The reigning Norris Trophy winner as the NHL\u2019s best defenceman reiterated on Thursday that the Blue Jackets must become a contender if he is to stay in central Ohio beyond the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see us in the playoffs and make progress. I feel like we\u2019ve done that,\u201d Werenski said on Thursday. \u201cWinning solves everything, and that\u2019s where we have to get to as a club. We have to raise our standards and expectations, and that starts with myself. I fully plan on doing that this year and be an even better player and leader. Hopefully, that means I\u2019m here even longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Werenski\u2019s first media availability since early July when news broke that he\u00a0vetoed a trade\u00a0to the Dallas Stars. He told GM Don Waddell at the end of last season he was not planning to sign an extension, at least this offseason.<\/p>\n
Werenski has a full no-trade clause this season, and a 10-team no-trade list starting next July 1.<\/p>\n
However, Werenski clarified he didn’t shut the door on agreeing to an extension or demand a trade. The possibility of him leaving made him unpopular in Columbus and among fans for a few days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to figure out what was going on. But yeah, it got crazy for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk too much on all the specifics and conversations and all that, but I think from early on, I\u2019ve been transparent. I\u2019ve been honest. At the end of the day, I\u2019ve been honest that this is where I want to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like it was misconstrued a little bit how I felt. The only thing I can go off of is mine and Don\u2019s conversations. We\u2019ve had great conversations since right when the season ended. But certain things started to swirl and snowballed, and it escalated to a spot neither me nor Don intended. At least that\u2019s how I feel about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Werenski \u2014 the eighth overall pick by the Blue Jackets in the 2015 draft \u2014 also wanted to get any speculation or questions about his future out of the way before training camp begins next month.<\/p>\n
Werenski\u2019s 81 points last season, which included 22 goals, were second in the league among defensemen. He tied the franchise record for assists (59) and joined Brian Leetch and Phil Housley as the only American-born defensemen in NHL history to have consecutive 80-point seasons.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Grosse Pointe, Michigan, native also had the primary assist on Jack Hughes\u2019 gold medal-winning goal for the United States at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets haven\u2019t reached the playoffs since 2020. They have come painfully short the past two years, including going 3-9-1 down the stretch this past season.<\/p>\n
They were in last place in the Eastern Conference when Rick Bowness was hired as coach. They went 18-2-4 in Bowness\u2019 first 24 games and moved into a playoff spot after earning a point in 12 straight games.<\/p>\n
But when the regular season reached its final stretch, Columbus reverted to its early-season form, including six consecutive home losses to tie a franchise record.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like on certain nights when it wasn\u2019t going well, we didn\u2019t have enough push. It was a learning experience for me, for sure,\u201d said Werenski, who had two goals and six points in his final 13 games. \u201cI\u2019ve never been in a position like that where you come all the way back from last place to second in the Metro(politan Division). Then you have some crazy losing streak, and you\u2019re out of it. I didn\u2019t produce down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Werenski and the Blue Jackets know getting off to a strong start this season is paramount, especially with seven of the first nine games being at home. They open the season on Oct. 1 against Buffalo, marking the first time Columbus has opened at home in three seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reigning Norris Trophy winner as the NHL\u2019s best defenceman reiterated on Thursday that the Blue Jackets must…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-857147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}