Blue Jackets’ GM Waddell to Meet With Werenski “In Near Future”

The big story around the Columbus Blue Jackets is the future of Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski. On Thursday afternoon in his pre-draft availability, GM Don Waddell gave some updates but didn’t want to share everything.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Werenski would meet with the Blue Jackets after the draft. Although timing wasn’t shared on Thursday, Waddell admitted there will be a meeting in the near future.

Waddell Speaks

“There are some matters we’re dealing with that should probably stay internal,” Waddell said. “My plan is still to meet with Zach in the near future and see where he’s at.”

Waddell took it a step further and said he has had some talk with Werenski’s agent Judd Moldaver. But as of now, there is nothing set in stone as to what is coming next.

“We’ve had some conversations with his agent, but there’s been no definitive plan,” Waddell said.

Waddell was asked if it would have been more beneficial to have the meeting prior to the draft to allow the Blue Jackets the option to do something in case they needed to. The GM believes the situation doesn’t affect the way they’ll handle the draft.

“It really doesn’t affect the draft at all, obviously,” Waddell said. “We’re still trying to make some deals to make our team better. That may include (the) draft pick that we have at 14. But our goal hasn’t changed from when the season ended. We know we want to try to be better and we’re going to continue to work that. This will play itself out in time.”

Waddell was asked if he was surprised at the way things have happened in the sense of how public this became.

“I guess nothing ever catches me by surprise. Obviously, we’ve known what happened around the league some place north of us. I was watching that situation very closely to see how that was going to play out. This isn’t the first time this has happened. If you go back in years, there’s been a lot of players, Eichel going to Vegas from Buffalo. But usually, it doesn’t become so media driven like other cases that we’re looking at right now.”

“You say surprised. I’m never surprised when anything happens in this league. But it’s something that we have to deal with and we’ll deal with it.”

Message to Fans

We’ll get into more detail about what Waddell said about the draft in a future piece. For now, the Hockey Writers was able to ask Waddell what is his current message to the fanbase given the sudden uncertainty around Werenski’s future and what gives him the confidence the Blue Jackets are still heading in the right direction no matter how that situation plays out.

“We took, I believe, steps the last two years,” Waddell said. “Certainly, we haven’t gotten where we need to get to and that’s make the playoffs. It’s my job as general manager to make sure we fit the needs and fill the needs that we feel like is going to take us to that next step regardless of who the players we’re talking about.”

“I think, and back up too with bringing back Rick (Bowness), I think the players when I met with them at the end of the season all really supported him and gave him a vote of confidence. I think the players look forward to coming back and playing for Rick. I think he did a tremendous job for us. And so now, he’s got all summer to plan. I know he plans. I talk to him everyday. I know as the season gets ready to start, we will be very well prepared. That’s why I think that’s also a benefit for us with Rick having the whole summer to plan.”

“The goal is to be a better team. Personnel is obviously one thing. Structure and all that plays a part. The team playing together, we had some games last year we gave up some leads especially our first half of the year. I think we had 10 games we gave up two-goal leads and won three of them. Those are things that I think our coaching staff and the structure that we put in place for the players is going to be a big step to help us gain some more momentum there.”

Obviously, there is a lot more to come from this. It is important to note that at no point Waddell said there was a formal trade request. That aligns with various reporting indicating that a formal request was not made to date. But in saying the preference was to keep stuff internal, does leave some question about what is known and what’s coming next.

We’ll see where it all goes. It reinforces the sheer magnitude of what’s next for the Blue Jackets at a time in their franchise that they need something positive to happen.