This summer is going both really slow and really fast at the same time. It depends how you choose to view things.
On one hand, it’s already the middle of August. Where did this summer truly go? On the other hand, it’s been a long while since the Columbus Blue Jackets had a game. We’re coming up on four months since.
Fans have reached the point that they’re ready for fall weather and hockey season. We hear you. That’s why we’re bringing you another edition of our Summer Q&A series.
From now until training camp, we will have a few different Q&A’s for you to help you get ready for the 2025-26 season. Our first interview is with GM and President of Hockey Operations Don Waddell.
I got to spend 30 minutes in Waddell’s office inside Nationwide Arena talking about all sorts of topics over some Tim Horton’s coffee. This will be split into two parts given how much we discussed.
In Part 1, we focused on Waddell’s first season in Columbus, getting to know his staff and some of the changes made, how the offseason went and if there will be changes to their approach in the future.
We also talked about the continuing impact of the Gaudreau brothers and if some things to honor them are coming down the road. We also mixed in some fun questions around the summer and what Waddell does away from the rink if he gets the chance. We’ll spend Part 2 with more on the ice happenings including the latest on Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli’s next contract and much more.
Here is Part 1 of our conversation with Waddell. It has been lightly cleaned up for clarity and conversation.
Don Waddell Part 1
THW: Don, just first and foremost, have you been able to enjoy any semblance of a summer and how has it been for you?
Waddell: “Yeah. It’s been good. I’ve got a summer place three hours away (in Michigan), so I’ve gotten up there a few weekends. But we had a lot to get done this summer, not just player-wise, but staffing wise with a lot of people. That doesn’t happen overnight. You got to do your homework on everybody.
As I said last year when I did the coaching (search), what I like to do is put all names for particular jobs and do research on everybody and talk to anybody I can. Because once you start interviewing, I want the interview process only be a week or ten days.
And I handled the equipment manager, the strength coach. Everybody we hired, we hired the same way. Everybody kept waiting for things to happen. I said, well, everything’s going to happen in time, but I didn’t think it’s fair to talk to one person and wait three weeks to talk to another person. It’s just the way I’ve always approached it and it seems to work well.”
THW: That is interesting because you did make some key changes (Video coach, equipment manager, strength and conditioning coach among them.) Before you got here, the strength, conditioning and the injuries were a big thing. When you were evaluating the need to potentially make a change from your seat, what goes into those decisions to know maybe you do need to go in a different direction here?
Waddell: “With every position when I got in here, everybody in the organization had thoughts about everybody. I said I’m going to work with everybody for a year. I made the one change in coaching last year (Pascal Vincent), but I said I’m going to work with everybody for a year. I want to see how they do. It’s not fair for me to come in and just let somebody go with no background.
I evaluate every position and (with) the strength and conditioning department, I just felt that we needed a different voice there and different method maybe how we do things. I can’t blame injuries on strength and conditioning trainers, doctors, anything like that because we had some freak ones too. When I looked at it, I just thought that particularly in that department that we needed a fresh voice and move forward.”
Scouting, Development & 2026 NHL Draft
THW: Another area too that I think is super interesting, and we’ll talk about how the off-season went a little bit later, but there’s a lot of money out there in salary cap. I think it’s going in a direction that scouting and development’s going to be a really big focus for teams when everybody can re-sign their own, and you want to make sure that you bring not only the best players in but be able to develop them. When you look at your scouting staff and look at your development staff, how do you evaluate them to make sure that you are maximizing both of those areas of your team?
Waddell: “Great question. You’re a 100% right because I think what you saw this summer in free agency that it’s going to be the norm going forward. Everybody’s got the money to spend. They’re going to try to keep their own players. Drafting and developing has always been important, but it’s probably coming to another level at this point.
It’s the same thing there (with scouting and development.) I took a year to evaluate how we did.
We made some changes in development. We added some new people to that group. To me, it’s more resources. If you add people, it’s resources. But I felt that was an area that we could definitely be better at.
With scouts particularly on the amateur side, I went through one full year with them. I’ll go through another full year with them this year. I look back and I did a pretty good study about draft picks in the last five, six years. It’s hard to evaluate the last three drafts. I have too many of those guys coming. But when you start going back four, five, six, seven years ago, you want to see where your hits are and where your misses are. Hopefully, we’ll learn from some of that. We all know if you can just have seven picks in the draft, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get four players. You’re going to make sure you hit on your number one first-round pick for sure. You’d like to hit on some of your second-round picks and then you want to get lucky in the late rounds and get some guys that can at least play on your roster.”
THW: We’re in August so that means the Hlinka/Gretzky tournament has already started.
Waddell: “We have five guys at that tournament.”
THW: The 2026 draft too. It’s very early, but there’s a lot of great talent especially at the top. There’s that side of it, and then there’s also the other side of you might not be able to acquire first round picks. Teams are going to want to hold on to their draft picks.
Waddell: “100%.”
THW: How’s that going to impact everything that you do knowing that this draft is so strong?
Waddell: “Anytime you have an opportunity to acquire picks for the right reasons…You don’t want to sit here and acquire picks. We’re not in a rebuild situation here. I could get a lot of first round picks if I want to trade a lot of guys, but that’s not what our intention is.
The trade deadline is the next big thing. There’ll be some movement. In training camp, there always is a little bit (of movement.) But the next big move is the trade deadline and we’ll see how this whole thing after what went on this year at the deadline changes a little bit from a draft pick standpoint because I have to believe it’s going to.”
First Year Reflections
THW: Strictly from an in the building standpoint, we’ll talk about Johnny Gaudreau in a minute because yesterday was his birthday. Was being put in the position you’re in, being the general manager and the President of Hockey Operations, everything you thought it would be one year into it now?
