Experience could be the edge as the Columbus Blue Jackets begin the search for a new head coach.
Columbus fired Pascal Vincent on Monday after only one season behind the bench. The Blue Jackets finished last in the Eastern Conference with a 27-43-12 record (66 points) and missed the playoffs for a fourth straight year.
The front office restructuring for the franchise began before the season even ended as general manager Jarmo Kekalainen was let go on Feb. 15. Columbus hired former Carolina Hurricanes executive Don Waddell as GM on May 28. Waddell was also named president of hockey operations with John Davidson moving into an advisory role.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes the Blue Jackets will target a veteran coach to fill their vacancy and mentioned a familiar name from Waddell’s past.
“I think it’s obvious to me, Columbus, they’re going to go experience here,” Friedman said Tuesday on The Jeff Marek Show. “I really think they are. I’ll tell you this, someone said to me, ‘I have no idea if he’s even remotely interested in coaching,’ but they wondered if Don Waddell would talk to Bob Hartley.”
Hartley coached the Atlanta Thrashers for parts of five seasons from 2003-07 when Waddell was the general manager of the team.
The 63-year-old Hartley guided the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 2001 and earned the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year with the Calgary Flames in 2015. He hasn’t coached in the NHL since he was fired by the Flames the following year and was most recently with the KHL’s Omsk Avangard (2018-22).
“He was there in a really hard time in Atlanta,” Friedman said. “I remember players there just saying in the aftermath of Dan Snyder’s passing, he really stabilized those players and a lot of players who said he did an unbelievable job just settling everyone and building something after that.
“I don’t even know if he’d be interested but just someone that called me last night and said, ‘I’m curious to see if Waddell would even go to him.'”
Claude Julien, who helped the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011, was another name mentioned. The 64-year-old has coached for 18 seasons in the NHL and earned the Jack Adams Award in 2009.
Julien last coached with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021.
“Claude Julien is a great call. It really is,” Friedman said. “You want someone who teaches structure. … The way Vincent coached this year, it really showed to me that they wanted to, especially some of the players there, they wanted to make it more demanding on them. It didn’t work but that doesn’t mean you can’t hire someone who is demanding and has structure.”
Friedman wasn’t surprised Vincent was fired as it was a very difficult situation for him considering the circumstances.
“I think that Vincent will land on his feet,” Friedman said. “Enough people know him. … A couple people in the coaching fraternity reached out to me and said, ‘We understand that this is a business but it’s a brutal spot for him to be in.’ I think that’s how it kind of how it got out because I think people just said this wasn’t a position where it was going to be easy or possible to succeed.”