my latest jackets report from the land of 'i listened to a random sports podcast so you don't have to': aaron portzline talking to. idk man some canadian sports radio show. it's only about a 9 minute segment, so this is honestly a lot of what was said, but i am picking out the bits that i thought were most interesting.
answering essentially 'hey what. happened.' (this was recorded july 1, 2026)
[According to reports] it was made clear to the Blue Jackets that Werenski wasn't planning to extend. I think there could be some nuance to that that we're missing, that maybe if the team is not competitive, he's not extending, and it has gone from there to teams calling, to a pressure campaign. [...] and then boy did things flare up last night [with the Dallas trade/veto]. And now i think the important step has been taken by both parties to take a step back and breathe a bit [...] and instead of parties being at a fever pitch going at it, let's make a rational decision. Including the possibility that Zach Werenski could play this coming season and through the term of his contract, and, maybe, beyond, with the Blue Jackets. See where it goes from here.
aaron contrasts it with the brady tkachuk situation in ottawa before he was traded (which. lol. aaron being like 'well /i/ think brady was planning to leave before this' aaron where are your sources. as fucking always.)
perhaps now there's some questions about Werenski's future, but not that it's certain that he is [leaving].
when asked how often this is going to come up next season/how often will aaron and the other reporters (which. el oh el. this is how i know this podcast does not follow the jackets.) ask about this, he said basically 'i mean we have to keep it in mind' and then
Should [the Jackets] take a step back or get off to a slow start, well, then you've got a storyline that's kind of hard to contain.
no quotes on this part bc it was a bit long and i don't feel i'm losing information or tone by paraphrasing: aaron was asked about how he thinks about the state of the team and whether it's in a state that zach would want to stay or go. and aaron talked a good bit about how zach was asked if he wanted to stay or go back when the jackets started rebuilding five years ago, and he decided to stay, so aaron is confused about why zach would want to leave now ("this confused me from the start" "always struck me as kind of weird") when they're finally getting better again after sticking it out through a whole rebuild.
As for the Marchenko stuff, let me say, on that real quick—again, I mean, you take a comment or a request at face value, especially given the history of the organization—that, to me, always felt a little bit more like this a way to drive that number up. 'We like the term, we want a little bit more salary for our guy, the thirty- or potentially forty-goal scorer.' Dan Milstein, his agent, is doing his job there, seizing the opportunity.
and that's it! i historically don't quite trust aaron—i think he's a decent reporter and does have very good knowledge of the team, but i also think he likes to editorialize without making it clear that he's speculating and then walk it back later when it's clear he didn't have evidence, so i take all of this with a grain of salt, BUT i also trust aaron to have a better sense of the situation than any national reporter due to Actually Covering The Blue Jackets.
