The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Don Waddell on Trading Chinakhov, Acquiring Marchment, and More

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell joins the show to break down the Yegor Chinakhov trade to Pittsburgh, the Mason Marchment acquisition, mid-season CBJ evaluations, and what comes next in Columbus��� retool.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff#TheSheet #NHL #ColumbusBlueJackets #CBJ #NHLTrade #Penguins #WorldJuniors #WJC #DailyFaceoff #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #StevenEllis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our first guest, though, played in the very first Double IHF sanctioned World Junior Hockey Championships, humbly called the U-20s. He is Don Waddell, not just here to talk about that, but also to talk about his team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, coming off a big win last night against the Ottawa Senators, where once again the goaltender was a star. Jack Greaves playing back-to-back.

I'm not sure how your analytics department felt about that. I always thought the analytics guy said, don't do that. But first of all, Don, thanks so much for stopping by today. How are you? I'm good, Jeff. Thank you for having me. Before we get into the trade yesterday, and I want to talk about Mason Marchman, CBJ,

I want to get some time about Jack Reeves as well. I was telling your story a little bit going back to 1977, which would have been the fourth U-20 tournament, but the first one officially sanctioned by the AAHF. That is the root then to the fruit now of what we're seeing. And we found a picture on the USA Hockey website, and there you are third from the right five foot nine five foot ten defender

for team USA what do you remember from and that's the picture taken in the then Czechoslovakia what do you remember from that team that tournament and it's nowhere nowhere to what it is today but take us back to 77 before we get into Blue Jacket stuff that was interesting because like you said

it's the old Czechoslovakia where you know there was tanks on the road streets all guards everywhere with carrying rifles and that. So it was a new experience for all as young people coming from the States. But I can remember the tournament being well attended. You know, we didn't win a lot of games, but they were competitive. You know, overall, I found out what the black market was because I went over with the suitcase full of clothes and came home with none.

Because they wanted to buy anything you had in blue jeans and everything else. So it was pretty interesting experience, but I do remember because these gentlemen came up to our room and followed them stuff from us. And the guards downstairs told us after that we're lucky we're alive because we're letting people in our room to buy our clothes. But, yeah, it was a great opportunity for me and looking back at it 50 years, it's hard to imagine.

But it was a lot of fun. You know, Slava Fedesoff was a star in that tournament. Ben Gustafson, Washington Capital Great, was a star in that tournament. Anderson and and Dale McCourt and like you're nodding because you remember all these all these names like this would have been maybe the first time you'd played against Fatisov in your career like what was it like was it like was it like like playing against all these I was saying like the thing about these tournaments is that the U-20 it's a lot of guys you never have seen before play like what was it like playing against some of these players that you only read about in the hockey news yeah it was interesting about got like uh Ptisov these guys you know until you actually see them you know about them until you actually see him and I can remember we went over I think we got there the first day we went over we didn't play we watched a couple of the games and we put your eyes on these players you know some of the great Canadians like Dale and Johnny you know you say wow this is a

whole other level you know here's a most of us are college kids coming over I was a sophomore in college and so it was quite the experience and then obviously I was fortunate to play the next year or it was Gretzky's year. And that was a whole other avenue for me to be able play against him. Quick, quick final thought on this, too. Like, this is, like, you look at how far USA hockey has come now. And, you know, United States, like you mentioned that tournament in 77, you guys, you beat Sweden and you tied Poland. And you lost the other games and USA came in seventh. And now they are the, you know, two-time defending World Junior Championship champions here. and you look at, you know, how this program has developed and, like, they could three-peat.

They could very well three-peed. Have a quick thought on what's happened with USA hockey in 50 years. Well, if you go back and look at stat, it was something like in the NHL at that time, 5% of American players and, you know, how the U.S. across our country, the grassroots programs have just spiraled in all these. You know, we're drafting kids from every state now. You know, it's Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts. it's before now we're drafting kids from every state and just it's such a credit to USA hockey

how they've been able to develop all these programs and all these non-traditional hockey markets at that time obviously you know California was a big one when Wayne got traded there and then you know Florida when Florida started talking about having teams you know their hockey took off same in Texas so very non-traditional hockey markets that started becoming very big youth programs well listen take a bow because that was the that was the that was the origins. And now we're seeing USA every year at every level. I'm competitive with all the other top countries. Okay, the Chinikoff deal. One of the things that I think struck people right away is it's an indivision deal, right, to another metropolitan team. And the one thing