Waddell: “Yeah. Obviously, we’re dealing with some things. As you said, we’re going to talk about it before the start of the year and injuries during the year which is nothing new. I can’t say there’s any real surprises in my day-to-day work. I’ve been doing it for quite a few years.
I think the most important thing is you learn more about your staff and the people that I surround myself with in Chris Clark’s and Rick Nash’s for how much they can offer to the organization and just using two names. I don’t think there’s any big surprises that I wasn’t ready to tackle, that’s for sure.”
THW: When I say the names Rick Nash, Chris Clark and Josh Flynn, you’ve had a chance to work with them now for a year. What has been the most impressive aspect of those three men in your view?
Waddell: “Chris and Rick were real involved in the coaching search. The nice thing about in particular Rick’s case, he’s fresher from being a player. He could talk to a lot of players that had played for Dean and all the coaches and candidates that we had. That’s a perspective I can’t get. I can get that from former GMs that they coach, all the candidates and potentially some older players. But when you have guys that are, particularly Rick’s case, so close to retirement, he knew a lot of guys that had played for all these guys and was able to call and talk to them through.
And Chris, to a lesser point with the players, but he still knew some guys. But Chris being around for as long as he has could call players that that he knew that could help out. So, to answer your question, I think Chris and Rick are very much up and coming hockey executives. I think they got bright futures in them. They’re both very thoughtful thinkers. They’re also not reactionary. In this job, you can’t be reactionary. If we become reactionary, usually you make bad deals.
And then Josh has handled the CBA and some of the contracts. He knows that type of business as good as anybody.”
THW: What things have you been able to learn about the Blue Jackets now that you’ve seen everything that you didn’t know about them before?
Waddell: “I’ll use (Mathieu) Olivier as an example. I tried to trade for this player for four years. I knew him as a player. I didn’t know him as a person. When I got in there and through everything that happened, we really got to know him as a person. I knew he’s a guy that we wanted to keep and continue to build around because he cares about the team. Team aspect first.
Getting to know the players, I’m always around the room some, but this year, it was even more with everything that happened. But still, I wanted to be able to walk into the locker room and talk to a player not just about hockey, but how their family’s doing and all of that.
I was downstairs talking to Boone Jenner and Ivan Provorov today to see how things are going with the families. I learned a lesson (many) years ago. In my first year as a GM, every time I seemed to come into the room, I was either cutting a player or trading a player. You don’t want to be known as the Grim Reaper. I learned that early on in my career which is good. That’s why I try to spend as much time as possible and not interfere with the coaches, but just to get to know these guys as guys.”
Honoring the Gaudreau’s
THW: Yesterday, Johnny Gaudreau would have turned 32. Did you have a chance to watch the Good Morning America interview that Meredith and Madeline did?
Waddell: “I did. It was very hard to watch to be honest. It was very touching. I know Meredith way better now. These are two strong women. What they have been through was unimaginable and then how they’ve dealt with it. And we got to spend a lot of time with Meredith throughout the year this year. She’s one strong lady. I think she’s a big reason why our players kept going the way they did that year. She said at the funeral, she said on opening night ‘Johnny wants you to play hockey. I want you to play hockey. Go play hockey.’ And to me, those statements coming from her, I probably repeated it 500 times during the year, that meant so much to all of us.”
THW: How much do you expect and I’m not asking you to reveal anything right now if that’s being talked about, but I know that there’s been some talk about maybe retiring Johnny’s number, doing something to honor him. Just how much have those kinds of ideas been talked about?
Waddell: “There’s been some talk. I know we have some meetings coming up in the next couple weeks here trying to figure it all out because it’s the Gaudreau’s are always going to be a part of this organization 100%. That goes without saying. But at some point, we got to figure out what’s the right thing and continue, like the locker room stall, things like that. And I believe things like that will live on. So probably best for me to say right now, we’re still in discussion about everything that we want to continue on with.”
Do Over’s & Bucket List Items
THW: Now when you look back at how everything unfolded from the trade deadline to what you were able to do in the offseason. In life, nobody’s perfect. We all want to have do overs at one point or another. Is there a particular moment last season that you maybe wish you could have over again?
Waddell: “Well, the trade deadline, I was very vocal about that we weren’t in a position…When you’re ready to make that next step is when you’re in a position to trade assets away. The way we were going there, I thought it was more important to keep our assets. We had a lot of free agents. Some signed with us. Some left that we could’ve got something for. Some more than others. But I felt that what this group had been through, it was important to keep this group together and just add a little depth here and there which we did. But let these guys start the year, finish the year, and let’s see what we can end up with. I don’t regret that at all, by the way.”
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THW: A fun question here to end Part 1. Now that you’ve been around Columbus a little bit, what are some of your favorite places that you would recommend if anybody asked you where they should go in Columbus?
Waddell: “The restaurants, I probably hit every Cameron Mitchell restaurant in the city because of the name. I eat out some not a lot because I eat out so much on the road. There’s tons and tons of good restaurants in this area. Other things, I haven’t had a real chance to explore the city really well. I live seven minutes from the zoo and I’ve heard great things, but I haven’t made it there yet. Actually, it’s on my bucket list to make before training camp. So that’d be a fun thing.
I’ve had the privilege of being able to play some nice golf courses. I haven’t played a lot of golf this summer. Double Eagle is a special place. Other than that, I’ve had a couple of weekends where I can buzz up three hours on a Friday when there’s nothing going on. I can buzz up to my summer place and stay up there for two or three, four nights and get that time. And in particular in August because my grandkids were up there all the whole month, so I try to get there as much as I can to take them out and do some fun things with them.”
Stay tuned for Part 2 when we turn our attention to the upcoming season and much more.
