{"id":554249,"date":"2026-04-17T02:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554249\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:09:23","slug":"blue-jackets-news-don-waddell-shuts-down-kent-johnson-trade-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554249\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jackets news: Don Waddell shuts down Kent Johnson trade speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/columbus-blue-jackets\/blue-jackets-news-rick-bowness-players-loss-alex-ovechkin-capitals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Columbus Blue Jackets are still reeling from the end<\/a> of their 2025-26 season. Much has been said about <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/columbus-blue-jackets\/blue-jackets-rick-bowness-no-regrets-ripping-players-capitals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">head coach Rick Bowness ripping into his players<\/a> after a loss to the Washington Capitals. There was a ton of focus on that from general manager Don Waddell, as well. However, Waddell also took time to address the status of forward Kent Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson was once one of the more promising players in the Blue Jackets&#8217; prospect pipeline. The Michigan product put together an incredible 24-goal, 57-point season in 2024-25. And he seemed primed for a breakout in 2025-26. However, that didn&#8217;t happen, as he finished with just seven goals in 76 games.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson&#8217;s name has popped up in some trade rumors as a result of this brutal performance. But Waddell <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mark_scheig\/status\/2044860594763846093\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">clearly isn&#8217;t interested<\/a> in trading the former fifth overall pick. \u201cNo, we&#8217;re not giving up and giving away 22-year old players,\u201d the Blue Jackets general manager said, via The Hockey Writers reporter Mark Scheig.<\/p>\n<p>The Blue Jackets did trade away a former first-round pick during the season. Egor Chinakov was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins this year after a trade request over the summer. Chinakov ended up discovering his game, scoring 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games.<\/p>\n<p>Columbus would certainly like to avoid seeing Johnson flourish elsewhere. Especially when there is a clear belief that the Port Moody, British Columbia native could flourish in Columbus. Despite his struggles, it appears as if Johnson still has a role with the Blue Jackets for the 2026-27 NHL season.<\/p>\n<p>The Columbus Blue Jackets are still reeling from the end of their 2025-26 season.  Much has been said about head coach Rick Bowness ripping into his players after a loss to the Washington Capitals.  There was a ton of focus on that from general manager Don Waddell, as well.  However, Waddell also took time to address the status of forward Kent Johnson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets are still reeling from the end of their 2025-26 season. Much has been said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-554249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116417617171736191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}