That’s the ethos for Waddell as he tries to help the Blue Jackets get over the hump and back into the postseason after two years of falling just short. It’s the time of year when most of the offseason moves get made – the NHL draft begins tomorrow and free agency on Wednesday – and Waddell is trying to balance the present and future at the same time.
The Blue Jackets – and just about everyone in the NHL – have cap space, and deals for a bevy of the team’s young core are coming due in the near future, including Adam Fantilli, Jet Greaves and Cole Sillinger this offseason. At the same time, Waddell knows a team that has been in the mix for the postseason the past two years needs a few more pieces, especially with such players as Boone Jenner, Erik Gudbranson and Mason Marchment set to hit free agency.
It’s a time to consider all potential moves, including listening to offers for the team’s first-round pick (No. 14 overall) in Friday’s draft, and Waddell still has the same aim now as he did when the team dispersed in April. The goal isn’t to add draft picks for the future but to acquire pieces to help the Blue Jackets win games in the near term.
“We’re still trying to make some deals to make our team better,” Waddell said. “That may include (moving) the draft pick 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 at that.”
Perhaps the biggest area of focus is up front, where the Blue Jackets have been up and down the past two seasons. Bolstered by a burgeoning young core of forwards, Columbus set a team record with 267 goals in 2024-25 while tying for seventh in the league in scoring (3.26 goals per game). But last year’s squad tied for 18th at 3.00 tallies per game and had just 24 goals in the 3-9-1 finish to the campaign that ended its playoff hopes.
Weeks after telling BlueJackets.com he hoped to add a top-nine forward to the unit, Waddell reiterated that point Wednesday.
“We’re still looking,” he said. “We have a lot of balls in the air right now with trying to upgrade our forward group. You never know until a deal is done, but I’m hoping that we can make some moves that strengthen our offensive abilities.”
Some of that help should also come from within as such players as Fantilli, Sillinger, Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson and Dmitri Voronkov continue to find consistency. On Thursday, Waddell praised the growth of Fantilli a season ago after he posted a career-high 59 points, and he also noted the early offseason returns on Johnson and Voronkov have been good.
The two combined for 47 goals two seasons ago but just 24 last year, and both were healthy scratches at times down the stretch, so getting those two players back to their previous production remains key. Waddell said Johnson stayed in Columbus for three weeks after the season to work with the team’s strength and conditioning staff, while Voronkov is spending the offseason training in Connecticut rather than returning to his native Russia.
“We have to count some of our players, too,” Waddell said. “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.”
Two of the biggest things on Waddell’s offseason checklist have been accomplished, as the return of Rick Bowness behind the bench and the six-year contract signed by Charlie Coyle have provided some stability.
Coyle was set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer but opted to lock himself in with the Blue Jackets, leaving Jenner, Gudbranson, Marchment and Danton Heinen as the four main CBJ players set to hit the open market.
A year ago, Waddell was in a similar situation with his defensive corps, with Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro on expiring contracts before each signed long-term deals with the team just before free agency began.
“I don’t want to say never on any players because we want to continue to make progress here,” Waddell said. “We signed those guys on, I think, on June 30, the night before free agency. We have a lot of hours, a lot of minutes between now and June 30. ... We’ll see how things transpire here in the next three or four days.”
Also on the defensive corps, Waddell addressed chatter around Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Zach Werenski, who is two years away from hitting free agency. The Blue Jackets cannot negotiate a new contract with him until next summer, but Waddell said he has had some recent discussions with Werenski’s agent on the defenseman's thoughts about the potential of staying in Columbus after 2027-28.
Waddell said he preferred to keep discussions around the situation internal and that he hopes to talk with Werenski in the days ahead to find out more clarity about his long-term hopes.
"My plan is still to meet with Zach here in the near future and see where he's at,” Waddell said. “Just want to get a good sense of where he's at, and we'll see how that goes, and take it from there."
The last two seasons have offered promise – the Blue Jackets added 23 points to the ledger two years ago and three more a season ago – but also heartbreak in the end. The goal over the coming days is to keep pushing the team forward with an eye of getting back into the playoffs and continuing to build what’s been started the past few years.
“We took, I believe, steps the last two years,” Waddell said. “Certainly, we haven’t gotten where we need to get to, and it’s making the playoffs. It's my job as the general manager to make sure we fit the needs and fill the needs that we feel like is going to take us that next step.”
