Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations and GM, Don Waddell, Sits Down with Bob McElligott!
I’m here right now with the Blue Jackets new president of hockey operations and general manager Don woodell and Don first of all welcome to Columbus I mean as a member of the Blue Jackets you’ve been here many many times before how excited are you to start this new role oh it’s exciting you know as I’ve said you when you look at all their opportunities and I when they made a decision to leave you know this was first and foremost you know not only because of the roster with the potential uh players coming in the system how the ownership treats everybody here first class I’ve been in this building lots of time I hate the damn Cannon now I love the damn Cannon um so I want to hear that Cannon go off a lot so you know it’s a very exciting fan base that has supported the team so we got to continue that and make them proud of the Blue Jackets you were a general manager with the Atlanta Thrashers you scouted for the Pittsburgh Penguins you were the president in GM for the Carolina Hurricanes as you come into this job right now what is your message what is your direction that you want to take this franchise in well you know we all talk about culture and culture just doesn’t happen you got to build it through your leadership team but the other thing is I got to make sure we’re all on the same page I’ve never been in an organization where one individual succeeds if the whole organization doesn’t if we succeed as an organization succeed on yce and off yce as a team that’s how everybody’s going to get rewarded so we got to make sure we’re all working the same direction same page you know check your ego at the door let’s go get it done and we’ll figure out which people and hopefully most of them all want to be part of that and continue going forward one of the big questions is obviously the coaching staff because a general manager Works in uh they coordinate with the coaching staff and work hand inand together all year long do you have a relationship with Pascal Vincent do you know him very much or do you need to get to know him and figure out how it’s all going to work yeah I’ve talked to him for three minutes uh so far uh I’ve watched his teams play all that I don’t know him I want to spend time with him find out as a person what kind of person he is and then we’ll talk about hockey you know it’s a two-step process because I just don’t know the person and I want to get to know him and then we talk about hockey what he thinks about C certain situations you know systems all that and you know that that’s why I said I know time everybody’s got time against us but you know we know the draft’s going to happen in June we know free agency is going to happen in July other than that everything else will work it throughout in time so not putting a timetable on it at all yeah and that’s what I was going to ask you what your priorities are as just step in and hit the ground running right away is it that draft that is coming up in just a couple of weeks yeah the good the good thing is I mean it’s almost almost four weeks away so there’s we got the combines next week and I I’ll meet with our senior uh leaders of our scouting team here uh to talk it through so we got some time I like to you know we get down to that last group spend time watching video and you know talking to people so we got time for that more more importantly at the same time is the free agency they they’re right on the heels of each other we got to be ready before uh we go to the draft because there’s going to be a lot of players being shopped at the draft a lot of players uh uh that will become free agents on July 1st so we got to make sure the next 3 4 weeks draft free agency number one priorities here you have some restricted free agents that you have to figure out what you’re going to do with whether to sign or just whatever in general what’s the process like with a restricted guy as opposed to an unrestricted yeah well you know again I’ll sit down with uh JD and Josh and that and go through what what’s the history with the agent and and talk about the players you know we know what the restricted uh some have ARB rights uh some don’t have ARB rights the ones that obviously have ARB rights we got to get a pretty good feeling of where where we see that player in our minds and then talk to the agent and see what he thinks and you know obviously hope hopefully you’re going to be able to reach a deal arbs not fun for anybody um but least we know when of players in RFA one way or another through ARB or negotiations they’re going to remain a blue jacket if uh we want them to and of course with all the experience you have these guys you’re talking to you’ve talked to many times yeah I’ve I’ve done more deals over my years than I can even think about but and and ARB you know the guys no they don’t want to go to ARB either and you know sometimes you go ARB for ridiculous uh short amount of money and you know by the time you get through there and waste everybody’s time and that that you usually especially with the most of the agents you can find a deal that work for both people you know a lot of this Blue Jackets roster just from your time in Carolina with the Hurricanes but have you taken the time to really go over it and start to break it down and and get your opinions or or your thoughts I guess more so than opinions get your thoughts so that you can meet with other people and form those opinions yeah I have lots of thoughts probably not willing to share any yet because I don’t want to uh poison anybody else’s mind I want to I want to hear fresh what people think I don’t want people to think what I think unless that’s what they think you know if they know my opinion ahead of time chance are they may want to jump on uh my what how I’m thinking I want I I want honesty you know and and in your opinion might be completely opposite of M I might be completely wrong you might be completely right so just because you disagree with me or your opinion is different doesn’t mean good or bad for either one of us it’s just but I want your opinion I don’t want fence sitters I hate fence cuz that’s sport a lot of people are fencers I want to know what your thoughts are on player X Y and Z when you come into this situation and you look at the pool of players that you have how excited are you about the talent that is here whether you wind up using that Talent on the ice or whether you use it in a trade to get some other kind of a piece that you need just what you have to work with how much does that excite you well it’s one of the reasons I took this opportunity