In Part 1 of our 2025 Summer Q & A series, Blue Jackets’ GM Don Waddell talked about a bevy of topics including how he’s spent his summer, why he made some staffing changes and some reflections on the offseason and his first season with the team.
We now shift our focus to more on the ice and player specific discussion in Part 2. Between having to navigate a public trade request, some contract negotiations and the need to add to their team before the season, Waddell remains busy even though Training Camp doesn’t start for a month yet.
The big contract negotiation that every Blue Jackets’ fan is waiting for is the one involving Adam Fantilli. He’s now eligible to sign his second contract. That’s where we begin as we pick up on our conversation with Waddell.
Don Waddell, Part 2
THW: Let’s flip into more of the on-ice stuff. You have some potentially big negotiations coming up. Adam Fantilli is one of those. Has that process started yet?
Waddell: “We’ve had no talks about the contract. We actually are trying to meet face to face sometime in late August or early September. I’ve had a relationship with Pat (Brisson) for twenty some years, and we’ve always been able to get every deal done. We also both feel the same that we’d like to get together and do it in person. We’re hoping to schedule that here in the next two or three weeks.”
THW: Boone Jenner is somebody that just when you think of Blue Jackets’ hockey, he’s one of the first guys that come to mind. It’s been his entire career here. You’ve been able to get to know him. This is the last year of his current contract. What have those conversations been like so far?
Waddell: “I’ve talked to both his agent (Joseph Resnick) and Boone himself. I’ve talked a couple times with the agent. No contract again. It’s something that we said, let’s do our homework on both sides.
I think 100% Boone wants to stay here and retire as a Blue Jacket. We want him to stay here and retire a Blue Jacket. And now it’s just finding that fine line of which is always the part of, satisfy his needs and within the structure that we have. I can’t say there’s any reason why we wouldn’t be able to get a contract done.”
THW: Someone who has been a very integral part of the team given the relationship that he had with Johnny Gaudreau is Erik Gudbranson. He’s another one too where you didn’t have him for a lot of last year. As soon as he got back, the team seemed to turn things around. Is he another one that you’ve identified as a priority?
Waddell: “We’ve talked to him. I haven’t talked to his agent at all. I know Eric wants to stay here. (We’ll talk more) at the right time. I don’t get caught up in these contracts. You saw last year with a lot of guys unrestricted. If we want a guy to stay here and he wants to stay here, it doesn’t matter if the contract gets done in September or like this year, it got done in June. I don’t get caught up in that too much. The time will come and we’ll see. I’d like to particularly with some guys, I want to see how the year goes too and see what we got coming and what we need to keep and move forward.”
THW: Are there any notable injuries that you’re aware of? Is everyone coming in with a clean bill of health?
Waddell: “Yeah. Olivier is cleared 100% now. He had his wrist surgery. Charlie Coyle had a little thing done on his wrist. He’s cleared. I was talking to Boone this morning (Thursday), and we were going through it. And we don’t think there’s anybody coming to camp that won’t be ready for camp.”
THW: And some players have already come back into town.
Waddell: “Yeah. Zach got married here a couple weeks ago. We had a lot of guys here for five or six days. Some guys have left. But right now, you got on the ice today Elvis and Jenner and (Ivan Provorov) has been here all summer. Gudbranson’s been in. (Damon Severson) has been in. Most guys you’re going to see, because school starting next week, and Olivier’s coming back this week. Guys are starting to come back in town. Boone and I were talking about that. He said next week to ten days, probably 75% of the guys (will be) here.”
Chinakhov, Voronkov & Other Moves?
THW: I think when anybody looks at the state of the team now, probably most of the big moves are done. But I think you’ve mentioned it before about the need for potentially a third goalie and maybe some other depth if that’s available. We could see some August and September moves because there really wasn’t a ton of trades because everyone wants to compete.
Waddell: “Right.”
THW: Could there be a move or two form you upcoming?
Waddell: “Yeah. 100%. Let’s talk about (Yegor) Chinakhov.”
THW: That that’s where I was going.
Waddell: “Yep. I had a good call with him two weeks ago. Things were said and he tried to clear the air with it here. It’s nothing against Columbus or anything else. He just felt that for his career, this might not be the best place. And I told him directly and I told his agent directly that he has a value. And right now, we have him penciled in to be on our team. And if there’s him or any player that I felt that we can get equal value or fill a need that we really need, we will look at that.
But I never promised anybody I can trade him. And I told him the issue right now. He should continue to work in the summertime and prepare himself to be a Blue Jacket. And if something else happens, it happens.”
THW: Will you use Training Camp to look to see if a goalie slips out on the waiver wire?
Waddell: “Yeah. We’re still talking. August is a slow month. It’s hard to get ahold of some people, but we’re still talking about some teams with goalies. But we also know that we’ve done complete depth charts of all the organizations. There’s going to be some teams that are going to have to put goalies on waivers. It may not be ideal to carry three goalies off the start, but it might be what we need to do. So we’re going to continue to track down until we find one, whether it’s today, tomorrow, training camp, whatever. I think it’s important that we fill that need.”
