The Columbus Blue Jackets have their new general manager (GM). Don Waddell has almost 40 years of experience managing hockey teams in various leagues. He’s been in the NHL since 1997-98 when he was an assistant general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. He spent one season there – winning a Stanley Cup – before taking on the reins as GM of the expansion Atlanta Thrashers. He guided the franchise through its entire tenure in Georgia, opting not to move with it to Winnipeg in 2011.
Waddell took on a scouting role with the Pittsburgh Penguins for a few seasons before moving to North Carolina to become the president of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2014-15. He replaced Ron Francis as GM in 2018-19 and has since led the team to the third most wins in the NHL (278) only behind the Boston Bruins (289) and Tampa Bay Lightning (283). He stepped down as GM in Carolina on May 24, and was picked up by the Blue Jackets as president and GM four days later. In his time as a GM, he’s been unafraid to swing for the fences, making lots of trades and drafting lots of players. Let’s have a look at some of his best moves.
Getting a First-Round Pick to Buy Out Patrick Marleau
With the Hurricanes in 2019, Waddell showed the ability and willingness to turn his salary cap space into assets. The perpetually cap-strapped Toronto Maple Leafs had gotten into a pickle with an inflated average annual value (AAV) on 39-year-old Patrick Marleau. Nothing against Marleau, but at that age, he was certainly not punching at the weight class of a $6.25 million player. The Maple Leafs were looking for a team to offload the veteran to and would be paying a premium to do so. Enter Waddell and the Hurricanes.
They traded a sixth-round pick to the Maple Leafs for Marleau, a first-round pick in 2020, and a seventh-round pick. Then they promptly bought him out, effectively eating a cap penalty to net a first and seventh-round pick. While the seventh-rounder didn’t go anywhere, the first-round pick wound up being 13th overall and with that pick, Carolina drafted Seth Jarvis. This past season was a breakout one for Jarvis scoring 33 goals and 67 points and the 22-year-old is looking like a core piece to the future of their team. He wouldn’t be there without a risky move from Waddell and his team.
Hiring Rod Brind’Amour as Hurricanes’ Head Coach
One of the first things Waddell did when he took over as GM of the Hurricanes was make a change in the head coaching position. Bill Peters had been the bench boss for several seasons with little success. In four campaigns with no playoffs and never winning more than 36 games in a season, he was shown the door and Waddell replaced him with their assistant coach and a franchise legend as a player, Rod Brind’Amour.
It was an instant improvement for the club, making the playoffs and winning their way into the Eastern Conference Final in Brind’Amour’s first season. On the whole, he has led the team to the playoffs in each of his six seasons as head coach and won seven playoff series in that time. In Carolina, Waddell showed the importance of a good head coach and that he was willing to make a change so soon after being hired.
Trading Dany Heatley for Marian Hossa
During the 2004-05 lockout, Waddell and his Thrashers had a tough decision to make around Dany Heatley. Before the 2003-04 season, their young star had been driving his Ferrari and smashed into a brick and wrought-iron fence. The collision ejected him and teammate Dan Snyder from the vehicle, resulting in the tragic loss of the life of Snyder. Heatley spent the early part of that season recovering and returned to play 31 games.
Related: The Marian Hossa for Dany Heatley Trade, Revisited
Then the lockout hit and everyone missed an entire season. Heatley went to play overseas in Switzerland and Russia and returned with a desire to be traded from Atlanta in the hopes of a fresh start. Waddell accommodated the request and shipped Heatley to the Ottawa Senators for Marian Hossa and Greg de Vries.
The trade paid off for pretty much everyone involved. Heatley got the fresh start he needed, scoring 50 goals in each of the next two seasons and 362 points in 317 games overall. de Vries was a short-term player for the Thrashers, scoring 35 and 24 points in a depth role in two seasons. Hossa was a leader on the Thrashers offensively in three seasons, including a 100-point campaign, forming an impressive offensive triumvirate with Vyacheslav Kozlov and Ilya Kovalchuk. Hossa’s production wasn’t far off Heatley’s, with 248 points in 222 games in Atlanta. Waddell made the best of a bad situation finding good value for one of their young players asking for a change of scenery.
Honorable Mentions
- Drafting Tobias Enstrom 239th overall
- Trading Ruslan Zaynullin for Marc Savard from the Calgary Flames
- Trading for Vyacheslav Kozlov from the Buffalo Sabres
- Trading for Brady Skjei from the New York Rangers
That’s just a few of the best decisions in 20 years of work by the Blue Jackets’ new GM. Of course, not every decision he’s made has been a home run, so I’ll be putting out another article covering some of his missteps. What is clear for the Blue Jackets is that with Waddell’s extensive managerial experience in the NHL, there are few situations for which he will be unprepared.
