Blue Jackets Fire Dean Evason, Steve McCarthy; Hire Rick Bowness
The Columbus Blue Jackets have relieved head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Steve McCarthy of their duties. In Evason’s place, the Blue Jackets have hired veteran head coach Rick Bowness, who last coached with the Winnipeg Jets in the 2023-24 season.
Evason will become the first head coach to lose his chair this season. His ousting comes right after Columbus snapped a four-game losing streak with an overtime win against the Utah Mammoth on Sunday. Despite the three-goal performance, the Blue Jackets’ brass will opt for a change. Columbus ranks dead-last in the Eastern Conference this season with a 19-19-7 record. That record is better than four Western Conference teams.
Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell said on the firing:
This season has been a frustrating one for all of us and the bottom line is we are not performing at a level that meets our expectations… Dean did a tremendous job last year under extremely difficult circumstances and I thank him for that. I also want to thank Steve for his commitment to our club over the past five years.
Columbus hired Evason in July 2024 to replace rookie, interim head-coach Pascal Vincent after they were unable to bring on veteran coach Mike Babcock. Evason joined Columbus just two months after the GM chair was turned over to Waddell. The two inherited a Blue Jackets club that posted a dismal 27-43-12 record, scored the eighth-fewest goals, and allowed the second-most in the 2023-24 season.
New management faced an incredibly difficult task, made unimaginably worse by the passing of star winger Johnny Gaudreau in the months leading up to the 2024-25 season.
The Blue Jackets’ 2024-25 campaign seemed off to another rough start until a mid-season surge pushed them up the standings. Columbus posted a 10-3-1 record in the month of January, spurred by veteran Sean Monahan and a breakout from winger Kirill Marchenko. The club ended the season with a commendable 40-33-9 record, though they ultimately missed out on the playoffs by just one win.
That one win was the margin of error headed into the 2025-26 campaign. Even with the standout performances from Russian wingers Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov, and a bit more reliability in net, the Blue Jackets have fallen well under their mark this season. The club seems well positioned for yet another top pick, a seemingly moot success for a lineup already younger than the NHL average. Much more important would be a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which Columbus hasn’t seen since 2020.
With that motivation, the club will oust the rough-and-tumble Evason as well as assistant McCarthy, who has been on Columbus’ bench since 2021 and served on the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters bench for another five years. McCarthy, a former pro defenseman, was in charge of Columbus’ blue-line – which has finished in the bottom-seven for goals-allowed in every season under his helm.
The Blue Jackets will move forward under the lead of veteran Bowness, who brings over 40 years of coaching experience to Ohio. Bowness led the Jets to the postseason in both of his two years with the club, though lost in the first round both times. That was the same result he faced in his last of two-and-a-half years with the Dallas Stars – a tenure that kciked off with Bowness leading the Stars to the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals after being hired partway through the year.
Prior to his time in Dallas, Bowness was a career associate head coach, having spent five years in Tampa Bay, seven years in Vancouver, and seven years in Phoenix in addition to other roles. His last head coaching experience prior to 2020 was all the way back in 2003-04, when he led the Coyotes to a 2-12-3-3 record as an interim head coach. Before then, he served as the New York Islanders’ interim from 1997 to 1998, combining for a 38-50-12 record. Bowness has made two trips to the Stanley Cup Finals in his coaching career but didn’t take home the Cup.
Prior to his coaching days, Bowness was a hard-nosed bruiser in the minor-leagues, where he twice won the CHL Championship before minor-leagues merged into the modern AHL. He appeared in 173 NHL games over the course of an eight-year pro career and racked up 55 points and 191 penalty minutes.
Columbus Blue Jackets Activate, Reassign Luca Marrelli
The Columbus Blue Jackets have activated defenseman Luca Marrelli off of injured reserve, and reassigned him to the club’s AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.
Marrelli, 20, underwent offseason shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reported in September that Marrelli’s recovery timeline had him slated to return at some point in December, so his ultimate return date has fallen just a bit later than the original projections.
This activation allows Marrelli to begin his professional career. The 2024 third-round pick spent the last four years manning the blueline for the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. He steadily developed over the course of his junior hockey career, going from reserve blueliner to Oshawa’s key offensive generator from the back end. Marrelli helped Oshawa make deep playoff runs in each of his final two years in the OHL, with the Generals falling to the London Knights in the OHL finals in back-to-back years.
