The pieces brought in aren't working, and Waddell has tied his own hands.
Lets fast-forward to today's Blue Jackets roster, and go through the list of players Waddell has acquired. We'll do this in order of their most recent lineup, from top to bottom.
On the top line last night were Matthew Knies, Adam Fantilli, and Kent Johnson. Knies is the only player acquired by Waddell out of that trio, and he wasn't a player this organization went out and pinned as a must-have. He's a band-aid, acquired to replace Kirill Marchenko, who said he would not stick around with the team beyond this season. That's another issue entirely...
Two thirds of the second line were Waddel acquisitions. He traded three draft picks for 31-year-old Valeri Nichushkin, who has 9 points so far this season. Also on this line is 32-year-old Sean Monahan, who has 7 points and has not scored a goal since opening night. Joining them is Voronkov, who hasn't been given enough of a leash to really do anything but work on his cardio this year.
The third line features two players Waddell inherited (Cole Sillinger and Mathieu Olivier), as well as one he paid a hefty price to acquire: Charlie Coyle. Coyle has been a revelation for this team, and currently sits third in scoring with 10 points. That's great, but he's also 34 years old, and at some point, he will start slowing down.
The entire fourth line last night, was players this team picked up under Waddell. We have 31-year-old Ryan Lomberg (signed as a UFA), 24-year-old Jack Williams (hey, a youngster!-also signed as a UFA, out of college) and 30-year-old Steven Lorentz (acquired in the Knies deal).
There are two other names up front that we have to mention, both on the injured reserve list right now. Isac Lundestrom was signed as a UFA in the summer of 2025, and Conor Garland was acquired ahead of the trade deadline last season. The latter may very well have the worst contract in the NHL right now.
On defense, we can only credit Waddell with one player. He picked Dante Fabbro up off of waivers from the Nashville Predators. Finally, in goal, he signed Cam Talbot to a UFA contract just before this season.
Of course, he's also tried other things. He signed James van Riemsdyk in 2024, and acquired Mason Marchment last year to try to boost his offense. Neither of them were retained after their single stint here.
Still with me? Good, because here is where the conversation gets really interesting. What is the common theme out of all of those names I just mentioned?
As a reminder, here is the list of players brought in by Waddell: van Riemsdyk, Marchment, Knies, Nichushkin, Monahan, Coyle, Lomberg, Williams, Lorentz, Lundestrom, Garland, Fabbro, Talbot.
The common theme? Aside from Knies, Williams, and obviously Talbot (he's a goalie): all of these guys are old, slowing down, and mostly low-event. There is only one potential top line piece here (Knies), and he just went 16 games without a goal. Part of that is due to the fact that the rest of the roster is mostly devoid of any scoring talent.
No meaningful impact to the roster.
The point we're trying to make here: now almost three years into the gig, Waddell has only touched around the edges of this roster. The only time a core player has been moved, is when he's traded them the other way. He has played things too safe, acted too timidly; and as a result, this team directly reflects his leadership.
After all, can you use better adjectives to describe their play on the ice? Safe, timid, and low event. This is probably the best way to describe the Don Waddell-led Columbus Blue Jackets. From the top down, this team is boring, and once again afraid to do anything about it.
Worse, they already have almost $90 million dollars committed to the cap next season-a number that does not include Denton Mateychuk or their current leading scorer, Kent Johnson. Those two alone will take up most of the rest of their space, which leaves us wondering: how many years is this team in the dumps this time around?
It won't matter, because we all know how this is about to turn out. The team will enter a rebuild, and the GM won't survive it. They'll hire the wrong guy to replace him, and we can do it all over again.
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