Zach Werenski appears to be off the trade market for now.
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger reports that Werenski, his agent Judd Moldaver and Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell spoke Wednesday to clear the air and calm the situation down.
Dreger adds the Werenski is comfortable returning to the Blue Jackets next season. He notes Waddell could still present the star blueliner with a trade, but it is not on the radar at this point.
The update comes after the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning were believed to be pushing for Werenski after he vetoed a trade to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night.
Werenski is on the market after informing the Blue Jackets he did not see a long-term future with the club, a development that came as a surprise to head coach Rick Bowness.
“I’m as shocked as anyone that this came up,” Bowness said at Blue Jackets development camp, per NHL.com. “I mean, at the end-of-the-year meetings, we looked each other in the eye and had great meetings and gave each other a hug leaving, and all that. So, everything was good.
“So, I was a shocked and caught off guard like everyone else. But it is what it is.”
Werenski, 28, registered 22 goals and 81 points in 75 games with the Blue Jackets last season while averaging 26:37 of ice time.
The 6-foot-2, left-shot blueliner is entering fifth season of a six-year, $57.5 million contract that carries an annual cap hit of $9.58 million. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2027-28 campaign.
He has a full-no move clause in his deal running until the end of next season, before it converts into a modified 10-team no-trade list for the 2027-28 campaign.
Drafted eighth overall by the Blue Jackets in 2015, Werenski has 135 goals and 465 points in 642 career games.
His best offensive season came during the 2024-25 campaign after he registered 23 goals and 82 points in 81 games with a plus-12 rating and averaging 26:45 of ice time.
The Grosse Pointe, Mich., native represented the United States at Milano Cortina 2026, helping his country to a gold-medal victory. He also represented his country at the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 in a second-place finish.
Werenski represented the United States three times at the World Hockey Championship, helping his nation win gold in 2025 to end a 92-year drought.
