A pre-draft Q&A with Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell, hours before he acquired Valeri Nichushkin from Colorado
The CBJ boss met with the local media Thursday, a day before the first round of the draft. The Zach Werenski question came up post-haste. Here's the transcript, the video and the Reign of Terror.
First things first: The Blue Jackets acquired power forward Valeri Nichushkin from the Colorado Avalanche Thursday afternoon. In return, the Jackets sent the Avs a second-round pick in 2026 (No. 43 overall), a third-round pick in 2027, and a fifth-round pick in 2028.
If you are a Blue Jackets fan, you're hoping that Waddell isn't done fortifying the roster. Rumors are swirling that star defenseman Zach Werenski, the greatest player in franchise history, desires to be traded to a team that can contend for a Stanley Cup. Waddell will be meeting with Werenski sometime in the near future to determine whether Werenski is willing to commit to Columbus long-term when his contract expires on July 1, 2028. If not, Waddell almost certainly will trade the reigning Norris Trophy winner. (See below).
Suffice, the next few days are among the most critical in the modern history of the Jackets, who have missed the playoffs six years in a row. Is Nichuskin part of the answer? I'll be digging into that question in the near (and more distant) future, but for now, here's an encapsulation of the risk-reward measure when it comes to "Big Val."
Risk: Nichushkin, 31, has never played a full, 82-game season. Why? Injuries are one reason. Off-ice problems are another reason. Among the strange interludes that are woven into his career is an incident with an intoxicated woman in his hotel room during the 2023 Western Conference playoffs. Presently, Nichushkin is in Stage Three of the the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program for failing a drug test (which led to a six-month suspension). If he hits stage four, his career is likely over.
The Player Assistance Program tiers are as follows:
- Stage One: First in-patient treatment; no penalty.
- Stage Two: For violation of Stage One treatment plan, suspension without pay during active phase of treatment and then eligible for reinstatement.
- Stage Three: For violation of Stage Two treatment plan, suspension without pay for at least six months and then eligible for reinstatement.
- Stage Four: For violation of Stage Three treatment plan, suspension without pay for at least one year. Reinstatement not assured.
Reward: Nichushkin has no problems when he is right and healthy. When he is, he is among the league's elite power forwards – and a matchup nightmare. Put it this way: The Avalanche have elite-elite talent in forward Nathan McKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar, but when Nichushkin was on his game, the 2022 Stanley Cup champions went to another level.
Nichushkin has 27 goals and 40 points in 74 career playoff games. During Colorado's 2022 run, he played through a broken foot in the Final and had four goals in the series. Again, in the weight room, the locker room and on the ice, he is star-caliber.
If you are a Jackets fan, you must hope that Nichushkin – who is two years clean – finds a kinship with fellow Russians Kirill Marchenko, Ivan Provorov and Dmitri Voronkov, and is a good influence on Voronkov (rather than the alternative). You must hope that Nichushkin seizes upon a fresh start in Columbus and is energized for the last stage of his career. You must hope he remains healthy. With luck, this is a man who can be a large part of a solution for a franchise groping to take the next step, and the next one, and ...
The deets:
Waddell speaks on the eve of the draft
Waddell met with the local media, live and via Zoom, at noon Thursday. The following is a transcript of the Q&A. It has been edited for clarity and length. I've highlighted certain parts that caught my ear. I've also included the video of the entire presser below.
Q: Has (Werenski) requested a trade? Has he informed the club that he won't be extending his contract when it expires in two years? Can you give us clear answers on that?
Don Waddell: (Jokes:) I thought this was (about the) draft. ... I think for right now, there are some matters that we're dealing with that should probably stay internal. My plan is still to meet with Zach here in the near future and see where he's at. We've had some conversations with his agent, but there's been no definitive plan, for sure.
Q: Is it your sense that it perhaps depends on what occurs this summer? What you're able to do in terms of whether he's willing to extend or what happens next season? What do you think that meeting is going be about?
DW: Sure, that plays a part in it, but I think it's more of, you know, do you want to play here, you know, long term? Obviously, we can't get into contracts because he's still got two years left. We just want to get a good sense of where he's at, and we'll see how that goes and take him from there.
Q: Just kind of building on that from a general manager standpoint, going into a draft like this. There are so many trades already happening. I mean, how much easier would it make your job if you had some clarity on that? Like, more clarity right now?
