The Blue Jackets have their man, bringing in Dean Evason as the team’s 11th full-time head coach in franchise history.
With 25 years of coaching experience – including five as the head coach of the Minnesota Wild from 2020-24 – Evason brings a .639 points percentage to the table as an NHL bench boss.
Here are five things to know about Evason as he begins his CBJ tenure.
1. Instant Analysis: Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell was on the record as wanting a coach with NHL experience, and that’s what he gets with Evason. Columbus tried first-time head coaches with its recent hires of Brad Larsen and Pascal Vincent, but the hope is someone like Evason can lead the team back into playoff contention, much like previous veterans Ken Hitchcock and John Tortorella. Evason had success in previous years molding Minnesota into a consistent winner, posting points percentages above .600 and making the playoffs in each of his three full seasons with the Wild. For where the team is right now, the hire of Evason makes a lot of sense.
2. The Bio File: Now 59, Evason has spent a life in the game. A native of the fantastically named town of Flin Flon, Manitoba, he was an accomplished junior player, scoring more than a goal per game in 1982-83 with 71 tallies in 70 games with Kamloops of the WHL. After scoring 120 times in his last 127 WHL games, Evason – a fifth-round pick of Washington – made his NHL debut right away in 1983-84. He’d go on to a 13-year NHL career (803 games, 139 goals and 233 assists), highlighted by seven seasons in Hartford as well as stints with the Caps, San Jose, Dallas and Calgary. After three years in Europe to finish his playing career, he got into coaching, spending five seasons as a head coach in the WHL with Spokane and Vancouver. Evason then made the jump to the NHL in 2005-06, spending seven years as an assistant with Washington, before six years as head coach of AHL Milwaukee. He was midway through his second season as an assistant with Minnesota in 2019-20 when he was promoted to head coach.
3. Evason's Accomplishments: Evason posted a 147-77-21 record with Minnesota, and his points percentage of .639 is seventh in NHL history among coaches with at least 250 games. His 2021-22 season with the Wild was a high-water mark for the franchise, as the team’s 53 wins and .689 points percentage are single-season records in Minnesota. Such young players as Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala and Joel Eriksson Ek began to realize their immense potential under Evason, becoming big-time scorers at the NHL level. In his last 11 full-time seasons as head coach at the WHL, AHL and NHL levels, Evason’s teams have made the playoffs nine times.
4. A Hockey Family: Evason comes from a family that’s had a long history in the game, as his father and brother are both in the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame along with Dean. His father, Al, was a member of the 1965-66 Flin Flon Warriors team that won the Manitoba Intermediate Championship for a third straight time and was Canada’s top amateur team that season. A great athlete, Al was also a member of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame. Evason’s late brother, Danial, was known as “Heavy” and grew up playing junior hockey with Dean before becoming a coach, manager and scout.
5. Hartford Connection: Evason spent seven years playing in Hartford, where he’d cross paths with many of the eventual coaches he’d be battling against down the road. Among the NHL head coaches he played with as a Whaler include the second-winningest coach of all time in Joel Quenneville as well as Kevin Dineen, Dave Tippett, John Stevens and Randy Cunneyworth plus longtime CBJ assistant Brad Shaw. Among the future NHL GMs he played with are Ron Francis, Pat Verbeek, Marc Bergevin and Paul Fenton, while lead ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro was also a Whaler teammate.
