Evason hoping for 'long playoff drive' after being hired as Blue Jackets coach

Dean Evason and the Columbus Blue Jackets might just be the perfect match to forge ahead together in a race to achieve what for both has been as of yet, unachievable.

Evason, named Columbus' new coach Monday and introduced in a press conference at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday, has never gone further than the second round in 18 appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- nine as a player, five as an assistant and four as a head coach.

Columbus has won one series in six playoff appearances since joining the NHL in 2000-01 (not including the qualifying round in 2020).

Motivation is not lacking. Passion is obvious. It's what landed Evason the job. It's what will drive him and the Blue Jackets.

"That long playoff drive, I'll be honest with you, eats at me too," Evason said Tuesday. "That's what I want as a head coach. That's what our players want. Obviously, that's what [general manager] Don [Waddell] wants and the ownership here. But sure, most importantly the fanbase wants that, 100 percent."

It took Evason 23 seconds into his opening remarks to utter the words "Stanley Cup." It came after a couple of the obligatory thank yous. If those weren't necessary, it likely would have been the first thing he said, maybe the first two words.

He said "Stanley Cup" again 25 seconds later, concluding his opening remarks. He mentioned it several more times in the 34-minute press conference that featured questions from reporters in person and on Zoom.

"We want to win the Stanley Cup," Evason said. "I've dreamt of hoisting the Stanley Cup with a blue suit on. That's what you do. I had a passion to lift the Stanley Cup with my skates on. That's not going to happen. But I have this opportunity to hoist the Stanley Cup with a suit on. That's my desire. That's my drive. That's why I'm sitting here. That's why every player who comes into our locker room will have that same drive, that same desire and that same goal. Hopefully we can accomplish it sooner than later."

It's a stretch to suggest the Stanley Cup is attainable for the Blue Jackets this season.

To start, they're coming off a last-place finish in the Metropolitan Division last season, a 27-43-12 record, their 66 points the fewest by 10 in the Eastern Conference and the fourth fewest in the NHL. Columbus has not qualified for the playoffs each of the past four seasons and has not finished higher than fifth in their division since 2017-18.

Evason is new and fresh. He doesn't know the players. He has never coached any of them in the NHL. He has to get to know them, a process he will conduct in advance of training camp through some in person visits throughout the summer and telephone calls or virtual meetings.

He has to do the same with the assistants that are currently in place on his staff in Jared Boll, Mark Recchi, Steve McCarthy and goalie coach Niklas Backstrom. Evason has to meet them, get to know them, and determine if they're who he wants to work with.

"We've got a lot of things to get to before training camp," Evason said.

Waddell is new. He was hired as GM and president of hockey operations on May 28. Evason is his first major hire. He said it was a decision based on Evason's passion for the game and his ability to bring structure, discipline and details to a team.

Evason coached the Minnesota Wild to a 147-77-27 record in 251 games over parts of five seasons from 2020-24, his .639 points percentage ranking fifth among active NHL coaches with 250 or more games.

"One thing that Dean really brought to the table that I really believe after being here for a month and a half that we needed was the passion, the structure, the process that he's going to put in place to make the players accountable," Waddell said. "We talked about it back when I was hired that was an important thing for this organization to be able to take the next step. We feel we have some good young players to go with our veterans, but we needed a better structure."

Locking down the structure and the style they will play will be Evason's first task. Identity comes before skill and talent on all winning teams, the Florida Panthers of last season and the Vegas Golden Knights of two seasons ago being the latest examples.

The Blue Jackets have rarely been identifiable by the way they play.

They grew to be that way under Ken Hitchcock, when they won 41 games and made the playoffs for the first time in 2008-09. They were that way under John Tortorella, when they were a perennial playoff team from 2017-20.

But there has been little recognition of who they are and what they want to be since. There never was before Hitchcock coached them and there was a lack of it between his tenure and Tortorella's.

"I'm looking forward to getting in that room with this group and creating that atmosphere, that winning atmosphere, that atmosphere that we're never going to get outworked," Evason said. "When we go into a building or teams come in here, they know that if they don't work hard they lose. Simple as that. Our hockey club will work hard each and every night. We might get beat on some skillset one night or another, but we can never get outworked. I'm looking forward to that challenge."

Once the identity is established, there is a lot of reason for optimism about the Blue Jackets' skill and talent, enough to believe that Year One under Evason will be an improvement from last season under former coach Pascal Vincent.

"I don't know exactly what we have in that room, but I do know from the outside looking in that it's fantastic on paper," Evason said.

There's an established core group of players featuring forwards Johnny Gaudreau and Boone Jenner, defensemen Zach Werenski, Damon Severson and Ivan Provorov, and goalie Elvis Merzlikins, who has not had the benefit of playing behind structurally strong defensive teams.

Columbus added Sean Monahan on a five-year, $27.5 million contract ($5.5 million average annual value) on July 1 to likely be the No. 1 center this season.

Adam Fantilli is entering his second NHL season and although he's still young (19 years old), the potential is great for the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, who had 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) in 49 games as a rookie last season.

Kirill Marchenko scored 23 goals last season after scoring 21 as a rookie two seasons ago. Thirty is achievable. Yegor Chinakhov had 16 goals in 53 games last season after scoring 11 in his first 92 NHL games.

Dmitri Voronkov scored 18 as a rookie last season. The 23-year-old could be on the third line with Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger, each 21 years old, and the Nos. 5 and 12 picks, respectively, in the 2021 NHL Draft.

Columbus has two top defenseman prospects on the rise in David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk, picks No. 6 and No. 12, respectively, in the 2022 draft. One or both could make an impact in the NHL this season.

"The foundation is set here, it just needs to be built upon," Evason said. "That's what our job is. That's what Don and I believe that we are going to accomplish to meet that ultimate goal."