Rick Bowness and The Future of The Columbus Blue Jackets

Dean Evason was fired early Monday Evening by the Blue Jackets front office. For many of the Columbus faithful, this was long overdue. There was an obvious, growing frustration within the organization as well as fans— as Columbus has a strong, young core with barely any results to show this season.

The Blue Jackets have just 11 regulation wins on the year—19 including overtime, and currently sit in last place in the Eastern Conference. Although the Eastern Conference is very competitive and a 19-19-7 record is nothing to be discouraged about, the frustration has mainly stemmed by the ways in which they are losing.

Columbus has 14 blown leads this season— 9 of which occurred in the 3rd period.  The Blue Jackets lead the entire league in blown 3rd period leads.  They have consistently put themselves in positions to win almost every night they touch the ice. However, the serious tactical and mental hurdles have been evident since the start and Evason just couldn’t find the solutions.

Evason had implemented several tactics, specifically the “dump and chase”. Although this tactic can be effective in certain systems, this strategy did not compliment Columbus’ roster and caused issues amongst players.

The Blue Jackets organization seemed to be contemplating the decision to move on from Evason behind closed doors for quite some time— as Rick Bowness was immediately announced new head coach in the very same statement as Evason’s firing.  The front office announced Monday:

“We’ve relieved head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Steve McCarthy of their duties and hired veteran NHL coach Rick Bowness as the club’s head coach.”

Bowness has coached the most games in NHL history as a head coach or assistant— 2,726 games in total.  After retiring in 2024 with the Winnipeg Jets, Bowness was not expected to make a return to coaching. “There’s only a few teams I would’ve come out of retirement for and this is certainly one of them.”, Bowness stated in his opening press conference.

He clearly sees the potential of Columbus’ roster and wants to accomplish something special this season. Bowness has stressed the importance of playing with grit, confidence, and willingness to control possession— especially late in games.  

With just 36 games left, Columbus is still looking to turn their season around and make a late playoff push.  The Blue Jackets making the playoffs this year would be instrumental in retaining future UFA’s Mason Marchment and Charlie Coyle— as well as RFA’s Adam Fantilli, Cole Sillinger, and captain Boone Jenner heading into the 2026-2027 season.