As we work our way through July, there is one head coaching vacancy left in the NHL. The Columbus Blue Jackets were behind the eight ball in hiring a new general manager (GM) – after firing Jarmo Kekalainen before the trade deadline – and were also the last team to fire their head coach – when new GM Don Waddell released Pascal Vincent before the draft.
While Waddell says he wants someone who has been behind the bench as an NHL head coach before, two of the three finalists for the job would only be in their second NHL head coaching jobs. That leads me to believe that extensive experience isn’t necessarily what he’s looking for, “some” experience is fine. It could be a crucial pre-requisite to necessitate change within the organization considering the last two Blue Jackets’ bench bosses have been rookies to the role. Let’s dive into the three names that have been brought up in rumors.
Todd McLellan
Todd McLellan is by far the most experienced of the names that have been brought up as a candidate. However, a snag was hit in the negotiation process which makes him an unlikely option now. My colleague, Mark Scheig, wrote an excellent piece covering that process and why it hasn’t worked out so far. It’s been reported there’s been a hang-up in getting him out of his previous contract from his former team the Los Angeles Kings.
Related: Navigating the Blue Jackets’ Head Coaching Rumors
It’s understandable why Waddell would be looking into McLellan though, since he’s been a head coach since the 2008-09 season and he’s been quite successful at times. He was most successful in his first gig with the San Jose Sharks, leading them to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons and winning five playoff rounds in that stretch. He was remarkably less successful in his last two jobs, missing the playoffs or not finishing the season due to a mid-season firing in seven of his last ten seasons. Looking at the coaching options available, McLellan is certainly among the most experienced.
Jay Woodcroft
While he’s only got 133 games of experience as an NHL head coach, Jay Woodcroft has been around the NHL for a long time. If McLellan is the Blue Jackets’ first choice, Woodcroft might be their next because the two have spent so much time together professionally. They both joined the Detroit Red Wings in 2005-06, Woodcroft as a video coach. Then he and McLellan both jumped ship for the Sharks in 2008-09, Woodcroft as an assistant on McLellan’s staff. They both left for the Edmonton Oilers‘ organization in 2015-16, where they held the same roles shepherding a young Connor McDavid through the first three seasons of his career.
Their paths diverged in 2018-19, when Woodcroft was named head coach of the Oilers’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate and McLellan was fired as Edmonton’s coach mid-season. Woodcroft went on to a solid three seasons, ultimately winning the Calder Cup in 2020-21. He took over mid-season being promoted as Edmonton’s head coach and instantly led the Oilers to the Western Conference Final and the next season to the second round, both times losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion. An abysmal 3-9-1 start to this past season cost him his job and that’s what’s got him to where he is now.
One could argue that Woodcroft coaching the two best players in the NHL to playoff success isn’t that impressive. However, the instantaneous improvement from two first round losses prior to taking the job to a run to the conference final couldn’t be a pure coincidence. He’s been in one of the hottest media environments in the NHL, so a switch to Columbus might be of benefit to the overall result. And his positive results in the AHL bode well for his potential in developing the youngsters in the Blue Jackets’ system.
Dean Evason
The third name that’s been brought up as a finalist is Dean Evason, who was freshly fired from his first NHL gig with the Minnesota Wild. Evason spent three and a bit seasons in Minnesota and made the playoffs every season and honestly, the fact that he lost in the first round every time can actually be written off. That’s because the feather in his cap is that those teams that he coached had no business being in the playoffs at all.
Similar to previous Blue Jackets’ head coach John Tortorella, but in a different way. Evason squeezed every drop that he possibly could out of his roster, even when his team was extremely limited in resources due to the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The output of their roster was always greater than the sum of their parts and that’s the most attractive part of his candidacy. However, that has been the identity of the Wild throughout the majority of their history. It will be interesting to see if the Wild’s success was more attributed to the coaching of Evason, or the franchise’s culture as a whole.
Woodcroft and Evason were reported to have been in Columbus for in-person interviews this week (from ‘Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering: Two coaching candidates will visit Columbus this week,’ The Athletic, 7/14/24), so a new coach is coming. It’s likely to be one of the latter considering McLellan’s tricky contract situation. Waddell says he’s going to make a decision before the end of the month, so be ready for one of those two to be named the next coach sooner rather than later.
