Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell Talks 2025 NHL Combine & Offseason Updates

The Columbus Blue Jackets are in full offseason mode. For GM Don Waddell, it means early mornings and some potentially late nights.

Given what all the team wants to do between the upcoming NHL Combine, NHL Draft and free agency, the Blue Jackets are putting in long days and nights to ensure they are as ready as possible to tackle everything about to come.

For Waddell, he gets to his office at Nationwide Arena at 4:30 every morning. Given that the Blue Jackets will be holding their amateur scouting meetings next week and then their pro meetings the week after, every moment of time is precious to cover as much ground as possible.

One person currently absent from the proceedings within Nationwide Arena is head coach Dean Evason. He’s with Team Canada at the Men’s World Championships. They’re about to play in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Thanks to their schedules, Waddell and Evason haven’t met or seen each other since the start of the World Championships. When the news came down that Evason would be the head coach for Team Canada, Waddell was in Frisco, TX at the U-18 tournament scouting. Some talks and discussions on pending free agents among other things will take place when Evason returns from the tournament.

Meanwhile, Waddell is busy not only preparing for the meat of the offseason, he’s in the midst of starting the process of deciding who to hire for certain positions including a Strength & Conditioning Coach, a Video Coach and perhaps an Assistant Athletic Trainer.

“I probably have 300 resumes for the different positions we have opened downstairs,” Waddell said. “How I handle these things is just like I did last year. I talked to a lot of people, try to get all the background I can. Because once I start the process, I don’t want the process to be a month long. I want the process to be a week long. Then I’ll narrow down the people I want to talk to after I’ve done all my homework on them and then interview people either by phone or by Zoom. And then, if we find the right candidate, we’ll move forward.”

NHL Combine

The 2025 NHL Combine starts on June 1 at Buffalo’s Harborcenter and will last through June 7 when the prospects complete the bulk of their fitness testing. The Blue Jackets already know their daily schedule for the week and who will be in the room helping interview the prospects.

Waddell said they will meet with prospects on Tuesday that week from 9:10 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. with just one 45 minute lunch break built in. On that Wednesday, they’ll go from 10:00 A.M. until 5:25 P.M. Besides Waddell, Rick Nash, Trevor Timmins and Ville Siren will be in the room talking with the prospects at different points.

Waddell likes to keep the number of staff in the room down during those interviews. He doesn’t believe in having a large crowd. He wants to make the prospects as comfortable as possible.

“Some teams will have 8-10 guys there and I just don’t believe in that,” Waddell said. “We’ll have three or four. Actually, we’ll have four for a couple of days but only three for a few of the days. You walk into a large group, it’s a little intimidating. I can remember when I first started, we’d have 7-8 guys here. I learned real quickly that you don’t need that many people there. I think you want to make the players, these are young men, make them feel comfortable, not intimidated.”