that I wondered about here is I wonder if there's like a metro division tax that may be, okay, if you want me to trade them in the metropolitan division, it's going to cost you X. But if it's the central it's not going to cost you X. Is that accurate or was this the deal that it was going to be regardless of what division he went to? Yeah, I never look at it that way. Obviously, you're aware of it. But I always say, you know, don't worry about us, you know what you're giving up. So don't worry about that. Worry about what you're getting. And if this is the best deal, regardless of what team it is, then let's move on it. Obviously, we had multiple teams in the mix of it. But Pittsburgh from start when it's all started, Kyle and I have talked about this

more than him and I probably talked for our wife, but he's always been very, very courteous and very aggressive as far as trying to make a deal. So, you know, it just came together. We came out of the freeze there and started talking to teams and Kyle stepped right up there. So we made the deal with Pittsburgh. You know, I'm always curious about any type of deal. Like what is the one piece that gets it over the finish line. Is it the, and I wonder, okay, is it, you know, the minute the Duby said, okay, I'll throw in a second. Does that, like, close it?

Is it, is it the play? Is it Danton Hinen? Like, was there one thing, Don, that was like, if you can do this, then we have a deal. You know, we had some players offered to us that just, we weren't comfortable with, you know, just with Hinen. We just felt that, you know, he's got a lot of experience.

I go back to the trade that line last year. We wanted some experience. We went out and paid some. fifth and sixth round picks just add some depth. Well, we got that player now. And we got them early, so we run across injuries. You know, he's here in our organization, and he'll get a chance to play. Obviously, the picks were important.

We've given up our second round pick and a fourth round pick to get marchment. So to get a second back was very important to us. And then, you know, being able to get the third for the following year, you know, draft capital, I always say it's, you're going to use it two ways. You're going to draft players that you hope become bluebeck. future or we're going to use them to make our team better. So it's always nice to have that draft capital, be able to, if you need to make a move using those pieces.

You know, you mentioned Mason Marchman a second ago, and I want to pick up on him. But one more final thought here on the Chinikoff deal. Were you surprised, caught off guard? I don't know how to describe it at the trade request, at how things had gotten to a point where the player wanted a change of scenery. Yeah, because I met with my end in last year. He wasn't happy at the end of last year. you know, he started off the season very well.

He's one of our best players, and he got hurt. When he came back, you know, you miss two months of the season. You're never going to be up the speed. And then we didn't win some games. And then toward the end, we start winning games, putting ourselves back into it. He was out of the lineup and didn't get back in. You know, Dean didn't make a lot of changes to the lineup when things are going well. So we had our meeting at the end of the season, you know, it was okay.

He was disappointed, but nothing, I didn't expect this. So when it came out in the summertime, and I think, You know, we talked about it with him and his representation at that time. You know, it was not probably the thing he wanted to, you know, sometimes you speak in Russian and you forget that everything's going to travel everywhere these days. So we were disappointed to hear about that. You know, I've had been doing it for a long time. I've had a lot of players that trade, make trade requests.

It's the first one that became so public. So we had that. But then, you know, come training camp, you know, I told the agent that, you know, we'll see what can do. do, but, you know, he's an asset to us. I'm not just going to part ways because the player asked for it. And I give him credit. It came in two weeks before camp.

We came in great shape. And then, you know, we started this season. And it was playing some games in and out, playing 10 minutes, some nights, 15, 16. And they just, we could tell it wasn't going to work. And so we got to a point where we just said, you know, right about December there, I said, you know, we'll get through. We had some injuries at that time. We'll get through these injuries.

And then once we picked up Marchman, it gave us a flexibility. ability to have moving chinny on and that's why right after the break we

did it. With Mason Marchman and I will get to the Islanders incident here in a

couple of seconds I'm always curious about the how long have you wanted the

player how long have you wanted Mason Marchment well I was in on him

when he signed in Dallas when I was still in Carolina we we were right there

at the finish line with him and so I'd done a lot of homework on him not only as a player but as a person and unfortunately at that time he for Carolina he decided to go to Dallas so I followed this player pretty closely throughout his career and you know it was in a spot in Dallas where I don't think Jimmy Neal really wanted to trade him but he had cap issues and had to make move and you know it goes to Seattle and then for whatever reasons you know it didn't work out or, you know, Jason felt that it was time to move them on.

