Don Waddell knew what he was in for when he first signed on to become the President and General Manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The summer of 2024 hasn’t been a typical one. With so many business items to take care of including naming a head coach, Waddell hasn’t had much time off. He’s had to make several important decisions.
Waddell’s work is not finished either. Among the things that still need settled are a new contract for Cole Sillinger as well as a plausible solution to the Patrik Laine situation.
Waddell stopped by on Thursday afternoon to give some updates as well as other useful tidbits of information. You will see the latest on Sillinger and Laine. You will also see thoughts on HC Dean Evason, how the team is handling reducing injuries, some training camp notes and why he’s excited for the upcoming season. Here is our conversation.
Waddell Q&A
THW: Thanks for doing this, Don. Have you had a chance to settle in at all, look around the city or anything like that?
Waddell: “Yeah, I did last weekend. Last Friday, I played in our owner’s golf tournament. That was my one day out the office since I’ve been here. I know what I signed up for Mark, it’s, we had a lot of work to get done here and there’s gonna be time and we’ve got our coaching staff all in place now. I got one player issue I’m dealing with. So before we get going in Buffalo with our rookie camp, I’ll find a few days here and there.”
THW: You hired Dean Evason to be the head coach. What I always find fascinating is when a coach gets a second chance after being fired from their first job. Is that something you believe in that could help Evason this time around with the Blue Jackets?
Waddell: “Yeah, I hundred percent believe that. If you look at the coaches, how many coaches have been with their original team? You got Jon Cooper in Tampa. I think what happens is when coaches, and I think it goes in GMs and probably everybody’s mind, you got a lot of time to reflect upon how things went. I think the smart guys and the ones that want to continue to coach or whatever their position is reflect back on what could I have done better when they went through the big slumps there. When you’re living it day to day, it’s always hard to change up your routine and all that. So I think if you look at the coaches, especially a lot of these very successful coaches, this isn’t their first job, that’s for sure.”
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THW: You are coming to the Blue Jackets with a fresh set of eyes to evaluate the roster. Just from your experience, how long does it take to really get to know a player where you’re comfortable with what they are about?
Waddell: “Well, the good thing is all the players that are playing in the NHL, I know them as players. I don’t know them as people, and I spent a lot of time this summer talking to players throughout the summer getting to know them. And a lot of guys have been in town here. (I) met with them and talk to them. But I think as you know, you go into training camp, just spend a lot more time around the locker room through preseason that I think you, when you get into the season, that first month get a couple road trips out of the way, I’ll have a pretty good feel for them as people because the one thing that we want do here is we want to have success and if you got everybody pulling in the same direction, you’ll find out that real quickly if somebody’s not. I think that’s the biggest thing you want to learn is who’s on board. It’s one of the things, when I talk to all players, I always ask them, do you want to be part of the solution or not? I’m not married to any of these guys. Some guys were (saying), well I’m not sure what my future holds. I’m going to be a free agent. Then you start questioning whether they really want to be here. But a hundred percent of the guys that I talk to excluding a couple of Russians that I haven’t been able to talk to, everybody’s on board. They want to be a part of the solution.”
THW: What have been your early impressions talking with the leadership core, Boone Jenner, Zach Werenski, Sean Kuraly and Erik Gudbranson?
Waddell: “I just thought they were very good. All the players were very open with me. I told them that our conversations one-on-one are between us. And the one thing that was consistent though throughout, not just the leaders of the team, but a lot of the players I talked to was, players want to have a structure, want to have accountability. That’s what players want today. That’s the biggest thing that they strive for. The players, regardless of what money they make, they play for a team. They want the team to have success and they know the only way they can do that, that everybody, players, coaches, management, are all on the same page. So very consistent that way. And that’s what obviously ended up leaning me towards Dean (Evason) because as I talked to interview coaches, Dean had passion for coaching, but he had more passion for coaching the Columbus Blue Jackets. I really found that intriguing. And then when I brought him in and met face to face, it became evident that he was the guy. So, to me it starts with the owners, then down to me, down to the coaches, down to the players. We all have to be on the same page of what we want accomplish here.”
New Approach to Injuries
THW: I had a chance to talk to some players recently, most recently Daniil Tarasov. They mentioned their top priority this offseason was taking care of their body. Was this a message that the team delivered to the players given all of the injuries that have ravaged this team in year’s past?
Waddell: “Yeah. We definitely talked. To every player I talked to, I talked about what they’re doing this summer, how they’re preparing and we took a different course this year with adding another doctor to our staff of going to see the players. So we visited every player. He went to Russia, met with all the players over there, Kevin Collins and Ryan (Gadbois), our two strength coaches met with the players in North America. So every player had a touch in person from our staff. And I think that’s important because I have looked at the injuries in the past and it is concerning. It’s the led the league or close to leading the league in the man games lost three of the last four years. So is it a pattern or is it something we’re doing different? And Dean and I have spent a lot of time talking about that, about how we’re training and everything else. So I think we’re in a good place right now. I think as we get closer to training camp and players start to all arrive here, we’re going to find out even more. But I feel like we’ve made strides in that area.
