There is a bit of irony in Dean Evason being the Blue Jackets head coach because, in a roundabout way, he’s kind of responsible for a couple of the current players being on the roster.
Flash back to the spring of 2022 and a young CBJ team had a hard reality check in a pair of games against a bigger, more physical Minnesota squad coached by Evason.
First, on March 11 in Nationwide Arena, the end of a spirited affair between the squads was marked by a hit by Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno on Jake Voracek, an open-ice, knee-on-knee collision in the final minute that sent the then-CBJ winger flying and then lying on the ice in pain.
TRAINING CAMP HOME, PRESENTED BY OHIOHEALTH
Fifteen days later, the teams met again in Minnesota, and again the Wild tried to impose their physical nature against the Blue Jackets. Late in the first period of that contest, Minnesota defenseman Jacob Middleton leveled Zach Werenski as the CBJ defenseman followed through on a shot, causing Werenski to miss the rest of the game with a hit the Jackets’ bench thought was high.
The Blue Jackets spent most of the 2021-22 season without a true heavyweight in the lineup – Vladislav Gavrikov and Sean Kuraly were the top CBJ players in terms of penalty minutes – but that would change in the ensuing offseason. Columbus went out and acquired forward Mathieu Olivier and Erik Gudbranson, giving the team some larger presences who made opposing teams think twice about taking liberties.
When Evason was informed by reporters during training camp of the impact his Wild team from three seasons ago had on the future of things in Columbus, he cracked a bit of a smile.
“Some people have called me a pugilist, but I don’t believe it,” Evason said. “It’s just hard hockey. It’s just intense. I want the guys to play hard every night. I like to think that I’m an intense person, and hopefully that translates to the group.”
Indeed, Evason’s pledge since his arrival is that the Blue Jackets may not win every game, but they won’t be outworked. It’s something every hockey coach is looking for, but Evason has a series of results to back it up, including playoff appearances in his three full seasons in Minnesota as well as the seventh-best points percentage of any coach in NHL history with at least 250 games behind the bench.
His hope is to instill an aggressive style that will pressure opponents into mistakes, and the Blue Jackets seem to have buy-in already for that.
“I think he just expects the team to play a certain way regardless of your role on the team,” Olivier said. “We’re going to be a much harder, more physical team all around. Even excluding me out of that – that's more of my game – just as a team we’re going to be more leaning toward that kind of style of play. For a group like us, a young group like us, that’s good. We’re going to be able to showcase our skill, but also implement that in our overall game.”
Evason also doesn’t have any concern about his team’s ability to play such a game, as he’s been impressed by the compete level he’s seen so far in camp.
“Everybody talks about our young skill – I see more bite in our game than people give us credit for,” Evason said. “That doesn’t mean we’re running around and hitting people. It just means we’re going to put pressure on teams.
“If you want to label what I do, I want high-intense hockey all over the hockey – playing with pressure, putting heat on people, and playing a fast, hard game.”
Bigger is Better
When discussing his team after Saturday’s practice, Evason’s mind turned toward one of his new players, Dmitri Voronkov, and excitement was clear in the head coach’s words.
“I didn’t realize how frickin’ big he is,” Evason said with wonder in his voice. “He’s massive! I’m very excited. You get goosebumps talking about that because he’s a big, big man and skates really well.”
Of course, there’s only one Dmitri Voronkov, but Evason still seems quite happy with one underrated area of his team – its size.
The Blue Jackets have become known for undersized players who have an outsized impact on the game over the years, from Cam Atkinson to Johnny Gaudreau to Justin Danforth to even someone like Nick Blankenburg. There are also some smaller prospects in the pipeline like Gavin Brindley and Jordan Dumais who hope to make an impact sooner rather than later.
But as Evason – who was listed at 5-foot-10 during his playing days – tries to implement that in-your-face, aggressive style, he’s happy as he looks around on the ice and sees some bigger players who can hold their own.
"I like the size of our team,” he said. “It’s also easy because they’re all bigger than me.”
When new general manager and president of hockey operations Don Waddell took over, that was one area of the team he wanted to focus on improving. You can see it in his offseason acquisitions, including the addition of such bigger players as Sean Monahan (6-2, 202), Jack Johnson (6-1, 227) and James van Riemsdyk (6-3, 207). That was also a target in the draft, starting with first-round pick Cayden Lindstrom (6-3, 214).