DW: No, it really doesn't affect the draft at all, obviously. You know, we're still trying to make some deals to make our team better. And, you know, that may include draft pick that we have at 14 (overall). 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 on that, and this will play itself out in time.
Q: Speaking of the draft, you had mentioned before – the 14th might be available, or would be available in the right deal. Are you actively shopping that, or are you just kind of listening to offers right now?
DW: More listening. You know, I've told teams that, and a lot of teams have said they want to see what's there at 14, which happens a lot. Where somebody just drops in a draft and somebody's excited about that player. So, very rarely do these picks get traded ahead of time unless you're trading it for players, but on the draft floor, if you're trading at that point, it's because somebody really wants that pick, and then you either take other draft capital or potentially there's a player involved in it.
Q: With the way that the regular season ended, and, obviously, identifying the issues there, do you feel like you've got a good chance to address those things here in the next week or two?
DW: I do, and, you know, and there's a few things that we have to look at internally. I'll talk about Kent Johnson first. You know, he had 24 goals two years ago, had a tough start last year, never got on track. And he stayed here an extra three weeks after the season to work with our strength and conditioning coaches to make sure he was on the right plan, going forward, and, you know, our guys check in every week with all our players, and all the reports so far have been very positive.
And the same goes with the Voronkov. You know, 21 goals (season before last), still at 17 last year, but we think there's a lot more there. So, he has come back from Russia (and) he has been in Connecticut, working with the strength and conditioning coach there. Very well respected (coach). He has been there for the last 10 days, and he's going to stay there until the end of the summer, until he comes here. So, we're gonna have to count on some of our players to (improve). It's one thing if they have never done it before, and we're asking for something that hasn't happened, but in both these cases, we think they've done it, and there's more to give. So that's a start.
Our young players are going to have to continue to take steps up. (Adam) Fantilli took a huge step last year. Second half of the year, I thought he was our best player, the most consistent player. And I know when the season ended, he was probably the most disappointed player in our room, and it's good to see a young player take that on, because he wants to be a leader of this team. Then, a guy like (Denton) Mateychuk went to the world championships, started off playing limited minutes the first few games, and by the end of the tournament, he was playing the most minutes for Team Canada. So, you know, all these young guys continue to grow and take steps. That's part of the solution. It doesn't mean it's all the solution, but it's part of the solution.
Obviously, signing Charlie Coyle was a big one for us, a right-hand shot centerman When the season ended and probably within, you know, a month, I had 6 or 8 calls, to see if I would trade his rights. What he does and how he played, everybody recognized, and certainly if he hit the free-agent market, he'd have done very well for himself. So it was important for us to get that locked up early on. We're still looking. We've got a lot of balls in the air right now, trying to upgrade our forward group and, you know, I'm hoping that ... you know, you never know until deal is done, but (the hope is) that we can make some moves that strengthen our offensive abilities.
(DM: This was an obvious foreshadowing of the Nichushkin deal, in the works at the time.)
Q: Don, as you look at each of the draft picks, do you weigh them as best available player, or is it more situational, and does that change as the rounds move on?
DW: That's a great question. Our scouts are meeting as we speak, and, you know, (I always tell them to) do the order by the best players. And then, when we get into the draft – and I think this is my 22nd draft – you might get to our pick at 14, and it might not be the position that I'm thinking that we really need, you know, and we really like the same player at a different position at 15. So, certainly, the list is built for a reason, but I can tell you in all my years, I don't know if I've ever stuck or we’ve stuck as an organization to just next guy up gets selected.
Q: Is it right that you’re not clamoring for a meeting with Werenski before the draft? To find out exactly where he's at with all of this? Is that an indication, can you say, that you're not planning to trade him this summer? That he'll be here for this coming season, because if that were on the table, you would want to know before the first round goes. Is that (fair to say)?
DW: First of all, and with any of our players right now, I get calls about players. It's my job to take the calls. I'm not making the calls; I take the calls. And I told everybody, regardless of who we're talking about, we're not talking about draft picks at this point, because if we're going to trade any players off our team, we need players. To trade any player for this first-round pick — that sounds good, but it doesn't do any good for us in the next three years. So, I don't think the draft in this particular case has any impact on what we do with them.
Q: I'm saying, beyond the picks, though. Similarly, players are going to be changing teams over the next few days (and won't be available anymore). After the draft, that market may be thinner.
