As Waddell noted in Wednesday’s statement, he and Werenski met earlier this spring to discuss the defenseman’s future past his current contract, which has two years left, and that Werenski "wasn’t sure what the future would hold with regards to staying with the club or possibly moving on.” Waddell acknowledged that after discussions with GMs, he took a potential trade to Werenski earlier this week, but the response “within an hour” was that he wasn't interested in the deal.
Yesterday, the sides continued to meet, where Werenski confirmed that he wanted to stick with the Blue Jackets.
“His mood yesterday was outstanding,” Waddell said. “I can’t say enough about how the conversation went. Zach led the conversation and made it clear that he’s committed here. He wants to win here, he wants to play here, so from that end, it was outstanding.”
In his statement, Werenski said, "I want to win and I want to do that in Columbus. As I’ve thought about things and discussed everything with my wife and family, we want to be in Columbus. It has been my home for the past 10 years and I have always been proud to be a Blue Jacket. We have the best fans in the NHL. I love my teammates and coaches and I’m looking forward to doing everything I can to get us back in the playoffs to compete for a Stanley Cup. Don and I are completely aligned on that and are excited about what’s to come with our team."
When it comes to other offseason topics, Waddell noted that he’s also had conversations with the agent of Kirill Marchenko, who has a year left on his deal before reaching RFA status, and that the team’s leading scorer among forwards the past two seasons is “going to be a Blue Jacket when the season starts.”
Those two CBJ standouts will be joined by some new faces when the season begins, including Nichushkin, who was acquired last week for draft picks. The 2022 Stanley Cup winner with Colorado has been one of the NHL’s top power forwards in recent years, with the 6-4, 210-pounder averaging 31 goals, 37 assists and 68 points per 82 games over the past five seasons with the Avalanche. He’s also one of the league’s top penalty-killing forwards and has received votes for the Selke Trophy four times.
Waddell said that as the Blue Jackets looked to make moves this offseason, the 31-year-old Nichushkin – who has four years left on his contract at a $6.125 million cap hit – was a prime target.
“We really wanted to add a bigger forward,” Waddell said. “He’s 6-foot-4, fast, a great penalty killer, can play on the power play, and the size was important to us. We sometimes feel like we’re a little small up front, so adding the size, and then the other part is the contract. It’s four years at a real manageable number. We all see what happened yesterday with some of the term and where the money went, so we felt real good about adding that.”
The Blue Jackets inked Lomberg to a two-year, $1.3 million AAV deal to add another Stanley Cup winner (2024, Florida) to the locker room. The 31-year-old forward has 35 goals and 72 points over eight NHL seasons with Calgary and Florida, but Lomberg brings energy to the bottom six with five straight seasons of 100-plus hits, 12 fights the past two campaigns, and a top skating speed last year of 22.87 mph that placed in the 81st percentile of NHL forwards.
One of those fights in late 2024 was against CBJ forward Mathieu Olivier, and the 5-9, 184-pound Lomberg didn’t hesitate to take it despite giving up plenty of size. To Waddell, adding another physical player who brings plenty of juice to serve as a sidekick to Olivier was an offseason desire.
“Energy player,” Waddell said of Lomberg. “Skates like the wind, likes to play physical, likes to mix it up a little bit, so it’s nice to have some support there for Olivier.”
Another focus was adding leadership and locker room presence, in part because the Blue Jackets had to say goodbye to their longtime captain Jenner – who signed a long-term deal with Washington that didn’t fit into the CBJ salary structure – as well as the youth on the team roster. The Blue Jackets are riding a six-season streak without playoff hockey, but Nichushkin and Lomberg will both be able to add championship rings to the room.
“It’s always a bonus,” Waddell said. “I’ve said, once you’ve won the Cup, there’s nothing like it. ... It’s an added bonus to what they bring in the locker room.”
Waddell also told the media that the team is planning to re-sign defenseman Erik Gudbranson, who has spent the past four seasons with the Blue Jackets, posting eight goals and 46 points over 201 games while battling injury the past two years. The 15-year veteran and team alternate captain will continue to add a physical presence on the CBJ back end.
“We knew he wanted to come back here,” Waddell said. “He finished his season very strong and is healthy. He’s been in the gym every day. He had two really freak injuries, but the physicality that he has, we don’t have that on the blue line. We have a lot of puck movers ... so to have somebody back there with that physicality we felt was very important.”
The Blue Jackets inked Copley to a one-year deal to provide goaltending depth, as the 34-year-old has played 78 NHL games over eight seasons, while signing Cleveland (AHL) forwards Riley Bezeau and Owen Sillinger to two-way contracts.
One can never say never when it comes to any further moves to impact the NHL roster, but Waddell said one of the next big orders of business will be to sign restricted free agents Adam Fantilli, Cole Sillinger and Jet Greaves. All three are due new contracts and will take up the bulk of the team’s remaining salary cap, and Waddell noted that while he doesn’t expect any offer sheets from other teams, the Blue Jackets are prepared to match anything that might be thrown at them.
“They'll be signed before we start playing,” Waddell said. “I guarantee you that.”