So we were, you know, very aggressive of trying to get him when he became available. This is a pretty physical hockey player. As you all know, anyone's watched Mason-Marchman play, knows. You already have, you know, the toughest player in the NHL in Matthew Olivier. I really do wonder, is it kind of, are we getting back to this idea that it just can't all be skill? it's been such a race to skill the last 20 years in the NHL is the pendulum swinging back and there'll be more Mason Marchments that are in more demand for NHL teams

like here's what I wonder about Don is essentially what I'm trying to get at here is in an NHL world where everybody can skate and everybody can shoot and everybody can playmake as a manager do you find yourself asking what else can a player give me and is that thing you know what Olivier and what Mason Marchman can do yeah no it's a great great point great question you know for us you know we feel like we got some pretty good skill players a little bit on the smaller size uh you know we go back to last summer

and we had a charlie coil mild wood uh bigger bodies uh you know we got the kent johnsons are very high-end skill players that are not big players so we always had intention to try to get a little bigger and we did that in the summertime and then obviously mason brings that too so I don't think it's swinging, it's maybe as fast as every team's got a different makeup of what they need. You know, some high best teams in the league right now, you know, the forwards are very talented, but they're big. And, you know, so we felt with our team, with some of our skill guys being a little bit on the smaller side that continue to add some size that can play. This league, you can't have guys that can't play. We're going to certainly look at that.

And, you know, we felt Mason was a guy that would add to our hockey club. This is a really active team, right? In the last couple of weeks here, you've been right at it trying to bring in. And in Chinikov's case, remove from, when you look at your squad right now, like, I'm a big fan of Boone Jenner. We talk about those intangibles. We just talked about a couple of seconds ago with Mason Marchman. Like, I remember going down the street from my house to go watch the Oshawa Generals pay all the time. and I used to come back and just Boon Jenner, Boon Jenner, Boon Jenner, Boon Jenner, Boon Jenner.

I always wonder, how often do people, other general managers call, you know, like, hey, you're having a hard time getting him sign, what's going to happen with Jenner here? I know that's not someone that you'd want to part with, but is there an update on anything with, like, I wonder about a couple of players. I wonder about Mason Marchman, I wonder about Boon Jenner, and I wonder about Charlie Coyle as well. yeah and what i've told uh represents that uh representation throughout the year is let's get through to the uh break let's get to the olympic break you know you know boon was coming off an injury last year where he missed a lot of games and i say let's make sure he gets back uh to where he wants to be and we want him to be and certainly he missed a little time this year but if you watch our games you know he blocks shots he does everything that you can ask the player to do so

The way I look at, I don't worry so much about UFAs, you know, there's a time you got to make a move, of course. But if a player, I look at that this year, particularly with the Olympic break, if a player wants to be here and we want them here, we'll find a deal. It's, you know, there's very few players that I've ever lost because I couldn't find a deal. You know, obviously there's going to be a few that just priced out or whatever. But I really feel, you know, in Charlie's case and Marchman's case, let it. It's a two-way street. As much as we want them, they've got to want to be here too.

So give them some time here, let them settle in with their families, see if they love Columbus, and then at the right time, we'll try to get something done. Jack Rees has been a great story for the Blue Jackets. And again, like I mentioned off the top, I think all of our eyebrows are raised.

Like, same goaltender back-to-back. Once upon a time, you remember, like, that was a regular occurrence. Like, you're the number one goal-tending, you're playing back-to-back games. You just deal with it, and now the feeling is, the numbers don't support it,

but there was Jack Reeves in that again last night in another three-star performance for Jack Greaves. Do you have a thought on this goaltender specifically this year? I think a lot of us looked at this season and said, you know what? It feels like around Christmas time, this guy will be ready to grab the number one spot. How does his GM feel about it?

Well, he certainly played well all season. And I think one of the reasons he can play back to back first, you've got to look at, you know, the out how many shots he was taken the night before which wasn't too bad and then the style he plays you know he's not a big guy some you know maybe that sometimes works against him with some of the high shots but it might work for him because you know he when he goes down he gets up pretty quick he's very athletic and he's got a great glove so um you know we didn't have a concern about coming we talked about it after the game and didn't have any concern because of this first of all

is great athlete. And as you said, he's one of the best kids I've ever been able to manage. So, you know, these are the kind of guys you pull for. And I know the players love to play in front of them. So, you know, I don't think you're going to make it a regular, you know, with the travel and everything and, you know, type of games. But I think in this situation, it made sense for us to come back with them in Ottawa. And he proved us right.

