Don Waddell can't take a vacation just yet.
New GM Don Waddell has gotten some things accomplished since taking over. The Jackets had a successful draft, they rid themselves of guys he didn't think should be here, and brought in a few guys he thinks can work in Columbus. But he still has some work to do, including hiring a head coach.
Let's take a look at the salary situation and what he's working with after the first couple of days of free agency.
Currently, after signing Sean Monahan, Jack Johnson, Yegor Chinakhov, Dylan Gambrell, Owen Sillinger, and Cole Clayton, the Columbus Blue Jackets have $18,066,667 in cap space.
The current RFAs that need to be signed are Kirill Marchenko, Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson, Jake Christiansen, and Jet Greaves. They've all been given qualifying offers, now they just need to get contracts done. After signing these five players, the CBJ should have some space left over to make some other moves, should they want to.
The Patrik Laine saga has yet to be taken care of. Trading him and either clearing his entire salary, or at least part of it would also give the Jackets the wiggle room they need as they get closer to the season. As of today, there is no word of whether or not Laine is coming out of the Player Assistance Program any time soon.
They also chose not to buy out Elvis Merzļikins and his $5.4 million AAV contract. He's made it public that no one is interested in trading for that contract, so he must hold on to him for now. Merzļikins could always play his way into a trade, but he needs to regain his old form for that to happen, and that's exactly what Waddell is hoping happens. He's commented that they need "to put all they have into getting him back to his original form," so we'll see where this goes.
Going into the 24-25 season, they will also carry a dead cap hit of $825,001 with the buyouts of Adam Boqvist and Alex Wennberg. The 25-26 season will be the last season to pay those two ex-Jackets, and the cap hit will balloon to $1,425,001. As of now, there are no dead cap hits after the 25-26 season.
Currently, the Blue Jackets only have 37 players under contract for next season, with the signing of the five RFAs pushing that number to 42. A team can't have more than 50 players under contract at any point during the season, but one can assume they'll possibly have a few more with any ELCs that may be signed or to fill out the Monsters roster if needed.
No days off for Waddell just yet as he still has a lot of work to do, but he's definitely earning his paycheck right now that's for sure.
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