DW: Well, hypothetically, if you're trying to talk about trading the Norris trophy winner, I don't think it'd be the players that are being shopped around right now. It would have to be, uh, you know, these type of players don't get traded too often. So, I think if he hit the market, I think the players that teams aren't shopping, that they like to keep, would be the ones that have to be available if, if we go that direction.
Q: This Werenski situation didn't come up until about a week and a half ago, it seems like, you know, publicly. Did it catch you by surprise at all?
DW: If you go back in years, there have been a lot of players – like (Jack) Eichel, who went to Vegas from Buffalo. There have been a lot of guys that have (asked for trades). 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 by what happens in this league. It's something that we have to deal with, and we'll deal with it.
Q: A year ago, at this point, you guys were in on (Noah) Dobson. It didn't work out. Maybe you tried to do a few other things, didn't work out, and then you re-signed (Dante) Fabbro and Provorov. Does it feel a little similar right now at all with, you know, trying to address the forwards? If it doesn't work out, you know, you could potentially circle back with (Mason) Marchment or...
DW: Yeah, again, I don't want to say never on any players, because, you know, we want to continue to make progress here. And as you said, we signed those guys, I think, on June 30th, the night before free agency. So, we've got a lot of hours, a lot of minutes between now and and the 30th. I don't count days because everything goes so quick right now. We'll see how things transpire in the next three or four days for sure.
(DM: There were reports last night that the Jackets might be circling back on Marchment before he hits the UFA market July 1.)
Q: You have a long history with Team USA, you know a ton of guys there. What the hell happened at the 4-Nations tournament or at the Olympics to cause what I think we've seen across the league? Do you think there's some connection to those players and what we're seeing across the league?
(Disrespected Media: Background at the link directly below:)
Michael Arace
DW: Well, I guess I'd be naive if I said I haven't recognized it, but, you know, when players play together … But remember, a lot of these guys that were talking about all played together in the U.S. program back in, you know, (when they were) 12, 13, 13, 14 (years old). They've been friends for a long time. So, when you come out of the Olympics and you win a gold medal, it's probably a little more emotional then, and, you know, guys sitting around the Olympic Village ... where, you know, they start bragging about the cities you're playing in and their teams. So it's probably human nature that some of this is happening.
Q: When we talked at the end of the season, you had said that you could see a lot of trade action this summer. ... It feels like it's been hectic the last couple days. Has been as... Are you taking more calls than usual? Has it been as hectic for you guys? On the inside, as it seems like it's been on the outside?
DW: Yeah, there has probably been more trades, for various reasons. Some teams were capped. Some teams couldn't sign their own guys. Uh, so the phones are, to answer your question, the phones are busy. You know, we're taking calls. Obviously, we're making calls too. All the deals that have happened, some of them, obviously, we weren't involved in for various reasons. But I wasn't surprised by any of the deals because the names have been shopped out there. I think it's gonna continue for a little bit here as we go through.
It goes all the way to the free agent market that we've talked about for a long time, and, nothing against the players that are UFAs right now, but it's not the high-end classes (like we’ve seen) over the years. And I don't think we'll ever see that again, because there's gonna be so much money in the system, teams are keeping their own players long-term. So I think the days of everybody getting excited about July 1st (are slowly coming to an end). So, that's why teams are making the deals here right now. And then when they recognize they can't sign their own players — whether they have one, two years left — it’s probably better at that time to get the assets you can get and make decisions you need to make.
Q: Don, you've done it before. You got the cap space, you've got, for many layers of salary, the draft pick compensation. If it gets to that point on July 1st, would you consider an offer sheet for the right player?
(Disrespected Media: The background here is that, when Waddell was the GM of the Carolina Hurricanes, he tendered an offer sheet to Montreal Canadiens restricted-free-agent forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the summer of 2021. As is normally the case, the offer sheet was written up to make it difficult to match for salary-cap reasons – and the Canadiens didn't match. Kotkaniemi went to Carolina on a one-year, $6.1-million contract. The move was seen as payback for the Canadiens tendering an offer sheet to budding Carolina star Sebastian Aho in 2019.)
DW: Well, first, we don't have the draft capital for it. Because if you're going to … Well, it depends what level player you're talking, because you start getting over the $5-million (AAV) — I can't remember, it went to $5.4, $5.6 million — it's a first-, a second- and a third-round pick. Yeah. And it’s got to be your own pick, so we don't even have our second round pick in the next three years, so that kind of eliminates that.