THW: Last one on Chinakhov. That one went public. I know nobody likes it when that happens. What’s the approach if someone has an issue? Is it an open-door policy to approach you if necessary?
Waddell: “Well, I don’t think it does anybody any good to air your laundry in public. And that’s why I’ve stopped talking about it because it’s just something that was said. We had a meeting, cleared the air, and told them how I felt what I just said. I’ve had players over the years request trades.
It’s not the first. It’s really the first one that’s gone real public and we dealt with that. Hopefully, it’s behind us now.”
THW: Another player that reportedly had potentially been available was Dmitri Voronkov. He has a contract now and is a huge part of the team moving forward. I think you guys expect big things from him.
Waddell: “Yeah. If you look at his first half of the year versus his second half, first half is outstanding and he slowed down in the second half of the year. We addressed that with him and hopefully he comes prepared not just physically but mentally for the season. I will say his name came up because it was obviously for the defensemen from the island. And his name came up, and we always said no. So how people report it and all that, I think if I were to put him in the deal, I would’ve gotten the player (Noah Dobson.) But we weren’t willing to put him in the deal.”
2025-26 Preview
THW: I did hear an interview that you did have in Vancouver where you said an interesting quote about you go to sleep looking for goaltenders. You got Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves. What is the confidence level going into the season with them and the belief that they can get the team to where you want them to go?
Waddell: “I 100% believe in both guys. I think if I go back to Elvis’ year and I’ve done this many times going through the outdoor game, which I think he stole for us from Detroit. He won us a lot more games than lost us. Then when our team went to the stretch in March there, our team wasn’t very good and he wasn’t very good. And then Jet came in and played I don’t know how many games (of the last 15-20 games) and played very well. I think we have confidence in both of those guys. But saying that, I’ve never been through a season where two guys played the whole year. Never. Maybe I don’t have luck with goalies. Injuries, sickness, somebody not playing great for a while.
That’s why I’m very confident saying that these two guys are our guys, but I’d like to have a third guy there in case something happens. It’s just I’d rather be prepared for something. If we don’t ever need them all year, that’s great. If we need something for whatever reasons, we have someone we feel comfortable going in goal. We’re trying to win hockey games here, and it’s one position that you can’t leave yourself bare because you can have everything going well which could be real freaky, somebody misses the week or something like that. And you go four games that week, and you got a guy not ready to play here. That’s bad management by me and my staff.”
THW: Every season has challenges. But this year, teams certainly aren’t going to look past you. You The emotional aspect will always be there with Johnny, but now that it’s getting a little further and further away, how do you feel like your team can overcome all those things to get to that next level?
Waddell: “I think a few things. We need some luck. You got to deal with the injuries during the year. When you lose your captain before you can play a game and you lose Gudbranson, I think, three or four games in the year. And six weeks in, we lost Kent (Johnson) for a while and we lost Chinakhov. We know there are going to be injuries during the year. When you lose these guys for basically the whole year or a lot of it, it’s a big blow to you. In saying that, yes, we need to have some luck on our side from that end. But the leaders of this hockey club, Monahan, Werenski, Jenner, Gudbranson, Olivier. These are all not only good players. These were all guys that are not only contributors to our hockey team, but they’re good people and good leaders.
I think that we played with a lot of emotion last year, but somebody had to keep that room in check. And I think these guys did the best job I’ve ever seen of a veteran group. I think everybody expected us to have 50 points last year and here we’re going right down to (the wire). You don’t do that just on emotion. You do that with the leadership and your ability to play the game. I’m confident that as we enter the season with that group of players, along with our young players, you see Fantilli and Johnson take big steps last year and Mateychuk. Have it happened to these guys now they can’t be considered young players anyway. They’re going to have three or four years in the league. There’s no reason why we can’t take that next step.”
THW: How urgent is making the playoffs? Let’s say that there is a bad start, will you try to intervene quicker than before?
Waddell: “I think the playoffs are important for sure. And I want to get to a point where we’re making the playoffs each and every year and stop talking about making the playoffs and start talking about winning the Cup. That the important thing for me.
To answer the second part of the question, you got to see how it goes. You start off 2-8 or something like that in your first 10. Is it because you’re missing something? What’s going on with the team? That’s my job to assess that. That’s why particularly in the first part of the year I’m always with the team because I want to be around the team and get a feel for how everybody’s thinking and watch how everything’s going because you can’t keep a pulse on the team and then come in and make a decision that you’re not ready to make. So being around the team and recognizing if we have a weakness or something’s not going right, somebody’s not fitting in. Certainly, I’m always willing to look at making a change.”
THW: Last one. What is the biggest reason for optimism for you and your biggest concern going into 2025-26?
Waddell: “Biggest reason that we’re optimistic is with Dean leading the charge with the coaches. I thought the coaches did a great job last year. And with the group of guys we have here with the veterans and the younger players, I’ve been around a lot of teams, and I look at that board every single day, study it and try to find where those weaknesses are other than we talked about maybe a third goalie. I’m very optimistic that we’re going to have the season that we all want to have and start putting us in a position to take that next step. The fear, of course, is this franchise has had a bad run with bad luck with some injuries and other things. If we can avoid all those things, then I think first part would take care of itself.”