“When I looked at the roster – and I knew this roster well very well from the last few years – even when I got here, watching a lot of the video, some of our better players are not the biggest size,” Waddell said. “When you have that opportunity to add guys like Jack and Monahan and JVR, I think it just makes sense to add those type of players to your current roster.
“Scoring off the rush is hard. You don’t get that many opportunities. You get maybe a few 2-on-1s every few games. Being able to get the puck and cycle down low, you need not only skill players but you need some big bodies, and I think we have those guys.”
Looking at the Lineup
There’s still more than a week left in camp, but it’s probably fair to say there’s not many spots on the opening night CBJ roster that are left up for grabs.
Columbus still has 47 players in training camp, but the line rushes the team has used so far in camp leads one to believe many of the roster spots are set.
Monahan has centered the top line throughout camp with Boone Jenner and Kirill Marchenko on either side, while van Riemsdyk, Voronkov, Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger and Yegor Chinakhov comprised the middle six. With Danforth rehabbing a wrist injury, Sean Kuraly and Mathieu Olivier have made up the fourth line, splitting time so far with Owen Sillinger and Dylan Gambrell.
On defense, there are seemingly four locks to make the team – Zach Werenski, Ivan Provorov, Damon Severson and Erik Gudbranson – while David Jiricek and Jack Johnson have filled the other two spots in the top six as Jake Christiansen, Jordan Harris and Denton Mateychuk also state their cases. In net, it’s all but a lock the two goalies will be Elvis Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov to start the campaign.
Of course, none of this is written in stone – you could see young forwards like Brindley, Luca Del Bel Belluz and James Malatesta continue to push – but the reality appears to be there aren’t a ton of position battles.
At the same time, things will continue to evolve as the season goes on, and Evason wants his players to know they have the chance to change things as the year goes on.
“We’ve talked to them right from the start,” Evason said. “If you don’t like your role, then change it.”
Johnson’s Good Start
In chatting with Kent Johnson over the weekend, one thing was obvious – the fifth overall draft pick in the 2021 draft was ready to go.
Last season wasn’t what Johnson wanted in really any way – his numbers all went down across the board from 16-24-40 in 2022-23 to 6-10-16 in ‘23-24 – and he was limited to just 42 games by an AHL stint and a season-ending shoulder injury suffered in February.
So as he began camp and almost immediately started playing with pace, winning battles and filling up the net, Johnson was happy with his progress. But the big step for him came Wednesday, when he got an opportunity to be back in a game setting in the preseason contest vs. St. Louis.
“I feel great – definitely better than ever, and I feel pretty confident in all the work and all the people I had helping me this summer,” Johnson said. “I feel good, feel faster, stronger, and just ready to go. It’s been so long. It’s exciting.”
Johnson didn’t disappoint, finishing with an empty-net goal, an assist, and a team-high-tying five shots on goal. He was noticeable on almost every shift, whether that was winning battles with his stick, setting up teammates with seeing-eye passes, or disrupting the opposing power-play unit.
There’s still a lot of work to be done in camp, but it’s fair to say the wing could be set for a breakout season.
“You guys saw it for the first time with all the lights tonight,” Kuraly said. “We’ve been seeing that for a couple weeks here. He’s been a dog on pucks. You can see his mentality. It’s no secret – it's second effort on pucks, and even if he loses the first one, he’s hunting the pucks. It’s just the start, but he’s off to a good start.”
Power Play Practice
If you’re a Blue Jackets fan, you don’t need an explanation as far as how frustrating the team’s flagging power play has been in recent seasons.
Columbus has finished in the bottom 10 of the NHL in power-play percentage in each of the past seven seasons, leaving goals on the board that could be the difference between a one-goal loss and a point or two in the standings.
It’s been a common theme across the three head coaches in that span, and expecting things to change massively right off the bat under Evason might be too much. But fans would likely be happy to know the new head coach at least has made the power play a focus, already starting to drill the team on the basic fundametnals he and his staff would like to see.
The highlight was Sunday’s power-play practice, in which the players most likely to be on the top power-play units spent a 45-minute session on the ice learning and practicing.
“I’ve always believed that it’s important,” Evason said. “If you’re gonna dial in your systems, you probably should dial in one of the two most important ones, right? They’re all important, but to actually work on it early, get our thought process – we don’t try to overload them with too much, but we get the basics of it and then we can teach through these eight games before we get to the regular season here.”
