- Zach Werenski says he hopes a Blue Jackets extension gets done as soon as he is eligible
- The Norris winner vetoed a June 30 trade to Dallas, then called Don Waddell himself
- Read below for his full quotes and the video from his last media session
Zach Werenski cannot sign a new contract until July 1, 2027. He already knows exactly what he wants to do with that date.
The Blue Jackets defenseman spoke with Dan Rosen of NHL.com at the NHL/NHLPA North American Player Media Tour in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and he was asked about the extension that has hung over Columbus all summer.
“But I can’t extend until next summer anyways, so I guess it’ll always be out there until an extension is signed and I’m ready for that,” Werenski said. “Hopefully when I’m eligible one gets done, but until then I’m just focused on playing in Columbus and helping this team get to the playoffs, where I think we should be.”
Rosen said the two of them talked twice, because his recorder failed on the first go and Werenski agreed to run through the whole thing again.
That patience reads differently after the June the Blue Jackets had. Reports pegged Werenski as unhappy and unwilling to re-sign, and Columbus had a trade worked out to send him to the Dallas Stars on June 30.
He killed it. Then he picked up the phone.
Werenski walked through how the two sides pulled the summer back together:
“I feel like it just got off the rails a little bit so I called Don one day and I was like, ‘We need to get this back on the rails. I want to be here. This is where I want to be. I want to win here.’”
Waddell and Werenski put out matching statements the next day. The 28-year-old insists nothing between them ever broke, and that a text asking for a quick call was all it took.
He said much of the same when he faced Columbus reporters in August, which we covered in his first public comments on the trade rumors. Take a look at that session:
What changed his thinking, by his own telling, was watching the Hurricanes finally break through last spring. Jaccob Slavin, Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Martinook and Jordan Staal spent years losing together in Carolina before they lifted the Cup.
“Winning the Cup has got to be the greatest feeling, but doing it that way has got to be an even better feeling,” Werenski said. “Doing it together as a group that’s been together for a long time.”
Werenski has two years left on the six-year, $57.5 million deal he signed in July 2021. Year 11 in Columbus starts with a team that has missed the playoffs six straight springs.
Miss a seventh straight spring, and every question from this summer comes back in April. Werenski is betting on the playoff team he says Columbus already is.
