Timothy Rapp @@TRappaRT Featured Columnist IV July 22, 2024
Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images
The Columbus Blue Jackets officially appointed Dean Evason as the organization’s new head coach on Monday.
General manager Don Waddell released the following statement:
“Dean Evason brings to coaching what he brought as a player—passion, hard work and tenacity—and I couldn’t be happier that he will serve as the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has spent well over two decades in this league as a player, assistant coach and head coach and I believe that experience, combined with the outstanding person he is, will allow Dean to get the best out of our players and put us in a position to succeed as a team.”
According to Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch, the Blue Jackets “went back and forth” in contract talks with Todd McLellan over several weeks, and McLellan “was excited about the prospect of coming to Columbus and wasn’t asking for $5.5 million per season.”
But a contract was reportedly never offered, and the Blue Jackets went with Evason instead.
It concludes what could only be described as a whirlwind last year for the team from a head-coaching perspective.
Columbus fired Brad Larsen in April 2023 after he went two seasons without making a playoff appearance. Mike Babock was hired to replace him but never coached a game for the team, resigning in Sept. 2023 in the wake of an NHL Players’ Association investigation into questionable conduct in his dealings with players.
The Blue Jackets then named associate coach Pascal Vincent the head coach ahead of the 2023-24 season but fired him after a miserable season that saw the team accumulate just 66 points, worst in the Eastern Conference.
The hope will be that Evason rights the ship. The 57-year-old went 147-77-27 in parts of five seasons as the head coach for the Minnesota Wild (2019-20 to 2023-24), leading the team to four playoff berths.
Jeff Svoboda @JacketsInsider
#CBJ coach Dean Evason accolades:
➡️ His .639 points percentage ranks fifth among active NHL coaches (250-plus games).
➡️ Finalist for the Jack Adams Award in 2020-21.
➡️ Led the Wild to appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his four full seasons.
He also spent seven seasons as an assistant for the Washington Capitals and played in the NHL for 13 seasons as a center.
“I am incredibly proud and honored to be named the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets and appreciate very much the opportunity that Don, the McConnell family and Mike Priest have extended to me,” he said in a statement. “There is a great core and a lot of young talent on this team. I am really looking forward to working with this group and helping us become a team that plays extremely hard and competes at the highest level.”
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