Of all the decisions Don Waddell faced in his first summer as Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and general manager – and there were many – there was one above all he had to get right.
The head coaching position.
It didn’t come together as quickly as some Blue Jackets fans would have preferred, but Waddell and his front office took their time to make sure they hired the right person. In the end, the Blue Jackets brass settled on Dean Evason.
It wasn’t just his success in Minnesota, where Evason made four playoff appearances and amassed the seventh-best points percentage of any coach in NHL history with at least 250 games. It wasn’t just his 25 years as a coach at all different levels, or the passion and intensity he brings.
Indeed, what separated Evason was his drive to be behind this particular bench.
“Every time I talked to him, I felt the passion to coach, but the passion to coach the Blue Jackets,” Waddell said. “That was important to me. Everybody wants a head job and all that, but you want somebody that wants to be with your team.”
Throughout training camp, presented by OhioHealth, that much is clear. Evason has brought a renewed energy to the Blue Jackets, with his relentless but fair style pushing the team on the ice.
Off of it, putting on the union blue coach’s jacket each day has brought him energy in his second chance at a head coaching job.
“I’m very proud to represent not only the Columbus Blue Jackets but Columbus and the state of Ohio,” Evason said. “It’s one thing to build relationships with the players, which I personally want to do, but I also would like to build a relationship with the fans.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean one-on-one, but they understand how our group is going to play, they understand how our coaching staff is going to coach. You build that trust in them that we are going to work hard every single night.”
Through his first few weeks in charge of the Blue Jackets, that has been Evason’s promise – that the team won’t win every game, but it will show up every night and deliver a strong effort.
How does he plan to get that out of the Blue Jackets?
A Clean Slate
Evason was hired in late July to take over in Columbus, giving him two months to learn what he wanted to learn about the squad before training camp. Video coaches Dan Singleton and Aron Augustitus sent him clips of his new players, and the Blue Jackets return excellent resources in assistant coaches Steve McCarthy and Jared Boll.
Yet Evason has been adamant that poring over video or inhaling scouting reports wasn’t on his mind. Instead, he came to camp hoping to learn about his new charges in person, preferring to give each player a clean slate to work with.
“I don’t care what happened last year,” Evason said. “I don’t care how a player played last year. I care how they’re prepared this year, how they’re going to play for our hockey club this upcoming season.
Why was that his approach?
“I just want to create the relationships and build relationships with a fresh start,” Evason said. “My opening conversation with the group was that everyone has a clean slate, and I wanted to be forthcoming with that. I didn’t ask for personalities. I didn’t ask how they played. I didn’t watch video. I just wanted to make sure that everybody truly had a clean slate moving forward.”
While from the outside, it may have appeared the Blue Jackets needed major changes after missing the postseason for the past four years, that’s not what Evason found when he arrived.
Injuries and a turn to youth on the roster have been major factors in the Blue Jackets’ struggles in the standings the past few years, but Evason was comforted by what he inherited in the locker room when he arrived. Not only are those young players set to make jumps forward given the experience they’ve gained the past few years, but there’s also a core of veterans who have helped create a strong atmosphere in the locker room.
That bond has only increased in the last few weeks as the team has come together following the passing of Johnny Gaudreau, and Evason sees a team and a culture that are in place to help the Blue Jackets both on and off the ice.
“A lot of people have talked about, ‘Oh, we have to change the culture in Columbus,’ and this and that,” Evason said. “I came into a situation where these guys are close-knit already. I think it’s a huge credit to our leadership group.”
Still, Evason has been looking for little ways to continue to drive home the team culture. Upon arriving in Columbus, he noticed that each player had a photo of himself placed above their locker in the room; Evason’s mandate was to make sure that there would be no individual photos – players were to be featured with their teammates instead.
In addition, while seats in the room were previously separated by position group, Evason wanted forwards and defensemen to be mixed together in order to build more personal relationships.
“It’s a subtle change, and I think it’s been a big change,” Waddell said. “It goes a long way.”
What He’s Looking For
When it came to finding a new head coach, Waddell certainly did his due diligence. Some of that included putting a lot of trust in Rick Nash, the Blue Jackets legend who was recently promoted to director of hockey operations for the club.
Nash served as the general manager of Team Canada at this spring’s IIHF World Championship, and it just so happened that Evason was one of the assistant coaches for the squad. That time together in Czechia allowed Nash the opportunity to see Evason’s coaching style up close, and Nash came away impressed.
“I got to spend a month with Dean at the Worlds,” he said. “I got to know him well over there. He’s intense, he’s got a lot of personality to him, and he demands hard work in practice, hard work in games. That’s why most of his teams hardly ever get outworked.”
