Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering: After coaching flops, Jackets want 'accountability and structure' (2024)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets:

Item No. 1: Craving discipline

Since joining the Blue Jackets as president of hockey operations and general manager late last month, Don Waddell has filled much of his days with getting-to-know-you meetings with his new underlings. By his estimation, that includes approximately 15 players.

Those conversations “are more about how they felt their season went, how their summers are going and what we have to look forward to this coming season,” Waddell said.

Asked if the players had any impact on his decision to fire coach Pascal Vincent, or if they will have any input on hiring the next coach, Waddell didn’t mince words.

“The players don’t have any say in who’s coaching this hockey team,” Waddell said. “Managers manage, coaches coach and players play.”

But it’s fair to say that Waddell’s decisions have been informed by what he heard from the players.

Waddell has said that he’s identified 12 potential candidates, and plans to whittle that list to no more than three or four candidates worthy of interviews. Those interviews are likely to begin this week in Las Vegas, where the Blue Jackets will gather in advance of the NHL Draft next weekend.

It has been made clear by Waddell that only coaches with previous NHL head-coaching experience will be considered, and it’s easy to see how he reached that conclusion.

Blue Jackets players, especially the veteran players, are craving a coach who doesn’t just preach accountability but enforces it, who doesn’t just talk about standards but demands them. He plans to hire a coach who won’t need a feeling-out process to get up to speed in guiding a room full of NHLers.

The Blue Jackets last two coaches — Brad Larsen (two seasons) and Vincent (one) — were first-time NHL head coaches, and it didn’t go well.

Larsen was the top assistant under former coach John Tortorella, and the assumption was that he’d be able to keep the room together. But two seasons later — after one near-.500 season and one dreadful season — former GM Jarmo Kekalainen called Larsen’s firing “absolutely necessary.”

Then, early last week, Waddell was rather firm in explaining why he decided to let Vincent go after only one season, even though most can agree that Vincent was not hired under the best circ*mstances. (He took over the club four days before training camp after Mike Babco*ck was fired before even running a practice, much less coaching in a game.)

“At the end of the day,” Waddell said, “I just couldn’t get comfortable that he’d be the guy who could take us to the next level.”

He told The Columbus Dispatch: “You’re not letting players dictate who your coach is, but you heard some things that probably weren’t what I expected to hear.”

Incredibly, there are only five players left who played under coach John Tortorella, the last veteran coach in Columbus and the winningest coach in the history of the Blue Jackets. The rest of them may be in for a rude awakening, but that’s probably a good thing.

Among the names that have surfaced as likely candidates:

• Todd McLellan, who has coached in San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles
• Dean Evason, who has coached in Minnesota
• Jeff Blashill, who has coached in Detroit
• Gerard Gallant, who has coached in Columbus, Florida, Vegas and the New York Rangers

One of the coaches believed to be a candidate for the Blue Jackets job was told in a text exchange with The Athletic that the club’s veteran players are wanting “accountability and structure and coaching.” His response: “I can provide all of those things.”

Waddell acknowledged that Bob Hartley, who coached Atlanta and Colorado in the NHL before spending almost a decade coaching in Russia and coaching Latvia in international tournaments, has expressed an interest in the job.

It remains unknown whether the NHL will clear former St. Louis, Colorado, Chicago and Florida coach Joel Quenneville, who was suspended indefinitely by the league for his role in the Chicago Blackhawks’ sexual-abuse cover-up.

The Blue Jackets were willing to interview Quenneville last summer if he’d been cleared by the NHL, but commissioner Gary Bettman did not lift his ban. Asked about his willingness to consider Quenneville this time, Waddell side-stepped the question.

“It’s probably not in my best interest to talk about what might happen,” Waddell said. “We all know that Joel is still held back by the league. We’ll leave it up to the league to eventually answer that question.”

Item No. 2: Moving Laine

Waddell’s preference, as he gets to work trying to trade winger Patrik Laine, is to make a “hockey trade,” he said, which is to say that the Blue Jackets would like to move Laine for a player they’re excited to add to their lineup.

Of course, that’s the preference, rather than having to eat a portion of Laine’s $8.7. million salary or to take back a hefty contract attached to a player that doesn’t really excite them.

“We’ll exhaust every opportunity with every team that potentially has interest in him,” Waddell said.

The Blue Jackets have also given Laine’s agent, Andy Scott, permission to speak with other clubs regarding a trade, but it might have to go a step further.

The expectation, Waddell said, is that Laine will be cleared soon by doctors to leave the NHL/NHLPA players’ assistance program, where he’s been since January. Laine, in a social-media post shortly after he entered the program, acknowledged he entered the program for his mental health..

Until Laine is cleared, NHL clubs — the Blue Jackets included — aren’t permitted to speak directly to him. And teams that have expressed an interest in trading for him have also indicated that they’d like to speak directly with Laine before they get too serious. That’s the hold-up for now.

But what if Waddell can’t find a trade partner this summer? What if he’d have to eat so much salary, or take on another problem contract, that it doesn’t make much sense?

Laine has asked for a “change of scenery” and, best we can tell, the Blue Jackets think that’s a good idea, too. They’re ready to move on after 3 1/2 mostly frustrating seasons with Laine as one of the focal points of their offense.

But Waddell isn’t going to trade Laine just to trade him, he said. And so it’s not out of the question that Laine could still be on the Columbus roster when training camp opens in late September.

