Mailbag #37: Don Waddell

RALEIGH, NC. -During Saturday's exhibition contest at PNC Arena, President & General Manager Don Waddell answered questions from the fans for his annual "State of the Canes" address.
Questions were submitted via email and Twitter.

(Please Note: Some questions have been edited for clarity.)
Last year was exciting for lots of reasons - a franchise record 54 wins and 116 points - but we know the team's goal was to win the Stanley Cup. The aspirations for the organization remain the same, so to you, what makes you believe that this team can achieve it?
We set out this summer with the goal of pushing our team being our closer to being that Stanley Cup contender, and I think we had a good summer. We feel pretty good about the moves we made, both via trades and free agency.
When you look at our roster, you need all types of players. We added some more veteran players to our young group to hopefully help our team get to the next level.
The team added some big pieces this offseason in Brent Burns, Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny, what excites you about those three pieces and all of the team's additions, collectively?
Well, first, that they all want to be here. When you're building a roster, you want players that want to be here - but you don't always get to do that.
Brent Burns had a no-trade clause and he waived it to become a Hurricane. He didn't have to, he's earned that right to have a no-trade clause], but he did because he wanted to come here. That's a heck of a player.
Max Pacioretty, we're obviously disappointed to see him injured, but he's a player that's scored a lot of goals. He's a big time player. He's big, he's strong and he battles. We think he brings us closer to being a championship team.
Stastny, we didn't have to trade for. He could've gone to any one of the other 31 teams, but he chose to come to us. Four or five years ago that wasn't always the case for players. Now we have a bunch of guys that want to come here to help the team be the best that it can.
**How proud are you that the Canes have become a destination organization?**
I think it speaks volumes to what we're building here.
There are more players that would like to come here but we have the salary cap to work around. We're certainly going to keep trying to bring the best players that we can here, so that way we can keep this a place that players want to play.
**It's the team's 25th Anniversary season and we've already seen some reveals - the logo at center ice and the vintage-inspired red uniforms. What else are you looking forward to celebrating this year?**
We have a lot of things planned, things that [Canes Chief Marketing Officer] Mike Forman doesn't want me to reveal just yet, but we're very excited about them and we think our fans will be too.
The jerseys - the response was tremendous when we released them. They'll be
[available to our fans on October 6
and we know that there's already a lot of interest in them.
We have a big surprise to reveal in a couple of weeks and it's something that our fans have asked for for a long time. I'll leave it at that.

What's something you're looking forward to specifically about the Stadium Series game?
To be honest, for the puck to drop.
A lot of work has gone on by our staff over the last couple of years - Mike Forman, Vice President of Ticket Sales] Sara Daniel, and a lot of others - so we're just excited to see it all happen. Our players are excited about it too, which is awesome. Being down in the locker room, they're always talking about it.
I think it's going to be a fun and memorable event. Not only the game, but everything else that will be a part of it that our fans are going to see soon.
**How much of an NHL General Managers job is proactive versus reactive?**
I would say about 80% of the job has got to be proactive.
Our Hockey Operations staff does a tremendous job preparing for the draft, free agency, when trades come up. I really feel like it benefits you to be proactive, because then you can take advantage of situations when you're prepared.
The other side of it though is that you do have to be aware of what's going on around you.
**One team that did win a championship last season was the Chicago Wolves, American Hockey League affiliate of the Canes. How exciting is that for the future of the organization and what are your expectations for them this season?**
I'm a true believer that if you're keeping score, you're trying to win. That's our mindset.
We've actually won the last two Calder Cups, having previously been affiliated with Charlotte in 2019 and then now again with Chicago this year.
Any time you draft players like Martin Necas and have the opportunity to play in more playoff games, that experience is so valuable. You get to see how guys like Jack Drury and Jalen Chatfield play in playoff games and it's hard to replicate that.
I'm looking forward to another successful year for Chicago.
Not a member of Twitter? We're always happy to take questions at [email protected] as well!
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