Bowness hired by Blue Jackets at 'critical point of our season,' GM says

COLUMBUS -- A sense of urgency and frustration led the Columbus Blue Jackets to fire coach Dean Evason on Monday and replace him with Rick Bowness.

The Blue Jackets (19-19-7) are last in the Eastern Conference with 45 points and seven points out of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs entering their game against the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FDSNOH, SNW). It begins a stretch of seven of eight games and eight of 12 at home before the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

"It's a critical point of our season," Waddell said Tuesday. "That's why we felt that if we're going to do something, now is the time to do it and we're very fortunate to be able to hire Rick Bowness."

The 70-year-old came out of retirement to replace Evason, a 61-year-old in his second season who went 59-52-16 in 127 games. Bowness previously was coach of the Winnipeg Jets from 2022-24 and the Dallas Stars from 2019-22. He guided the Stars to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final, a six-game loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"For us, bit of a shock, a wake-up call that we can use and hopefully use in the right way," Columbus captain Boone Jenner said. "I'm excited for our group to respond the way that we know how and the way we should. We're a resilient group in here and I think we're really looking forward to Rick coming in and using that new perspective and energy.

"I think our focus has to be here tonight and a little bit of a homestand this week where we've got to take care of business to get some points and get us back into it."

Though the Blue Jackets ended a 1-3-0 trip with a 3-2 win at the Utah Mammoth on Sunday, nine of their 26 losses (including overtime and the shootout) came after holding a third-period lead and have a minus-24 goal differential in the period. Waddell said blowing a 4-1 lead in a 5-4 overtime loss at home to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 4 was the turning point.

Waddell was with the team for the next game, a 5-2 loss at the San Jose Sharks. He sensed from conversations with the players that they were unhappy with their performance.

"They weren't bashing the coach, but I could tell that they were frustrated with how things were going," he said.

That set the process in motion to fire Evason and replace him with Bowness, who's 310-408-37 with 48 ties in 803 games as an NHL head coach with the Jets, Stars, Phoenix Coyotes, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins.

"When I looked at the roster, and I did see a few of their games during the year, I looked at that team and said, 'I think I can help that team, " Bowness said. "They're better than their record shows. And listen, every team has had their injuries, and every team has been set back by their injuries, and that's certainly affected this squad, but I feel that Columbus is among the teams, honestly, I feel I can help."

Assistant Steve McCarthy was also fired one season after the Blue Jackets went 40-33-9 to finish two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card from the East. They have not qualified for the postseason since 2019-20.

"Don felt like this was a time to make a change," defenseman Zach Werenski said. "I keep saying it, but I feel like that's him telling us he still believes in this group. He believes in this season and now we just have to do our part.

"You never want to see people lose their jobs because of your play on the ice. I feel like for our group that it's pretty much these next stretch of games that's going to make our season."

Columbus forward Sean Monahan played 34 regular-season games under Bowness with Winnipeg in 2023-24. He doesn't expect him to ease into his new job.

"We've still got time to get back in this fight and he's here to win, so it's not like he just came in to coach again," he said. " He believes in this group and that's the biggest thing.

"It's our time to step up here and take some pride in doing this the right way. Just under 40 games to go, there's time for sure and I think the biggest thing is the belief in this room. We believe we can do it. We've all got to jump on board and be on the same page every night."