Blue Jackets’ Waddell Talks Upcoming NHL Draft & Free Agency

The Columbus Blue Jackets are in the midst of an intense busy stretch of their offseason. They now enter the week of the 2024 NHL Draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Then come the following Monday, free agency officially opens.

Team President and General Manager Don Waddell met with the media on Thursday morning to discuss a wide variety of topics. In case you missed Part 1, we talked about Pascal Vincent’s dismissal, what the team is looking for in their next head coach and gave an update on where things stand with Patrik Laine.

Waddell on NHL Draft

Our focus now shifts to the NHL Draft and to free agency. The Blue Jackets figure to be right in the middle of the action when the first round opens on Friday night. They have the fourth-overall pick. They also will have to decide after the first round if they will give their second-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers to help complete the Ivan Provorov trade.

Waddell believes that this draft is critical for the Blue Jackets.

“This preparation for the draft is critical for this franchise,” Waddell said. “Fourth pick overall is an important pick and we have to make sure we get it right. So it’s a lot of focus on that right now.”

The Blue Jackets spoke to a number of prospects at the NHL Combine in Buffalo earlier in June. They spoke to all of the top prospects who could potentially go fourth overall. That will not be the last conversation with the top prospects before Friday night.

“We’ll do a lot more interviews next week in Vegas with the top players,” Waddell said. “But I think everything’s moving along. I’m happy with the progress we’ve made. You can’t do this job alone. You need to surround yourself with good people and that’s what we’ve done here.”

With the Blue Jackets holding the fourth pick, teams below them will call to see if there is any potential to trade up. Waddell says that the talks have begun with other teams about different trade possibilities.

“There’s been some talk. I know next week is when it really picks up,” Waddell said. But it’s an interesting draft this year because if you look at the experts out there, which is you guys, the media, they talk about (Macklin) Celebrini being one and then after that two through seven or eight. There’s different lists that you look at. They’re all different.”

“So it’s been some teams even around us are talking about trying to move back a little bit if you’re gonna get a nice asset with it. There’s chatter going on, but I expect that to really pick up next week. And again, we’re open. We’re open. If we keep the pick, we’re gonna get a great player. And if we trade the pick, it’s gonna have to be a great deal for us.”