What is the difference now with Damon's? Severson, who looks like a much different defenseman than we've seen the last couple of years. What's the difference? Well, he's playing, you know, he's playing with a lot more confidence. You know, he's getting more ice time right now. And I think, you know, playing until Werensky went out, he was playing with the Z. I think that gives him the last few games, we had switched him up. He was playing with Provaloff for a long time.

But I think playing with the Werensky's helped his game. You know, he doesn't feel like he has to be that offensive guy that sometimes he wants to be. And then just watch him play here with the Tatechuk, the last few games, with Zorensky being out. You know, he just looks so comfortable now. And, you know, we talk about it this morning. We were talking about it that, you know, whatever he's doing, we've got to keep it going because he's playing his best hockey in the year and a half since I've been here. That's for sure.

Yeah, he looks fantastic for you guys. I want to swing back to something I mentioned earlier quickly. How did the general manager see the sequence with Mason Marchment, Matthew Schaefer, and then Matthew Berzal, which resulted in a fine for the Islanders player? How did you see that? Well, you know, if you go back and look at it, obviously on that play, Mason tripped him when it didn't knee up or anything like that, that some people were saying if you watch the clip, he tripped them and I think probably the the islanders which you know I understand that you

know felt that maybe there wasn't knee involved you know they're watching it like everybody else was at fast pace you know I don't really want to speak you know I think some of the jams I talked to were surprised about you know that of the incident and you know for me when these things happen you know you're just hoping your players not hurt and you know you move on from it You move on from it. You just hate to see this happen. You know, this is, our game is, you know, hard to play as it is. And these kind of incidents, you know, I know I watched it on the highlights on one of our sports center,

probably nine or ten times that night. It's not good for our sport either to see it. But to me, that page is turned, and now we continue to move forward and try to win hockey games. Well, it gets me to a place of conversation that I'm curious your thoughts on as someone who will have these discussions on a regular. basis. And that is, so that turns into a fine for Matthew Barzal. There's only been three suspensions this year. And it's all like game here, game there. There's like nothing, nothing big. Having this conversation on the show yesterday, I know there's not a lot of runway

on the season so far. So maybe it's too early to have the conversation. But as a manager who's been at this for a really long time, are you surprised we've only seen three really small suspensions this year? Or is it just like, oh, just one of those years? Yeah, I, you know, I guess I'd have to watch every single, you know, we see almost every highlight, of course, that happens. And, you know, the biggest thing you want is the, the consistency from whoever's making these decisions. I've said that for years and years, that whether it was Coley for a while, Brendan Shanahan and now George, the consistency is what we all want.

And if this is the consistency that's going through the league right now and how it's being handled, you got to accept that and continue to go in that direction. Another sort of GM issue with having this conversation a few weeks ago on the show, too. I'm curious when the last, here's the one for you, Don't. When was the last time you had a conversation about we need to make the goalie equipment smaller? That's been a while for me. Probably last summer I did.

I don't, there's some things I stay out of. I probably involve them too many things. It's probably one of the things that have stayed out. I know the league and Kay Whitmore do a great job of trying to control that and watch it. You know, these guys are shooting the puck hard. If I have a goal, they'll say, boy, I need more equipment. These sticks that we make these days, these $350 sticks that last 10 minutes, they've made them where they really get a lot of whip up, guys are really shooting the puck.

So I don't get carried away with it. I know people are watching, somebody's taking care of it, and that's all we can hope for. Well, the point that I wanted to get to with it is, you know, I remember Elaine Vigno making this point. He said, if, you know, if you want to score more goals, then the shooters need to work on their shot in the off season and not just lift.

You know, goalies go and work on their craft and forwards go and lift weights. And he was right. Like, everybody shoots now. We know all about things like, you know, pre-shot movements and all these, you know, foolishly we were taught when we were kids. you can't teach touch goal scorers are born not made man all the things now that we know that we're relied to about like the way that offense can be coached now and how goals can be manufactured

and you don't just have to rely on drafting a quote unquote natural goal score like to me this is one of the areas where the game has changed profoundly because now we all understand yeah you can teach touch and everybody can shoot the technology's there with the sticks and the skating and all of that and everyone's got shooting coaches and all different offensive designs as well. I just laugh because Elaine Vino was right.

