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Blue Jackets Name Don Waddell GM, President Of Hockey Operations

May 28, 2024 at 1:02 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 11 Comments

May 28: The Blue Jackets have signed Waddell to a multi-year deal to become the team’s GM, alternate governor and president of hockey operations, the team announced Tuesday. Interim GM John Davidson, who’s been the team’s POHO since 2021, is being transitioned into a senior advisory role.

May 25: After a search that has lasted more than three months, it appears that the Blue Jackets have zeroed in on their executive of choice to take over the front office.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Don Waddell is their choice to take over the top job in hockey operations.  No agreement is in place as of yet with LeBrun suggesting that if all goes well, an announcement could be made next week.  Aaron Portzline of The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the announcement could come on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The timing of this report doesn’t come as much surprise with Waddell having resigned from Carolina on Friday, less than 24 hours after reports emerged that he had been granted permission to speak to other teams.  Generally speaking, you don’t make that type of move without having another job in place and the vacancy in Columbus is the only one in the league so it makes sense that they’re expected to reach an agreement.

Assuming everything goes well and the contract is finalized, Waddell will be tasked with reshaping a Columbus franchise that hasn’t had much success in recent years under former GM Jarmo Kekalainen.

The Blue Jackets have missed the playoffs in four straight seasons, entering an unplanned rebuild in the process.  Kekalainen attempted to accelerate that with the additions of Johnny Gaudreau, Ivan Provorov, and Damon Severson in the last couple of years but Columbus wound up finishing last in the Metropolitan Division each time with the team struggling considerably in all three facets – offense, defense, and goaltending.

However, they do have a quality young core group to work with.  Up front, Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, Dmitri Voronkov, Kirill Marchenko, Owen Sillinger, and Yegor Chinakhov have all has some success in the NHL already and are aged 23 or younger.  On the back end, David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk give them some quality options to work within what has become somewhat of a veteran defensive group.  They’ll also add a key piece of the future next month with the fourth-overall selection.  That’s certainly a solid foundation to try to build off of.

One of the first decisions that Waddell will need to make when the hire is made official is on the fate of the coaching staff.  The Blue Jackets have technically gone through four head coaches in the last four years with Pascal Vincent taking on the job late in the offseason before Mike Babcock had even coached a single game.  Will Waddell want to bring in his own choice and make it five bench bosses in five years or will he let Vincent – who is entering the final year of his contract – stick around?

Assuming this hire is made official, it will be a significant change of direction for what Columbus has previously done in management.  Their previous three general managers in franchise history – Doug MacLean, Scott Howson, and Kekalainen – were all first-time hires.  That certainly isn’t the case with Waddell who has 18 years of GM experience – a dozen with Atlanta and six with Carolina – on top of holding other senior titles as well.  There shouldn’t be any sort of learning curve for him as there was for the others.

In his resignation from Carolina, Waddell indicated that the time had come to move on to the next chapter of his career.  That next chapter will be another Metropolitan Division team with Waddell having some work to do to get the Blue Jackets back on track.

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Columbus Blue Jackets| Newsstand Don Waddell

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View Comments (11)

Comments

  1. Fun for all

    1 year ago

    Interesting move for Carolina and don

    2
    Reply
    • LGR

      1 year ago

      Its Not surprising.. He reached the end of the road with all those years especially being All in during the trade deadline. Ownership wanted to keep Brind’Amore and he probably told it might be coming. Same exact happened to Jim Rutherford.. Left Pitt and went to Vancouver in same role. After so many years with same results something had to happened. Seems fresh start for him in Columbus.

      Reply
  2. uvmfiji

    1 year ago

    Kotkaniemi contract. Should’ve locked up skjei a year ago. Necas has all time low trade value. No goalie that can win us a cup. Whether it’s Dundon meddling, only the guentzel trade was significant. Luckily we have contracts that can come off the books. I saw Turbo and Pesce available for curbside pickup

    1
    Reply
    • A. Judge

      1 year ago

      Agree on Kotkaniemi, who’s been a bust from his first skate. Necas still has value and will fetch some quality draft picks. But it was time for a philosophical change.

      Reply
  3. kscheer

    1 year ago

    Pascal Vincent immediately blasted into the sun.

    6
    Reply
  4. Daniel Genest

    1 year ago

    Saved by Waddell! I tought it would be Bergevin

    An other win of Waddell on Bergevin

    1
    Reply
    • A. Judge

      1 year ago

      LOL Bergie ate Waddell’s lunch. Don’t try to suggest Kotkaniemi hasn’t been a complete failure and was worth the contract he got. Will likely get bought out soon. The guy Bergevin turned and got with the 1st has been better and at a lower financial cost.

      Reply
  5. thegreatgoodbye

    1 year ago

    So what does JD do? Wasn’t he fully involved in the trade deadline per the YouTube series? Does JD just do whatever Waddel says or are they co-GMs?

    Reply
    • Josh Erickson

      1 year ago

      Kekalainen was canned a month before the deadline… Davidson was interim GM at that time and would have taken on his duties temporarily. Assuming he’ll just shift back to his oversight role when Waddell is announced

      Reply
  6. Johnny Z

    1 year ago

    According to reports on a couple of Jackets blogs, John Davidson is going to retire with Waddell taking over as president of hockey operations and, temporarily, general manager.

    2
    Reply
  7. Gbear

    1 year ago

    Don’t forget about Gavin Brindley in the Jackets pipeline. Gonna be a good one.

    Reply

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