THW: You said this was a new doctor you added to the staff?
Waddell: “Yeah, he came in in March. They brought him in before I got here. And then we’ve utilized him. He was able to do some traveling for us. He’s actually been in Russia, lived in Russia for a couple years. So we set it up as we planned that out for him. He just went over there who within the last three weeks, spent a week with our Russian players over there. I think from a player standpoint, getting that instead of just phone calls, checking in with your players, physically being there, seeing how they train, talking to their trainer, what they’re working on, I think that was a valuable use of our money and time this summer so that we try to avoid some of these injuries that we’ve had over the past few years.”
Sillinger/Laine Updates
THW: Do you have an update on Cole Sillinger’s contract situation?
Waddell: “Yeah, we’re real close. His agent has been very, there’s been lots of talks going on, all very positive talks. We’re all within the striking distance. It’s just a matter of they have a position, we have a position and there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll get worked out.”
THW: On Patrik Laine, I know you are sorting stuff out. Do you envision a situation where he starts the season with the Blue Jackets?
Waddell: “Well he’s still a Blue Jacket today and as we speak, I don’t have anything (newsworthy of) interest, but nothing that I had to make a decision on yet. Just some teams do their homework and trying to talk with Patrick and his agent and he thought about giving full permission to talk to teams. So, but as we are talking (Thursday afternoon 8/15), I don’t have anything that on the table that would even make any sense for the Blue Jackets to make that deal.”
THW: Have you personally had the chance to speak to him yet?
Waddell: “I have not. I reached out to him a couple times when he was in the program because I had that and I did not. Dean (Evason) did talk to him, very cordial conversation, but he’s made it clear that he wants a fresh start someplace else. And I’ve had this situation before, probably not at this level, this type of player. And I’ve told his representation that we will definitely look at every deal and I’ve given him full permission to talk to teams. So, I’ve been where I’ve had players that wanted to be traded before and just because a player wants to traded, two things have to happen. You have to have a willing partner and you also have to have a deal that we both can accept and agree on. And at this time I don’t have that, so I can’t rule out any possibilities at this point.”
Looking Ahead
THW: Going to start looking ahead here. On training camp, do you have a certain way you want to run camp? Will there be a limit on the number of players invited or any PTO’s coming in?
Waddell: “There might be one or two possibly. We’ve kind of cut down. To me, it was growing too much because, you got a whole new coaching staff with a couple carryovers of course with (Steve) McCarthy and (Jared) Boll. The coaches want to get with this team. We play eight exhibition games in 11 days, so there’s not a lot of practice time. We got four days of practice before we play our first game and the coach, which I agree with a hundred percent wants to get down as quickly as he can so he knows the players that he is working with. But my normal training camp has not been not to exceed 50 players. I know in the past they had 72, I think last year here. Everybody’s got a different philosophy on this. I’m not saying anybody’s right or wrong, but my philosophy, especially this year with having a whole new staff now we’re trying to keep the numbers down as much as we can. We got a rookie tournament coming up. If guys in that rookie tournament warrant the opportunity to come to big camp, that we definitely would bring them. But they’re not promised by any means that they automatically are coming to the big team.”
THW: Will Cayden Lindstrom be a part of the Buffalo Rookie Tournament?
Waddell: “Not sure yet. He’s been here all summer working out. Still not on the ice yet. We’re playing it cautiously. There’s no reason to rush him into something if he’s not a hundred percent. If he’s a hundred percent, he certainly would. But I would tell you at this point, not being on ice, it’s probably not something I’m excited about throwing him into a rookie tournament.”
THW: Last one we have for now is about the upcoming season. You mentioned how excited you were about the team and how they’re not all that far off. What makes you excited about the 2024-25 season for the Columbus Blue Jackets?
Waddell: “Yeah, it is talking to everybody here, the staff, they’ve had as we talked earlier a bad string of injuries. I think if we can overcome some of that, you’re not gonna overcome every injury. I think the new mindset starting with myself down to Dean and how we’re gonna approach things, we added what I believe is a couple key veterans. One is obviously Monahan. We got Johnny Gaudreau. Those guys had bonded before. Sean Monahan really wanted to become a Blue Jacket, not just because of Johnny Gaudreau, but he felt that he could make an impact here and you’d like to hear that when you’re talking to a player in free agency. And then we eliminated a few guys and then we brought in Jack Johnson, a veteran guy who played 80 games in Colorado last year. And Chris MacFarland had nothing but good things to say about him. Unbelievable training, conditioning. That’s how at his age, he still plays as many games. I know Jack’s not a real vocal guy, but you wanna talk about guys in the gym, we need our young players to experience that with our veteran players. We need our veteran players to play their role too and help our younger players. We can do a lot of things from management and coaching, but in that locker room, you want your veteran players to be the leaders on and off the ice. When I talk about off the ice, more in the weight room and so forth. And you can look at guys like Johnson and Boone and, and Kuraly. These guys are older players that have continued to excel in their careers because of how they train and how they take care of themselves. And I think that’s important for our younger players.”