If you want to score more goals, work on your shot. Don't worry about the goalie's equipment. Yeah, that's a great point because you know, we went through a, obviously on the competition committee where some people thought the net should be bigger. And I never thought that would

I never thought that was the answer, but you know, there were some people that talked about it And that's why you probably hear, the most thing you probably hear from coaches talk about games is we need more traffic. You know, we need more traffic in front of the net, you know, so the goalie can't see it because, you know, the goalies are going to make most saves. If they see it, most time they're going to stop it. Obviously, there's the point blank ones that are more trouble, but if they see a puck from the blue line, they're going to stop it. And, you know, they're all good and capable. So, you know, creating more traffic.

And then you see there's a lot of skill in the league. You know, go back for how many years ago and you had the Michigan play started. Now you got guys doing that, trying. And even around that front of the net, I'm always amazed at the hockey sense some of these guys have. Or, you know, they're close to the goalie and usually would try to take a shot or try to beat them. And then they throw up behind their back to a guy standing in the post wide open. You know, I give the players a lot of credit because the hockey sense and being using your imagination to create those. chances. I think it's a tremendous

for our game. Last question for you. We'll let you get on with what's going to be another busy day is Adam Fantilli. I don't know. I know. It's like what's not to like about this player? Where's the GM at right now on Adam Fantilli?

Yeah. I think he's taken, you know, every year he came in the league as a young player and every year he's gotten better. He had a little slow start last year. second half of the year he was tremendous for us and this year he's going from there you know he he's he loves to be on the ice he loves to play this game he's a dedicated hockey player you can

see all that and now you're seeing the results from it you know and the guys love to play with them you know he's being he's more of a shooter sometimes than just a natural passer as a centerman but even last night we had the play where he made a great play at the blue and threw it to Marchman, and he threw it across the Marchenko is one of the prettier goals we scored this year. So he's capable of making those high-end plays. So he's only going to get better. Yeah, you forget how young these players are.

For sure. They came in 18 years old. He's going to continue to get better. You know, last time you and I spoke about him, I brought up some point about not being 100% every single moment, every single time. Like, he seems like I try to pay attention to him as much as I can.

He seems like he's a different player now. Like he gets that comfort. And when I watch the, we started this conversation up and talking about the juniors, like I'm watching Michael Misa play. It's not a knock. It's just like this is where he's at.

Everything is 100% on every single play, not mixing up speeds or anything like that. And I look at Fantilla and I go like, he was like that, you know, a couple of years ago as well. Like that is one of the things that kids need to get to at a place in their career. Yeah.

And the other thing you've got to remember now that, and when they're like Adam's learning, you know, They're going to get paid, they believe, on their goals and points. You know, there's a lot of money being paid. And things are scoring, they're not going to make there's much money. But what you learn is, and I think Adams, we had these conversations with this representation in him, you know, as he gets more 360, you know, 200-foot player, that's going to get more ice time

from his coach. If you're responsible defensively, you're going to get more ice time. And then that's going to give you more opportunities offensively, too. So don't worry about the points. If you're a skill player and you deserve it, they're going to come. You're going to make so much money in your life that you're not going to have to worry about it. But don't make that your focal point. Just worry about, you know, if you, you know, now I don't think Adams like that, you know.

But I've been around guys if you lose five, three and they score three goals, they're happiest can be. You know, Adams, that one night player is a team guy. But, you know, to my, I always say these young guys, just, just, just. play your game, if you do everything right, you're going to make mistakes. But if you play where the coach, you know, you see him out there at the end of the games, you see him out there in tough situations, that's because the coach trusts you, and that's going to lead to more offense for you. You're always generous with your time. Don, thanks so much for stopping by again. I really appreciate it. Thanks for the trips down memory laying too. I've always

wanted to ask you about 77. So thanks for, thanks for indulging me this time around. Always the pleasure to be with you, Jeff. Happy New Year, to you and your guests. to you as well, to you and your family. And best of luck with the Columbus Blue Shackets and best of luck at the Olympics for USA hockey as well. Thanks so much for this time. Thank you.

I said 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head, lifestyle, ambitious day-to-day because you can call it a ride. I went to the doctor. Man, you're trying to give me a little medicine.

I'm like, no, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but new. It's me and myself and how this is going to be fixing my mind. I didn't want a bracket. I turned on the music. I do want to beg it. I turned on the music. It's going to nothing about it.

Sometimes you know. Have been on the days that we're wrong