Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager Don Waddell Speaks on the First Day of NHL Free Agency
then I saw your press release you answered some of these questions but when you look at what Sean Mahan brings to your lineup in your dressing room what sort of things excite you about that sign well we’ve talked all uh since I’ve been here about uh adding leadership to our group and uh along with leadership add a potential of a top forward and I think we accomplished both in the and being able to sign Sean he’s a you know a first line centerman a great history and and uh you know he also has been he’s wor letters in different places he’s been so I think we’re what we set out to do today we accomplished um how much did it factor in the with his you relationship to to Johnny gdo and in the past in Calgary it’s interesting because uh at 12:02 today Mike priest and I both talked to Sean and you know he said uh clus has been a destination for his all along um you know obviously uh having Johnny here to be able to play with but you know all along he said you know this is a uh a benefit for me to have Johnny here but that’s not why I came here I wanted he’s got a newborn baby he’s heard so much about Columbus and he wants to set up his uh home here and that’s always encouraging to hear it’s I’ve said since I’ve been here that this is a great place to live and you see all the EX players that have come back here which shows it and you got a lot of players that are putting Stakes up here so I think uh there’s a combination but I think most importantly he wanted to be in Columbus you got a couple of really young centers that have started their careers at Center I cylinder and F Tilly how do you envision Monahan fitting into that depth and does this allow you to maybe put Boon Jenner on the wing yeah 100% it gives us a lot of flexibility uh I think you know Sean probably jumps right in that number one spot and then uh you know I think Adam Falls right behind them and then you know whether we keep boing in the middle or uh silly then you know those are great options for us as we move forward you know down the middle is the strength of your hockey team so uh we want to be you know really good and which I think we are really set up to have success uh with that middle you know and then you had curls in there you so I think down the middle we’re going to be very strong uh one of the areas when you look at the roster that you guys were kind of deep in was you know maybe depth defenseman uh Jake beans obviously gone and a couple other guys I think there’s four NHL defensemen on the roster right now um Christensen not not counting him are you looking at maybe adding either through free agency or something else to that or do you kind of feel pretty confident with what else is left in the system um I think we’re very comfortable with what’s in the system you know your check uh you know play games here last year uh had a great run in the playoffs in Cleveland you know we want to make sure we give him an opportunity um yeah we’ll probably add at least one more guy uh to the depth of the team but you know when you got uh you know rensky and uh goody and and Severson and proof right there I mean that’s a pretty good start so um you know at some point when the young players are ready we want to make sure we give them that opportunity you know just because they turn pro doesn’t mean they’re ready to play the but you know in E’s case you know he’s played some games here and he’s played in the American League so I think he deserves an opportunity he he’s got to make you know earn it when he comes to Camp I’m sure your Scouts and development guys have told you about Denton matuk how do you handle him in training camp and is he maybe different than your a che or do you allow for the possibility of him stepping right in you know I watched him in Cleveland in his first game there actually and I was very impressed when he first came up there cuz he’s a very poison uh you can see his hockey senses off the charts and the way he passes the puck is like an NHL player saying that I’m pretty strict about making sure we do the right thing with these young players because you know I’ve seen a lot of young players break in the NHL too quickly and be out of the NHL in three years so we want to make sure we uh handle him right you know we’ll come to camp and we’ll see how uh you know how he looks and how we feel about our team and you know it’s not so bad if he starts the year in the American League but you know saying that you know a lot can happen between now in September uh and we’ll see where we’re at that point uh any update to give on Patrick l uh nothing new I wish I had something to report uh nothing new I continued to uh talk to his representation Andy Scott just about uh you know he’s still in the program and uh you know we keep saying that any day he’s going to be out but uh that’s pretty much my update Don you’ve gotten a lot a lot of work done since Friday has this just been a matter of you just checking the boxes and checking things off your to-do list and and when you when do you get time to to take a breath well like I said you know a couple weeks ago about the coaching search I said you know we’re the only team in the NHL looking for a coach the coaches that are there today are going to be there tomorrow but we know the draft’s coming up we know free agencies coming up those are a priority because we’re not the the League’s not going to let us move the draft cuz I’m not ready for it so we had to make sure we were prepared for it so um yeah it’s been busy it’s going to continue to be busy you know we’re in the midst of starting to interview coaches uh so hopefully um here in the next while we’ll get that resoled again no tight timetable on it uh you know we got Canada day today and July 4th this week so makes it maybe a little difficult for people traveling that but um you know it’s it’s you know the business is good I mean you know there it beats the alternative that’s for sure so there’s nothing wrong with uh staying right here 100 yards from the arena where I live and uh be able to walk to work every day I know you were asked about how big an impact gad’s presence here had on monah Hamp but have you heard from Johnny in the wake of the signing have you already talked to I have not heard yet I think some people are my staff have heard but uh I personally have not heard I’m sure probably being the day I in time I will hear from him but um I think he’s excited in the process of signing Sean uh Curious did the uh the coaching search come up at all I mean I’m sure was that disussed and is that something that maybe other agents if you’re targeting guys they’re going to want to know about it no you know it it it did not particular but uh his agent asked me about it uh today after uh uh I talked to Sean at about 12:30 or so and I what I said before everybody’s read that we’re going to hire an experienced NHL coach some that’s done this before um and that’s what he conveyed to uh Sean you know it’s not going to be a first year NHL coach it’s certainly going to be somebody with NHL experience do they try and get names from you everybody tries to get names from me my wife even tries to get named from me it’s just not happening thank you everybody for coming out here today
Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager Don Waddell speaks to the media after Day 1 of NHL free agency.
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1 comment
I'm so excited to see my favorite Monsters player get a two way contract! ❤