With their season somewhat in the balance, the Columbus Blue Jackets are making a move. Late Monday, the team announced that they had parted ways with head coach Dean Evason, replacing him with longtime NHL coach Rick Bowness.
Despite not being a consistent player in the playoff picture, Dean Evason did succeed in accelerating Columbus' retool and pushing them closer to such a competitive level. Even with the preseason passing of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, 2024-25 saw the Blue Jackets finish fourth in the Metropolitan Division with a 40-33-9 record. The 89 points the team collected as a result not only served as a twenty-three point increase on that of the prior season, but it also put the Blue Jackets just two points shy of both the Montreal Canadiens and the New Jersey Devils for the final Eastern Conference playoff spots.
Though Columbus is currently in last in the Metropolitan Division and seven points shy of a playoff spot, they have been consistently hovering at the .500 mark. At the time the move was made, the Blue Jackets were sitting on a record of 19-19-7. In addition, the rate at which the team is putting up points in the standings does put them on track to at least match their point total from last season.
Rick Bowness will take the reins of a Blue Jackets team that, like every team in the Eastern Conference, basically sits between a rock and a hard place; the Blue Jackets are tied with the Ottawa Senators for last in the East yet sit just seven points back of a playoff spot.
The picture may be bleak post-firing, but Rick Bowness' record as a head coach should give Blue Jackets fans some optimism. Each of the last two seasons that saw Rick Bowness take a coaching job would see him guide his teams, the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets, into the playoffs. He's also made the playoffs four times in his last five seasons as a head coach in the league.
Despite having an all-time losing record as a head coach, it's worth noting that many of the 408 losses suffered as head coach came before his return to the head coaching role in 2019-20. Since that point, Rick Bowness has a 187-119-34 record as an NHL head coach.
Rick Bowness has proven himself to be someone who knows their way in the NHL. Though Columbus fans might not expect him to replicate his first season in Dallas and get to the Stanley Cup Final, his experience should be able to at least keep Columbus in shouting distance of the likes of the Buffalo Sabres, who possess the final Wild Card spot as of January 13th and who still have one game left to play against Columbus this season, for the final wild card spot.