Is Carolina Hurricanes GM Don Waddell Underrated?

The Carolina Hurricanes have been Stanley Cup contenders for a few years now. Rod Brind'Amour has gotten lots of credit, but what about GM Don Waddell?

It’s many an old columnist’s favorite topic – someone in the field they cover who doesn’t get enough respect for what they’ve achieved. And for this writer, when it comes to the NHL, if there’s one GM who doesn’t get enough respect, it’s Carolina Hurricanes GM Don Waddell. 

The 64-year-old doesn’t seek out accolades and hype. Instead, rather quietly, he’s built the Hurricanes into a team that’s on a points percentage of .707 or higher this season and in the past two seasons.

This comes after Waddell painstakingly brought the Atlanta Thrashers from expansion fodder status to a 43-28-11 mark before he was dismissed in 2010. Stanley Cup playoff success eluded Waddell in Atlanta, shortly before the franchise relocated to Winnipeg. 

But after joining the Carolina organization in 2014, Waddell was promoted to GM in 2018 – and the four years that have followed have seen the Hurricanes slowly morph into a Cup frontrunner.

Waddell just joined the 500-win club as a GM, passing such greats as the late Pat Quinn (497), Serge Savard (483) and Pierre Lacroix (473). 

And he’s doing his best work in Carolina. 

When he was promoted from acting GM, Waddell could’ve gone outside the team for a new coach, but he went internal again, promoting assistant coach Rod Brind’Amour to the position. Brind’Amour has proven to be one of the best bench bosses in the NHL, proving from the very beginning – when he went 46-29-7 in his first year as Carolina’s head coach – that he knew how to get the best out of the players he was given.

Waddell has thrived with the Hurricanes in part because he’s unafraid to swing for the fences on the trade front. 

Indeed, less than two months after he was named Carolina’s GM, Waddell pulled off his first of many blockbuster-level moves when he sent star defenseman Noah Hanifin and top-six center Elias Lindholm to Calgary for defensemen Dougie Hamilton and Adam Fox, and forward Micheal Ferland. Less than three months into his tenure, Waddell traded winger Jeff Skinner to Buffalo. Soon enough, he would wring a first-round pick out of Toronto for taking on Patrick Marleau’s contract.

It’s true Waddell hasn’t always been the winner in his trade exploits, but the point is he’s a calculated gambler who has his fingerprint firmly on the Hurricanes’ roster this season – the same group that is currently on a five-game win streak and now is tied with New Jersey for the best points total in the Metropolitan Division. 

Waddell traded for veteran blueliner Brent Burns last summer, and he boldly acquired former Montreal and Vegas star forward Max Pacioretty. Although Pacioretty hasn’t played this year due to injury, when he does return, Carolina’s offensive attack will be boosted significantly.

Waddell is aided in his work by an actively-aggressive owner in Tom Dundon, but Waddell has got to be given his due. He’s brought in a slew of players over the years, and he isn’t intimidated by the optics of allowing some of his trade acquisitions to move on if he couldn’t fit them into his payroll or he saw other players he liked better.

In short, you have to be fearless and relentless in crafting your vision of a winning team, and Waddell has been that for Carolina.

Another current NHL GM – Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher – also recently joined the 500-career-wins club. And although Fletcher has been GM for 83 fewer games than Waddell, the present state of the Canes and Flyers shows that Waddell has put his team in a position to win it all, while Fletcher tried to turn around Philadelphia but is currently watching the Flyers sink to second-last place in the Metro, 13 standings points and three teams away from the fourth spot in the division.

Fletcher has a bigger profile in Philly, but Waddell is the better architect for a true Cup frontrunner. Hurricanes fans know they’ve got a keeper with their current GM, and it’s high time the rest of the NHL acknowledges Waddell is one of the best minds in the hockey business.