On Sunday, hockey fans watched as the Carolina Hurricanes hoisted the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history, cementing their names on the iconic trophy for decades to come.
And while this is certainly a time for the Canes to celebrate, there is a major Blue Jackets connection to the new champs.
CBJ general manager Don Waddell may have spent the past two years in Columbus, but before venturing to Ohio, he worked for a decade with Carolina, helping build a team worthy of the greatest trophy in sports. Now, he brings that experience to the Blue Jackets as he aims to snap their six-year playoff drought, with the 2026 NHL Draft and free agency right around the corner.
READ MORE: Waddell staying busy as draft, free agency near
Waddell could’ve called it quits when he wrapped up his time with the Canes. He earned a Cup as an assistant GM in Detroit, managed teams spanning from the IHL to the international level and worked with hockey greats. But when Columbus called, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
In many ways, the foundation is similar to what he inherited when he took over as general manager in 2018 in Carolina. There’s a Norris Trophy winner in defenseman Zach Werenski, top picks in such players as Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson and Denton Mateychuk, and a passionate fanbase eager for success.
After two seasons at the helm that fell just short, Waddell hopes to complete the puzzle and get Columbus back into the postseason.
Building A Team
Waddell is no stranger to success. Throughout his career, he’s taken away two key lessons: stay grounded and don’t make decisions based on emotions. Waddell prefers to understand his organization. He prioritizes speaking with the players and coaches about their families and lives outside of the rink, as he too was in their shoes at one point.
But he knows that his job also comes with making the hard decisions.
“I always say, ‘I never do anything for Don Waddell.’ Whatever I do is going to be in the best interest of the Columbus Blue Jackets,” Waddell said.
It was the same in Carolina, where Waddell worked around a core featuring such names as Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal and Jaccob Slavin to build assets in draft picks and search out the guys fitting the vision. After going from team president to general manager, his first draft pick was forward Andrei Svechnikov at second overall in 2018, and Waddell became a Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year finalist in the 2018-19 season as Carolina made the Eastern Conference final.
But his 2018-19 season wasn’t his lone point of success. Waddell also drafted forward Seth Jarvis at 13th overall in the 2020 draft and Jackson Blake in the fourth round in 2021; both would become key contributors up front for the Hurricanes' Cup run. In 2021, he signed free agent goaltender Frederik Andersen, who started nearly every game for Carolina this postseason; Jordan Martinook and Jalen Chatfield also proved to be shrewd acquisitions who played in every playoff game this year.
In his six years as GM in Carolina, Waddell delivered a playoff berth every season, flipping the switch the Canes were desperate to make after nine seasons without playoff hockey. Now in the past eight years, no team has won more regular season and playoff games.
“It's exciting to watch (the Hurricanes), because I feel really good about the work we did,” Waddell said. “It's a funny business because usually when you take over as a GM, there's reasons why there's changes and you got a lot of work to do. What I feel good about is I left them in pretty good hands.”
The Next Step
Parallels are now being seen with Columbus.
Waddell knew he had a good group to work with, a young team knocking on the door to the postseason. He’s only been in Ohio a short time, but from the beginning, Waddell put his trust in not just his own experiences, but the guys in front of him.
“We got a lot of good pieces here, but saying that, you always have to try to make your team better. That's my job is try to make our team better,” Waddell said. “It's never to hurt anybody. I don't sign, re-sign or trade a guy because I don't like them, I do it because I think it's best for the organization, and to me it's a giant jigsaw puzzle. Every piece has to fit to be able to be the team you want to be.”
Through much of his first season at the helm, Waddell evaluated what he had, a job made easier by a resurgent CBJ team that jumped 23 points in the standings and nearly made the playoffs. He was more aggressive in his second season, adding forwards Charlie Coyle, Miles Wood, Mason Marchment and Conor Garland through trades and bringing in Rick Bowness as head coach midway through the campaign.
Bowness signed an extension at the beginning of the summer and was heavily cited throughout Coyle’s press conference discussing why he desired to remain in Columbus long-term.
“Having (Bowness) back there give me a lot of opportunity,” Coyle said May 12. “I felt very valued this year. I felt that I was very, very important to this team, playing in every situation, no matter what happens, if there's penalties, penalty kill, a power play, playing some good minutes, too. That's what every hockey player wants. You want to be relied upon and play. And I felt very valued, which I think helped my game elevate a little more, too.”
It’s only been two years since Waddell seized the reigns. But his 35-plus years of experience in a managerial position is being put on full display – both with what he did in Carolina and what he’s now doing with the Blue Jackets.
“Character comes into it, work, determination, passion for the guys playing, because I've had a lot of players over the years that like to play, but probably like the paycheck more than they did the passion,” Waddell said on what he looks for when building a team. “And you want to make sure that you got everybody rowing in the same direction.”
Doing It In Columbus
One thing that Waddell had learned over the years is that when picking the right guys for the team, they must want to be there. And that even rings true for guys like himself.
“My last game in Carolina before we started the playoffs (in 2024), we played our last game here (in Columbus),” Waddell said. “I think Columbus won 6-1 or something like that, but what really impressed me was the building was sold out. The fans gave the players a standing ovation, and now, they had been out of the playoffs since November.
“And you know, I said to (Carolina coach) Rod Brind’Amour on the bus, ‘Can you believe that these guys been out of the playoffs, sold out crowd,’ and that stuck with me.”
He announced his resignation not long after, receiving calls from various teams in search of a new GM. And when he stopped in Ohio for his first of three interviews with teams, he never left.
Waddell now looks for that same commitment from his staff, coaches and players to collectively deliver the Blue Jackets’ first Cup in franchise history.
As the offseason begins, piece by piece, he’ll look to fill those holes that are necessary to sail into the postseason. And if history tends to repeat itself, the summer will soon be kicked off with some playoff hockey.
