Waddell said the biggest reason for the change was that the Blue Jackets weren’t playing up to expectations.
Coming off of last season’s 23-point improvement in the standings and missing a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs by just one win, the Blue Jackets believed they could take another step forward this season.
They boast a talented young core that they believed would grow even more this season, they added such veterans as Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in the offseason and Mason Marchment in season, and they re-signed defensemen Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro in the hope chemistry would help the defense mesh.
Instead, with more than half the season elapsed, the Blue Jackets must make up major ground to earn a postseason bid. While Evason deserved major credit for how he helped the Blue Jackets navigate through a trying 2024-25 season, Waddell felt that this year’s squad needed a shakeup.
“The bottom line for us is we haven’t met our expectations, and it first starts with me,” Waddell said. “We all take accountability in this – coaches, players and myself. We don’t take any of this lightly. I have all the respect in the world for Dean and Steve, and I think last year they did a tremendous job in a very difficult situation. But I think our expectations this year were higher than what we’re achieving right now, and that’s why we felt like we’d make a change.”
The president and GM said he first started considering a move after a 5-4 overtime loss Jan. 4 to Pittsburgh in which the Blue Jackets had a 4-1 lead only to watch the Penguins rally back. It marked the ninth time this season Columbus had lost when leading in the final frame, and that’s not including five other blown third-period leads in overtime wins that gave critical points to opponents.
Waddell accompanied the Blue Jackets on the recent Western swing, in which the team won one of four games, and initiated discussions about the state of things. When the team returned after Sunday night’s win at Utah, he believed a change was necessary.
“I talked to some of the leaders on the team, and they weren’t by any means bashing the coach, but I could tell they were frustrated by how things were going,” Waddell said. “It all came to a point over the weekend.”
Bowness was enjoying retirement, but the call from Waddell was one he couldn’t ignore.
The 70-year-old coach said he and his wife, Judy, were enjoying a boat ride at their winter home in Florida on Monday morning when Waddell called. From there, it didn’t take him long – 10 seconds, in his estimaton – to accept the offer to find his winter coat and head north to take over the Blue Jackets.
“Judy and I would always have the conversation and she’d always say, ‘What’s gonna happen if someone calls?’” Bowness said. “I said, ‘They’re not gonna call.’ We just said, ‘OK, well, we’d have to consider it.’ But there’s only a few teams that I would have come out of retirement to coach, and this is certainly one of them.
"I did see a few of their games over the year. I looked at that team and I said, 'I think I can help that team.'"
Bowness last coached in the NHL during the 2023-24 season, leading Winnipeg to a 52-24-6 record before a first-round playoff loss to Colorado. That season, he was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, presented to the league’s coach of the year, and coached the Central Division team at the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto.
But Bowness stepped away from the squad at season’s end and into (what he presumed was) retirement, spurred largely by health issues for both him and his wife. He said they were content being away from the game and that he was not actively looking for a job, but with those the health situations now cleared up, it made it a lot easier to say yes when Waddell called Monday.
“The passion is still there, but we had to overcome some issues,” Bowness said. “I feel a whole lot better, and Judy is doing great, so that opened the door that if I did want to coach again, I said, ‘OK, we’re healthy now.’ ... With the health struggles we had that year, that kind of opened our eyes a little bit and (we) said, ‘Maybe it’s time we take a break.’ But the break is over.’”
Bowness’ first order of business? Keeping pucks out of the net.
The new head coach said he’s not the smartest man in the world, but it didn’t take him long to see where the Blue Jackets can be better.
Columbus enters play tonight 28th in the NHL with 3.38 goals allowed per game and 30th in shots allowed per game at 30.9, not to mention 29th on the penalty kill at 76.4 percent. When Bowness met with the team this morning, those were the numbers that came up most.
“I look at the goals against, I look at the shots against, I look at the penalty kill, I look at the slot chances against, I look at the rush chances against,” Bowness said. “There’s the issue. Those issues will take you right out of the playoffs in our league. This isn’t the ‘80s. You don’t score your way into the playoffs. You defend your way into the playoffs, and you get your offense from playing good, solid team defense.”
That’s particularly true in the third period, as the Blue Jackets have allowed a league-most 63 tallies against. To Bowness, that’s a mark of a team that’s playing too passive in crunch time, and he said his system will be all about applying pressure to opposing teams.
“When you’re on your heels in this league, you’re gonna get burned,” Bowness aid. “The league is too good. There’s too many high-skilled guys. If you want to let them come at you and you want to give them time and you don’t want to hurt them or hit them, you’re gonna pay the price, so we have to get a little nastier. We do. We have to have a little bit more structure and a little bit more pressure, and just as important, we have to manage the puck.
“You get in that third period, it’s all those things, and it’s playing on your toes and (having) the confidence to do that.”
Blue Jackets players see the move as a chance to save what’s been a disappointing season.
Sean Monahan spent the end of the 2023-24 season with Winnipeg, playing the last 34 regular-season games and playoffs under Bowness in his final season with the Jets. He has firsthand experience of Bowness as a head coach, and he said two things stand out.
First, as a coach, Bowness emphasizes structure and details, and that might be no surprise considering Winnipeg won 98 games his two seasons with the Jets. The other is the intensity with which Bowness coaches.
“He wants you to play quick, and he can be intense on the bench,” Monahan said. “It keeps you on your toes. He pushes guys, and he’s experienced it all. He’s coached for a long time and he’s seen it all. There’s nothing new for him, and he’s gonna make sure we’re all on board here to do the right things every night.”
For Zach Werenski, the move signals that Waddell still thinks this team can make noise, especially with seven of the next eight games at home.
"I feel like it just tells the guys in here he still believes in us and believes in this season and getting something out of it, so I think the message was clear to the players how he feels about it,” Werenski said.
"I think this is it, this is our season. (We have) this next however many games to get back in it. ... It's on us players now to really take control of this and get us back in a good spot here."
