worked as an assistant general manager with Winnipeg/Phoenix, Vancouver and Toronto, has been hired by the Blue Jackets as vice president of hockey operations.
Gilman replaces Josh Flynn, who left the Blue Jackets last week to join the Buffalo Sabres’ front office, now guided by former Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen. Waddell, who has known Gilman for more than 30 years, said he wanted a lawyer to fill Flynn’s spot.
The Blue Jackets will rely on Gilman to handle contract negotiations and help interpret and apply the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, but Waddell said he has other tasks in mind, too.
The “VP” title would suggest that Gilman is the second in command below Waddell, but Waddell said he views Gilman, director of hockey operations Rick Nash and director of player personnel Chris Clark as equals in his front office.
Later in the day, the Blue Jackets signed defenseman Egor Zamula to a one-year, one-way contract worth $1 million after he cleared waivers and had his contract terminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Zamula, 25, is expected to meet the Blue Jackets in Las Vegas ahead of Thursday’s game.