The Blue Jackets players already seem to be bought in. It helps that Evason brings a track record of success, and their early dealings with him show a coach that knows how to get the most out of his team.
“He demands respect,” Werenski said. “He’s been around for so long. Just the way he carries himself and how honest he is, you can’t not respect the guy. The way he approaches things, the way he’s been fair to all of us so far, I can’t say enough good things about it.”
Added captain Boone Jenner: “It’s been great getting to know Dean. It’s exciting for our group. We’re going to play as a team, we’re going to play for each other. I think that’s where our foundation needs to start. We can build on that, but he brings that experience and he’s been around the game for a long, long time and knows a lot about it and how to get a team together. We’re excited for that.”
On the ice, that means installing a system in a clear and concise manner. When it comes to systems and what is expected on the ice, Evason’s goal has been to reduce any confusion in what he’s looking for from his players.
“He’s been coaching pretty much as long as I’ve been alive, to be honest,” Werenski said. “He was really good in Minnesota. Obviously they struggled a little bit last year, but after having conversations with him, the one thing that I gathered was, it’s just black and white. He’s gonna tell you how it is. There’s no gray areas. And I think that makes it easy as a player, when you’re not thinking too much. You just know what’s right, know what’s wrong. It allows you to go out there and play and it frees you up a bit.”
Evason would likely smile were he to hear that comment from Werenski.
“You want to push them to get better,” Evason said. “I know what players want is less gray. They want black and white – ‘Here’s the deal. This is how things are going to go, and if you do it that way, you get rewarded. If you don’t, you don’t.’ Simple as that.”
A Team Atmosphere
When each day’s practice is complete, the Blue Jackets like most NHL teams now form a stretching circle around center ice.
As the players stretch their legs, Evason skates around the entirety of the circle and gives each of the Blue Jackets a tap on the back with his stick. It’s a coach’s way to show his appreciation for a hard day’s work.
“It’s one of those little things,” defenseman Damon Severson said. “The confirmation that it was a good day. If the coach is saying, ‘All right boys, stretch out and finish,’ and he gets off the ice, it’s probably not a good thing. He might not be super happy with that. But he’s giving guys a whack, the odd chirp flies in with certain guys that maybe made a mistake or did something funny in practice, it’s a good way to end the day.”
While Evason clearly expects a lot of his players on the ice, one of the most underrated parts of his approach might be his personality. With a 13-year NHL playing career that began in 1984 and a coaching career that started in 1999, Evason has spent four decades in locker rooms, and he has an intimate knowledge of how they operate.
Part of that means speaking in the language of the room, which means not being afraid to have fun with his players.
“He likes to joke around, chirp guys,” Werenski said. “It comes with playing in the NHL. We’re all chirping each other in the room. That’s what happens when you’re around each other every day. He fits right in, in that aspect. All our coaches do. It’s been really good having these guys around and having some new faces in here. It’s a little bit different from years past. I’ve really enjoyed it so far.”
Severson agreed. The longtime NHL defenseman played under Evason at this spring’s Worlds, where Evason ran the defensive corps. When the new coach arrived, Severson joked with Evason – who now spends more time with the forward group – that he was getting a break now that he didn’t have to spend every day under his microscope.
“It just lightens the mood a little bit,” Severson said of Evason’s sense of humor. “He gets his point across that when it’s time to work at the rink, I’m your coach and I’m going to have to be hard on guys sometimes when they’re not pulling their weight. But when it comes time to leave and live our lives away from the rink, it’s a totally different thing.
“Obviously, things aren’t going to always go great no matter how good of a team you are. As long as you’re able to stick together and be able to have those lighthearted moments in a long season, it makes things a little bit easier and makes guys want to play for him that much harder.”
For Evason, that’s all part of being the best coach he can be.
“I think it’s important that you do (build relationships), but then you don’t change if things go sideways,” he said. “If I have to have a firm meeting with a player, if I see him in the parking lot or the hotel lobby or whatever, it’s over. We’ve had our discussion. It’ll be done one-on-one, hopefully correct it, and we move forward. We’re human beings. We’re men. We treat each other properly, I hope the players understand that.”
At the end of the day, Evason has a perspective on how he wants to approach things. While the work has to be put in, there’s still room for enjoying the game.
For someone who has spent his entire life dedicated to the sport, he’s appreciative of the chance to still have an opportunity to be working at the highest level.
“It’s fun,” he said. “Listen, we’re playing a game. It’s fantastic, right? We’re in the NHL. How do you get better than that? We’ve all dreamed of it, and I'm fortunate to still be in it.”
