The Columbus Blue Jackets have hired former Minnesota Wild head coach Dean Evason to be replace Pascal Vincent behind the bench in 2024-25.
Evason brings a 147-77-27 record at the NHL level to Columbus. His teams have reached the postseason in each of his first 4 seasons behind the bench, but failed to advance past the first round in each case.
“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,” said GM Don Waddell. “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.”
The hiring fills the final head coaching vacancy in the NHL, and comes roughly 2 months after Waddell was announced as the club’s new president of hockey operations and general manager. Waddell succeeds former GM Jarmo Kekalainen who was let go on February 15th as the franchise looks to turn over a new leaf in 2024-25.
Both Waddell and Evason signed multi-year contracts with the club, as the pair will look to help steer the club out of its ongoing rebuild and back into contention for a postseason spot.
“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,” said Evason. “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 playsextremely hard and competes at the highest level.”
Widely regarded as a strong developmental coach, Evason will play a pivotal role in helping the young Blue Jackets roster adapt to the demands of an NHL schedule. That being said, an interesting subplot to watch will be whether Evason remains the club’s coach once Columbus gets over the “hump” and back into the postseason.
Putting aside the 2023-24 campaign in Minnesota where he was let go 19 games into the season, Evason’s clubs have made the playoffs in 14 of 16 seasons across the NHL, AHL, and WHL. Unfortunately, 13 of those 14 playoff appearances resulted in 1st round exits, with 6 of those series being sweeps.
The lone playoff series victory for Evason came back in 2004-05 with the Calgary Hitmen who would subsequently go on to lose in the 2nd round of the WHL playoffs.
The Blue Jackets have missed out on the postseason in each of the last 4 campaigns, with the club posting a 27-43-12 record last year. That mark put them in the basement of the Metropolitan Division by a comfortable margin, finishing 15 points behind 2nd to last New Jersey.
Photo: The AHL. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.