told reporters on Friday<\/a>. It\u2019s not my side, the business side. It\u2019s on (Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell) and (agent Dan Milstein), and they figure out everything. My goal is to be ready on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\nMarchenko still has one year remaining on his three-year, $11.5-million contract he signed in June 2024. Marchenko will be an RFA once his deal expires at the end of this season. <\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets already had a scare this off-season as rumours circulated star defenceman Zach Werenski wanted out. The reigning Norris Trophy winner has since reiterated his desire to stay a Blue Jacket, but Marchenko isn’t ready to offer up similar platitudes. <\/p>\n
“Oh, too many good questions right now,\u201d Marchenko said when asked if Columbus is where he wants to play. \u201cI want to play hockey. That\u2019s what I can say right now. I don\u2019t want to give you guys a lot of things. I love my teammates, I love to enjoy the practices, enjoy the hockey \u2026 It\u2019s my favourite thing in the world. I just do my job.”<\/p>\n
“I can say yes because I play here for sure,” Marchenko continued. “But you know \u2026 I can answer only (about) hockey. I don\u2019t want to say some things and give you bad information. My English (may) not (be) so good; I can say something wrong, and everybody will think differently. But I really love fans here, and I appreciate everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Waddell told reporters that he sat down for a 45-minute chat with the 26-year-old winger, who vowed to “work his butt off” this season, regardless of speculation. <\/p>\n
“My goal is to be here at 8 in the morning, practice, work hard, go home. That\u2019s all I can do. That is my life. That\u2019s all I can do, and that\u2019s all I can say for you right now. (Waddell and Milstein) will figure out everything. My goal is to be protected and safe at home with my wife,” said Marchenko. <\/p>\n
In 76 games last season, the Russian had 27 goals and 67 points. He reached career highs across the board in 2024-25, posting 31 goals, 43 assists and 74 points in 79 games. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But when pressed about his future in Ohio, the team’s leading goal-scorer over the past three seasons gave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-901457","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\/901457","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=901457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}