because like I said if it if I didn’t think there’s any hope I wouldn’t have taken it you know I could have uh chose other place or stayed in Carolina but uh this this opportunity is exciting because of what you just said the pieces that are already here and we just got to continue to build off of that and make the players the younger players that are here make them better obviously injuries is a big Factor last year work on that you know why was that was there a situation that that happened more than it should have happened so those are all things that uh uh I’m excited about that because a lot of those things are fixable very easily I look at the goals against goals against was one of the worst in the East and you know and you you you you tighten that up and you get a few saves here and there I you can knock 40 goals off your goals against pretty easy uh but you have have to everybody playing in the same uh system so those are all things that I’ve looked at hard I yes I’ve looked at the roster hard I’ve looked at uh as much as I could in the last three days it’s been a short time and look forward to continue on with that process since you brought up goals against I’m not going dependent on any one person but the goal tending situation here has been talked about over the course of the last year you know you have several guys there um you know how much have you looked at that is that an area of focus for you early on no it has to be yeah I think you know you you got you know Alvis obviously I I tell the story I tried to trade for him four years ago and I couldn’t get him out of here you know and then we all know what happened with him with his personal life and that so I I think as as an organization and starts with me we have to spend as much time and resources on this player to try to get him back where he is if we do that and it doesn’t work okay we got to turn the page but I can’t leave here right now knowing that we’re having for three more years knowing where he was four years ago and say we didn’t do everything we could have done to make this work that would be a fault by me would Patrick Lan kind of go into that same conversation in a different way because he’s in the NHL program right now but a guy that’s got tremendous Talent has had great years in the past and you’d like to get that back out of him yeah I mean his situation is uh unique and I’m anxious to talk to him at some point um find out where he’s at uh see how he’s doing you know first thing forget about hockey for man we got to find out personally you know how’s life’s going for him because I always say you know you’re going to play hockey for a few years but you’re going to live a long life so um once we do that you know find his feelings and and and see how he feels about where his game is and uh if he can uh help Blue Jackets win more games because he’s a talented player the Cleveland monsters are about to start the Eastern Conference Final in the American Hockey League uh you’ve been there before where your American League team has won championships how valuable is that playoff experience to getting young players ready to play in the NHL the more games you play in a playoff because it’s hard hockey I don’t care what level is is going to help you we had uh Marty Ness and and Charlotte years ago play 27 playoff games and came out next year and took off in the NHL so I truly believe but the bigger thing I believe too is I like to win at that level because winning breeds winning you know once you win a championship I don’t care what level you’re playing at you win a championship there’s nothing no nothing for second and you know you like to surround yourself I always say when you look at your roster and you look at your staff you love to surround yourself with people that have won because there’s nothing like it and uh Missing the playoffs and being satisfied with that just isn’t going to cut it you know so um uh I’m very proud of uh the job they’ve done to get Cleveland to this point and hopefully uh over the next little bit I’ll get a chance down there to see him last thing I want to ask you as you’re getting ready to talk to your new amateur Scouts about the upcoming draft you’ve got the fourth overall pick as it stands right now are you a best player available guy are you a draft by position guy or does it just depend upon the organization where you are and just maybe what happens on that day yeah um first of all I think it’s one of my better days uh that the trade deadline because I think I can think and react on my feet pretty well but I can do that because my team is prepared me for that that moment so I think um it it’s hard to say I you know I always say you got to take the best player but you know you may have player a that uh is a forward and player B that we have ranked you know depending how you know how your rank players right behind them that you might flip-flop at the table you know just might happen but so I always say you got you got to put your order your list in order of Best Player and then sometimes you have to make a decision at the table to bypass the next guy maybe to get the guy after but try to put your order together you know I’m not sure how they do it yet I’ll find out soon uh but I always felt that you have to put your best order together by best player because it also helps you when teams are calling you and trying to make a trade I made a lot of trades on draa draft deadline you know if if our best player we know is three and or four and uh or our best player that we want is uh you four on our list but they’re going to take number seven and we’re going to trade our pick to and trade back you know I mean lots of uh juggling and a lot of uh thinking you got to make into the draft you sound like you enjoy that I love it I love it that’s excuse me I love the draft I love uh love the trade deadline not crazy about July 1 cuz some of the worst decisions in all of hockey are made on July 1 and uh I just want to be a part of that well I know you have a lot of things that you’re doing here as you just get here on day one I really appreciate the time um you know I’ve seen you in passing for 15 years I’m very happy that I get to work with you on an everyday basis now nothing but the best to you and your family and I’m sure we’ll talk again soon great absolutely thank you very much for having me
Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations and GM, Don Waddell, sits down with Bob McElligott for an exclusive one-on-one interview during his first day on the job.
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1 comment
Great content! Can Bob become the TV play by play announcer already?