That’s when things could get messy.

“Right now, we’re all playing nice in the sandbox,” Waddell said. “Maybe there’s not something that makes sense for us, and we’d have to cross that bridge.

“We’re certainly going to look at all of the options, but you can’t rule out that if the options are limited, or if there are no options that make sense, we’ll have to deal with that.”

Item No. 3: The picks

The Blue Jackets will start this year’s draft with seven picks, but they could lose one depending on a decision they need to make after the first round on Friday.

The Jackets have the No. 4 pick in the first round. After that round finishes, they will inform Philadelphia if they’re trading the Flyers this year’s second-round pick (No. 36) or their 2025 second-round pick as part of the trade that brought defenseman Ivan Provorov to Columbus last summer.

They have a two third-round picks, their own (No. 69) and Los Angeles’ pick (No. 86) as part of the trade at the 2023 trade deadline that sent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo to the Kings.

The fourth- (No. 101), fifth- (No. 133) and sixth-round pick (No. 165) are still owned by the Blue Jackets, but they don’t have a seventh-rounder.

That pick (No. 197) belongs to Vegas, after Columbus traded it to the Golden Knights for a seventh-round pick in last year’s draft (No. 224), which they used to select forward Tyler Peddle, currently playing for Saint John of the Quebec Memorial Junior Hockey League.

Item No. 4: Snacks

• The Athletic confirmed that John H. McConnell II, son of Blue Jackets’ majority owner John P. McConnell, is now an alternate governor with the club, joining club president Mike Priest and senior advisor John Davidson in that capacity. John H. McConnell II, who was named director of Worthington Industries, the family business, in January 2023, is said to be taking on a larger role with the Blue Jackets, too, but that hasn’t been defined yet publicly. Through a club spokesman, he declined to be interviewed this week.

• Two years ago, the Blue Jackets made their biggest splash ever in free agency, signing forward Johnny Gaudreau and defenseman Erik Gudbranson to long-term deals. Last year, the Jackets were mostly quiet, celebrating July 1 not with a free-agent signing but an entry-level deal for top draft pick Adam Fantilli. Here’s Waddell on how the Blue Jackets will approach free agency this year, which begins a week from Monday: “I don’t think you’re going to get any game-changers, but we have spots we want to address. Bottom-six forwards, maybe, and defensem*n.”

• Waddell expects the Blue Jackets’ new coach to bring at least one assistant coach with him, he said. That’s why the current bench assistants — Mark Recchi, Steve McCarthy and Jared Boll — are still employed, even as they hang in limbo, awaiting their fates. Recchi and McCarthy played under Waddell with the Atlanta Thrashers in the mid-2000s. Waddell has ruled out an entire house-cleaning, however. “You want to have some stability on your coaching staff,” Waddell said. “I totally would be against bringing in four or five new guys. If he or she thinks they wouldn’t be capable working with them, we’d have to deal with that at that point.”

• Left winger Yegor Chinakhov became the first Blue Jackets player to sign a contract with Waddell, inking a two-year, $4.2 million contract on Friday that will pay him $2.1 million in each of the next two seasons. Chinakhov, 23, will still be a restricted free agent when the deal expires after the 2025-26 season. He had 16-13-29 in 53 games, but played only 15:10 per game. Interestingly, his goals-per-60 (minutes) at five-on-five play (1.38) was tops on the Blue Jackets and eighth-best in the entire NHL. Give that man some ice time.

• The Blue Jackets are looking for a TV play-by-play voice to replace Jeff Rimer, who retired after the season. Three candidates have emerged, per industry sources: Bob McElligott, the Blue Jackets’ current radio voice; Steve Mears, currently the Pittsburgh Penguins’ radio voice; and Alan Fuehring, who covers the New York Islanders for Madison Square Garden network and is radio play-by-play voice of AHL Bridgeport, the Islanders’ top minor-league affiliate.

• Blue Jackets trivia question: This year’s draft marks the fourth time the Blue Jackets have had the No. 4 overall pick. The previous years were 2010, 2003 and 2000. Name the players they picked.

• The Blue Jackets interviewed several players in Buffalo during the NHL scouting combine earlier this month, but Waddell was not present for those interviews. “I wasn’t at the combine, so we’ll interview all the top guys against (this week in Vegas),” Waddell said. The Blue Jackets’ front office should be established in Vegas by Tuesday.

• Vincent’s name already has surfaced as a likely candidate for the head-coaching vacancy with AHL Laval, which lost head coach Jean-François Houle last week when he accepted the top job at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. Vincent grew up in Laval, Quebec, where the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate is located. The Montreal Gazette this week named Vincent and Guy Boucher, who was let go by Toronto earlier this month, as leading candidates.

• The Blue Jackets confirmed that next week’s development camp (on-ice sessions July 2-4, scrimmage July 5) will be held in the Nationwide Arena Ice Haus after a two-year run at Chiller North. More details (times, roster, etc.) will be released in the coming days.

• Trivia answer: The previous Blue Jackets’ No. 4 picks were center Ryan Johansen (2010), winger Nikolay Zherdev (2003), and defenseman Rostislav Klesla (2000), the first draft pick in franchise history. The Jackets started the 2004 draft with the No. 4 pick, but traded down in the order, allowing Carolina to draft forward Andrew Ladd at No. 4. The Jackets took Alexandre Picard at No. 7.

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)