Alexandre Texier returning to Columbus Blue Jackets from personal leave, overseas stint
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Alexandre Texier is returning to the Blue Jackets.
After leaving the team mid-way through last season with a fractured finger and returning to France, his home country, the 23-year old forward was granted an indefinite leave of absence March 2022. The Blue Jackets then announced last August, prior to the start of training camp in September, that Texier would remain away from the team for the entirety of this past season, per the recommendation of the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program.
His absence was granted as a result of "personal losses of people very close to him," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said at the time and Texier was permitted to sign a one-year contract with a team in Europe to keep him closer to his family in France. He was loaned for one season to the ZSC Lions in Zurich, Switzerland to play in the Swiss National League A ― that country's top professional league. His season ended in the playoffs earlier this month.
Now, Texier will play for France in the men's world championships next month in Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia before returning to Columbus in September to resume his NHL career.
"Last year, before he got hurt, he was one of our best forwards and we were obviously very disappointed, but very supportive, that he needed to take care of things while he was gone and be close to his family," Kekalainen said. "All of those things, they happen in life and we’ve all been through it. Unexpected things happen and we were supportive all the way through that he needs to think about his own well-being first and that of his family. We followed him closely in Switzerland this year and can’t wait to have him back. I think he could be a huge addition to our group.”
Alexandre Texier's final contract year will slide to 2023-24
This season was to be the final one on a two-year contract Texier signed in July 2021, but the Blue Jackets and Texier have agreed that contract year will slide to cover next season. He will be a pending restricted free agent and add two things that should make the Blue Jackets a lot better up front — internal competition and the versatility to play all three forward spots.
“I think we’ll keep him versatile," Kekalainen said. "We may want to try and grow him at center, still, and then be patient with it. We can also slide him to the wing, depending on where the rest of the group fits. That’s how we’re looking at It. He was a good penalty-killer, he can play on the power play, he can play in the middle and he can play on the wing. That gives coaches a lot of options, so I think it’ll be great that he comes back."
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This season, Texier finished with 13 goals and 22 assists for a total of 35 points in 46 regular-season games for ZSC Lions, adding five more points in nine playoff games. Prior to leaving last year, Texier was on pace for career-highs in his brief NHL career with 11 goals, nine assists and 20 points in 36 games.
He's now in Columbus to complete baseline fitness testing to give the Blue Jackets' athletic training staff information they'll use to create a training plan for the remainder of the offseason. Texier, who's scheduled to meet with reporters Thursday via video conference, will be challenged make sure he's physically prepared for an NHL return.
"He’s still a young player and he’s got a lot of great years ahead of him," Kekalainen said. "This league’s moving forward all the time and it’s not the same as where he played this year. The Swiss league’s a great league, but it’s not the NHL, so he’s got to be ready for another challenge coming back here. It’s going to be a lot harder.”
Texier will also make it harder on the Blue Jackets' forward group to earn ice time. Kekalainen is banking on internal competition helping his team rise quickly from the ashes of a nightmarish season.
"There’s going to be a lot of competition once we get everybody healthy and back, and we’ve told that to many players in the exit meetings," he said. "Expect there to be extremely hard competition for spots on the team and that’s the way it should be. I think it’s going to make our team better.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets get Alexandre Texier back for 2023-24 season