So, if you’re going to offer sheet a player that makes $4 million, you just give up a first-round pick, but I don't see that happening. To me, when you make an offer sheet … You know, I've been involved in both sides of it. You're making an offer sheet that you think you can get the player, not to force the other team to pay the player — it’s that you believe you can get the player. So ,if you're offer-sheeting a $4-million player, let's say, there’s a pretty good chance that if they like this player, they're keeping them.
Here's the full conversation.
Q: There's a level that's $11 million-plus. That is four first-round draft picks. I don't know if you want to say you'll be that desperate but if you get to that point, and you've not been able to land help your top six, can you see something like that?
DW: No, no chance. No chance.
Q: Just because of the picks? Is that too much?
DW: Well, the picks, and … You know, we talk about the cap. Let's talk about the cap for a minute. So last year, the cap was $94 (million), and I think we ended up at $92.8 (million) as we picked up (Conor) Garland, Marchment during the year. You know, you want to leave yourself some flexibility. Our cap right now it shows $70 million. We’re going to go through it pretty quick. We've got (pending RFA) Fantilli, who I believe is gonna get a raise. (Pending RFA) Jet Greaves is going to get a raise. And we got (pending RFA Cole Sillinger) who is going to get some raise, too.
So, I've mapped it out where we add one forward at, say, approximately $5 million, and one defenseman someplace in that $2.5 million (range) — (and) we're at $100 million. It's crazy. Everybody thinks it's an endless cap because you've got so much cap space, but when you look at it overall, and you have to sign your own players, it's gonna go fairly quickly. And then one thing you want to do is, of course, is not take yourself right to the cap on the first day of the season, (and not) leave yourself some flexibility.
Q: The word up here in Buffalo is that there's some really high prices going on out on the market. Is that an accurate statement, and has that impacted your ability to potentially make moves?
DW: ... I'm not surprised by it, uh, because, again, moving forward to July 1st is just, everybody knows that if they don't do something in the short term, that July 1st is not a date that you're going to be able to … add some players. Not that top-end guy. So I think that's why you're seeing some of the action right now. And, you know, if you're a team that's selling and have something to sell, you're going to get paid a good price for it. Unfortunately, we're not selling, we're trying to buy.
Q: What's the message to the fan base right now, knowing that there is uncertainty around Zach Werenski, and just everybody kind of wanted to see, like, the positive direction (toward your goal). What gives you the confidence that the team is heading in the right direction, no matter what happens with Zach?
DW: Yeah, well, we took, I believe, steps the last two years, and certainly we haven't gotten where we need to get to yet, and it's making the playoffs. It's my job as the general manager to make sure we fill the needs that we feel like is gonna take us to that next step, regardless of who the players were talking about.
Back up too, with bringing back Rick (Bowness): I think the players I met with at the end of the season all really supported him and gave him a vote of confidence, and 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, and I know he plans because I talk to him every day. And I know as the season gets ready to start, we will be very well prepared in that. So I think that's also a benefit for us with Rick having the whole summer to plan. You know, the goal is to be a better team. Personnel is obviously one thing, and structure, and all that plays a part in it.
And then, you know, the team playing together … We had some games last year where we gave up some leads, especially the first half of the year that … I think we had 10 games (where) we gave up two-goal leads and won three of them. So, you know, those are things that I think the coaching staff and the structure that we put in place for the players is going to be a big step to help. ... Rick and I have talked about a lot this summer, and we will remind the players from day one that the points you get in October count as much as they do in March. So, you know, you've got to be careful. Some games you feel like you come out there without points and you hope, okay, bounce back next game, but those are the games that come back to you at the end of the year and you miss the playoffs by a few points. You look back in the season, like I’ve done many, many times, and you say, ‘Boy, if we just hung on here or won that game, we'd be in a much different spot.’
The week in Discasting
The Reign of Terror reappears to spread gloom before the draft. Enjoy!
The lads are not full of joy.
An excerpt that captures the mood of the Reign:
"I just feel a half measure is coming where they shore up on paper – it's like, look, we got this top six-guy when in reality it's like a middle-six guy, coming off a terrible year. And they miss the playoffs again. And then Zach Werenski leaves."
Can Waddell change their minds? We shall see this weekend.
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Michael Arace
