The Columbus Blue Jackets are entering a new era in hockey after the team named Dean Evason as the team’s head coach en route to the 2024-25 season. The Blue Jackets seek to improve in their games next campaign after finishing dead last in the Eastern Conference with a 27-43-12 record in the 2023-24 season.

Coaching changes can be tough for many teams, especially in the middle of the season where a winning pace can be hampered. For the Blue Jackets, bringing in a new coach in the offseason after a poor outing in the previous campaign says a lot about how the management now wants to see the team get back on track with the hopes of getting to the playoff mix once more.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have not won any Stanley Cups in its entire franchise history, which just means that there are high expectations for the team to come up with a deep playoff run, especially with the fact that the team has only managed to break past the first round twice over the years.

A New Groove for Columbus

After qualifying for the playoffs for four years in a row from the 2016-17 season to the 2019-20 campaign, the Blue Jackets have not made it to the postseason stage ever since and have missed the playoffs in four straight years, which says a lot about how the team is in dire need of promising development if they are going to come up with a promising groove that will allow them to get back to the postseason.

The team did have a potential winning record in the 2021-22 season, where they finished with a 37-38-7 record, but failed to go one more spot ahead for the wild card. In three of the last four seasons, Columbus has finished with the eighth-seed in the Central Division as well.

With a new coach, the Blue Jackets get a chance to revamp their hopes of reaching the postseason, and hopefully build a roster that is slated to contend against the best of the best in the stacked Eastern Conference, which includes defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers. But who knows, maybe the Blue Jackets can come up with a different groove that will see them back in the playoff chase once more.

Bigger Hopes with Evason

At the age of 59, Evason replaces Pascal Vincent as the head coach for the Blue Jackets. Evason initially coached for the Minnesota Wild before he was fired by the team last November 2023, and he was 147-77-27 in five seasons since replacing Bruce Boudreau on Feb. 14, 2020.

“I am incredibly proud and honored to be named the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets and appreciate very much the opportunity that Don Waddell, general manager, the McConnell family and president Mike Priest have extended to me,” Evason said. “There is a great core and a lot of young talent on this team. I am really looking forward to working with this group and helping us become a team that plays extremely hard and competes at the highest level.”

The Blue Jackets are hoping to see a change of pace in the game, and it does seem that adding Evason as the head coach would mean a lot for their chances of winning now more than ever.