Don Waddell, the Blue Jackets’ new president of hockey operations and general manager, to the local media in a club area of Nationwide Arena Wednesday afternoon. The first impressions of the man jibed with his reputation. He was comfortable, composed and about as candid as he could be on his first full day on the job.
In other words, Waddell doesn’t have all the answers. Shoot, at this point, he doesn’t even know all the questions.
What Waddell knows for sure is the dates for the draft (June 28-29) and the opening of free agency (July 1). The dates define his immediate duties. , he will study.
Will he hire a GM to work under him? Probably, but not for a year or more. Will he retain coach ? That question cannot be answered until he gets to know, and has some meaningful back-and-forth with, Vincent. What are his thoughts on the roster? He sees the talent that has been collected and hints that a careful infusion of veterans who are experienced in winning ways could help now and in the future.
“There’s no timetable on any decision with anyone on our staff,” Waddell said.
He also said, “Previous management did . It’s not like this is an organization that’s going to take a long time to fix. We’ll make strategic moves but also moves that are going to make our hockey club not just better today, but for the future. There are a lot of smart hockey people in this organization, and we’ll count on everyone. As we make decisions as a group, we’ll get this figured out and make everyone here in Columbus proud of the Blue Jackets.”
The team’s three previous GMs – Doug MacLean, Scott Howson and Jarmo Kekalainen – were all first-time NHL GMs when they were hiredmaple leafs de toronto calendrier. Neither MacLean nor Howson got another GM job after getting fired in Columbus, and we shall see about Kekalainen.
, who relinquished his president of hockey ops title to facilitate the signing of Waddell, is a longtime executive whose only experience as a GM carried an interim tag. While he remains with the Blue Jackets as a “senior advisor,” it’s safe to say his GM career is over after 15 weeks.
When a final account of Davidson’s time in Columbus is written, his legacy will hinge on the hiring of Waddell. It is the bet of Davidson, and of team president Mike Priest, that they have found the man to steer the organization into the playoffs with regularity, and to aspire to even greater things.
Waddell is the most weathered GM to ever come aboard in Columbus. While he has experience as a president of business operations as well as hockey ops, he is known as a GM. He has held the latter title with the old Atlanta Thrashers and in his most recent post with the Carolina Hurricanes. He has been running hockey departments on and off since 1998.
Waddell built a Stanley Cup contender in Raleigh. Yet, he said, he and his wife Cheryl had “for a year” discussed moving on from Carolina. Much of his time there was spent negotiating with local authorities about renovations to PNC Arena and the surrounding area. He said the opportunity to focus on “strictly hockey” is something that fires his passion.
Asked what excites him most, he said, “The players that are currently on the roster and knowing how this organization runs and everyone that’s been here (for a while). … There’s no excuse from an ownership standpoint. They give you all the tools and resources to make it work. And that’s a driver, too.
“We’ve been here since 11 o’clock (a.m.), and the things that we’ve seen in less than two hours on how they do things – it’s just mind-boggling, because I’m not used to that. The combination of knowing that we can win and how everybody feels about this organization … people don’t stay if it’s not a good organization. So, to me, you’ve got too many good things heretoronto maple leafs custom jerseys tonight. We’ve just got to go make it happen.”
Take the conn, sir. Wrap your callused hands around the wheel. Steer this thing to respectability if you can.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch:
ccm ontario
0 Comments