Werenski wanting to stay with Blue Jackets ‘music to my ears,’ GM says

When Zach Werenski decided to stay, the Columbus Blue Jackets were relieved.

“The end result is, this is what we wanted,” general manager Don Waddell said Thursday. “We didn’t want to have Zach go anywhere. … It was music to my ears.”

Of course, this isn’t really the end of the saga. Werenski has two years left on his contract and can’t sign an extension until July 1, 2027, so some uncertainty remains. We’ll see how the 2026-27 season goes and what happens after that.

But that’s life in the NHL. The business never ends, things are always changing, and teams and players must look out for their best interests.

And the good news for the Blue Jackets is that the reigning winner of the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman has declared that he wants to be in Columbus. Waddell said there has been no miscommunication between the parties or rift in the relationship.

Although there are no guarantees, that’s a good sign.

“Zach’s made it real clear,” Waddell said. “He made it clear to me. He was very passionate yesterday when we met that he wants to be a Blue Jacket, so we’re going to go from there.”

Let’s go back to the beginning.

The Blue Jackets selected Werenski with the No. 8 pick of the 2015 NHL Draft, and he has spent his entire 10-year NHL career with them. He has 465 points (135 goals, 330 assists) in 642 games, first among defensemen in their history.

He and his wife, Odette, got married in Columbus on July 26, 2025. They had their first child, a son named Hudson, there May 6. Columbus is 31/2 hours from their family and offseason home in suburban Detroit.

It wasn’t like Werenski requested a trade. It was Waddell who asked for a meeting, and that was just a get-together to talk about the season and the future, according to the GM.

Werenski expressed uncertainty about the future beyond the two years left on his contract. After making the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his first four seasons, the Blue Jackets have missed them for six straight. Who knows how he’d feel when he was eligible to sign an extension in a year?

Waddell did his due diligence and listened to trade offers. What if a team gave him the best opportunity to recoup value for his best asset? What if Werenski wanted to waive the no-trade clause in his contract to go elsewhere?

Word got out, and naturally, people went nuts. But Waddell said he worked with Werenski and his agent, Judd Moldaver.

“There wasn’t miscommunication between me, him and his agent,” Waddell said. “Nothing against media, but when you get involved sometimes, there’s a lot of speculation of what’s going on. I’ve met with Zach multiple times, obviously talked to his agent many, many times. It wasn’t a situation that we were on different pages by any means as far as working against each other. …

“I think any relationship, if you don’t have communication, that’s where it can go sideways for you. But there’s never been a rift in this negotiation or talks about potentially going someplace else.”

When the Blue Jackets reached an agreement on a trade with the Dallas Stars, the idea of a trade became a real possibility. Waddell said Werenski declined it quickly.

That says something. The Stars have made the playoffs seven times in the past eight seasons, advancing to the third round four times and the Stanley Cup Final once in that span.

“It wasn’t Dallas,” Waddell said. “He just didn’t want to be traded. Obviously, him and his family have been talking about it and thinking about it, and now you get to a point where you have to make a decision. If they hadn’t thought about it, it might have been over the night, through the night and the next day, but I got the answer back. It had to be right around an hour that, no, he wants to be a Blue Jacket.”

Werenski met with Waddell and Blue Jackets director of player personnel Rick Nash on Wednesday.

“I can’t say enough good things about how the conversation went,” Waddell said. “Zach led the conversation and made it real clear he’s committed here. He wants to win here. He wants to play here. So, from that end, it was outstanding.”

Werenski released a statement that said “everything got blown out of proportion."

"I want to win and I want to do that in Columbus,” he said in the statement. "As I’ve thought about things and discussed everything with my wife and family, we want to be in Columbus. It has been my one for the past 10 years and I have always been proud to be a Blue Jacket."

Waddell said the Blue Jackets will do everything they can to keep him if he wants to stay after next season.

Is the clock ticking? In a sense, yes.

But it’s always ticking, isn’t it?

“We all want to win, and winning solves a lot of things,” Waddell said. “I don’t look at it as a ticking clock as much as I do that our goal here is to get in the playoffs. The ultimate goal is always to win the Stanley Cup, but the first step is, you’ve got to get in to win the Stanley Cup, so that’s our focus right now. The contracts, they all come in time when they’re due up. We’re just going to be ready to roll come September.”