Columbus Blue Jackets hire Dean Evason as head coach
The Blue Jackets have settled on a new head coach.
Dean Evason will run the Jackets’ bench after agreeing to a multi-year contract Monday to fill a void created by the June 17 firing of Pascal Vincent. Specific terms of the deal were not made public. Not counting interims, the 59-year-old Evason becomes the 11th coach in the franchise’s 24-year history.
Previous reporting: Todd McLellan no longer a candidate to coach Columbus Blue Jackets
“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,” Don Waddell, the team's president/general manager, said in a statement. “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.”
Evason steps into the role after veteran Todd McLellan removed himself from the search process earlier this month. Evason doesn’t have as much experience as an NHL head coach as McLellan, but handled that role with the Minnesota Wild for five years before he was fired in November. Evason went 147-77-27 in 251 games with the Wild, including four trips to the playoffs.
“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 (majority owner) McConnell family and (Blue Jackets president) Mike Priest have extended to me,” Evason 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.”
McLellan was the leading candidate for almost three weeks. The other finalist the Blue Jackets considered was Jay Woodcroft, a former McLellan assistant and former head coach of the Edmonton Oilers prior to his firing last season. Evason and Woodcroft visited Columbus last week to meet with Blue Jackets brass prior to the team making this decision.
Salary talks played a key role in McLellan backing out, which makes sense considering the Blue Jackets' current executive pay obligations. They just got out from past coach Brad Larsen’s contract, agreed to an undisclosed settlement with disgraced former coach Mike Babcock and still have a year left on Vincent’s deal. They’re also on the hook for one more year of former GM Jarmo Kekalainen’s contract.
That’s a lot of inactive money to shell out before hiring another high-priced coach like McLellan, who'd signed a one-year extension with the Kings last season worth $5.5 million. The Blue Jackets would’ve shared that remaining salary with Los Angeles, accepting $3.5 million of the burden, plus they would’ve picked up the tab for additional years at slightly north of $4 million a season.
The sticking point was a disagreement over a fourth year on the deal. McLellan wanted full payment for that season guaranteed, while the team wanted a $1 million buyout option attached.
Evason also had a year left with Minnesota on a contract that paid almost $2 million, so the savings over McLellan is likely significant. Evason was fired along with assistant Bob Woods last season amid a seven-game winless skid and 16-game stretch in which the Wild won just three games.
Evason originally took over in Minnesota for Bruce Boudreau late in the COVID-19 shortened 2019-20 season.
After shedding the interim tag, he coached the Wild into the postseason that year in the NHL’s Edmonton pandemic “bubble,” but Minnesota was ousted in the qualifying round. Evason also coached the Wild to three straight postseason appearances following that season, bowing out in the first round each time.
His postseason record is 8-15, but Evason’s .639 points percentage in the regular season ranks fifth among active NHL coaches with at least 250 games coached. McLellan’s .581 with three teams ranks 14th, but he’s coached a lot more with 1,144 games.
Following his 13-year NHL career as a forward, Evason began his coaching journey in the junior-level Western Hockey League in 1999 with the Calgary Hitmen.
He embarked on a coaching career that has included seven years as an NHL assistant with the Washington Capitals, six as head coach of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals and two seasons in Minnesota as Boudreau’s assistant. Evason was also an assistant for Canada at this past spring's world championship in Czechia. Woodcroft also an assistant on that team, which was put together by Blue Jackets director of player development Rick Nash as Hockey Canada's appointed GM.
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Evason deploys strict defensive principles, but his teams in Minnesota also averaged 3.28 goals per game. He's known to coach with a stern disposition, which likely attracted a Blue Jackets front office that characterized its locker room culture as needing an overhaul.
Now, Evason's in charge of the Blue Jackets’ lineup with a roster powered by a mixture of veterans, rookies and other youngsters.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets hire Dean Evason as head coach