Marrelli’s final season in Oshawa was, as expected, his best. He managed 74 points in 67 regular-season games, and added on 36 points in 21 OHL playoff contests. That playoff performance set a Generals record for most points by a defenseman in a single playoff run, and he ended the year named a CHL Second-Team All-Star. That performance allowed Marrelli to enter the 2025-26 campaign as one of Columbus’ more highly-regarded prospects. Before the season, he was ranked as the club’s No. 7 prospect by The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, No. 8 by Elite Prospects, and No. 8 by Daily Faceoff.
Now with his pro career set to begin in Cleveland, it’s unclear at this moment where exactly on the Monsters’ defense Marrelli will slot in. With 2021 first-rounder Corson Ceulemans already in the lineup and veteran top-four stalwart Dysin Mayo recently reassigned, there does not appear to be a clear spot for Marrelli on the right side of the team’s top two pairings.
With that said, the club could shift left-shooting veteran Will Butcher back to the left side, which could keep open a spot for Marrelli on the team’s third pairing.
It will also be interesting to see if Marrelli, whose offensive ability defined his game in junior, will be able to unseat Butcher or Mayo on the Monsters power play. Butcher has 14 points in 28 games this season, while Mayo has seven in 19 games. Worth noting with the power play is that until 2025-26, Mayo has not consistently featured on an AHL power play, meaning he could be a clear candidate to surrender his role there to Marrelli.
Blue Jackets Place Mason Marchment On IR, Dysin Mayo On Waivers
Jan. 8: Mayo cleared waivers and has been reassigned to Cleveland, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Jan. 7: The Blue Jackets announced they’ve placed winger Mason Marchment on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 4. He sustained an upper-body injury in that day’s game against the Penguins and is considered week-to-week, the team said. They’ve recalled forward Mikael Pyyhtia from AHL Cleveland in a corresponding move. Additionally, defenseman Dysin Mayo has been placed on waivers and will be assigned to Cleveland tomorrow if he clears.
Marchment, 30, was scratched for yesterday’s 5-2 loss to the Sharks due to the injury. He didn’t appear to miss any action against Pittsburgh, so a week-to-week designation without any obvious-to-sight injury comes across as worse than expected. He would be eligible to come off IR as soon as Sunday against the Mammoth, but will seemingly miss several more games than that.
Acquired from the Kraken on Dec. 19, the trade has breathed new life into Marchment’s game. The 6’5″ lefty is tied with Kirill Marchenko for the team lead in goals since the swap with five. That’s one more than he had in 29 games with Seattle to begin the season.
The top-nine spark plug is now up to 20 points in 36 games on the year. That works out to 0.56 per game, his worst pace since 2022-23 with the Stars. Despite that, he’s still shooting a bit above his career average, so he’ll need to focus on continuing to get more pucks on net with Columbus when he returns to avoid a bout of regression.
Marchment had been skating on the Jackets’ top line with Marchenko and Adam Fantilli. Dmitri Voronkov took over those duties against San Jose and was dominant at 5-on-5, with that line controlling shot attempts 13-2.
It’s not anticipated that Pyyhtia will enter the lineup against the Golden Knights tomorrow. Instead, he comes up as Marchment is flexed to IR to give Columbus a healthy extra for the press box. With Marchment, Isac Lundeström, and Miles Wood now off the active roster, the Jackets’ forward depth has been stretched thin.
There are far worse recall options than Pyyhtia, though. The 24-year-old was a fourth-round pick in 2020 and has 66 games of NHL experience, including a career-high 47 appearances last season. After failing to crack the Jackets’ opening night roster this season, he’s put up nearly a point per game with Cleveland while leading the team in scoring (7-15–22 in 23 GP).
Mayo had become expendable after the club’s signing of Egor Zamula yesterday. He had been serving as a press-box defenseman with Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Smith on IR, but with Jake Christiansen set to be supplanted by Zamula in the lineup, Mayo was a redundancy. The 29-year-old righty has one assist in two outings for Columbus this year, as well as seven points and a -2 rating in 19 games for Cleveland.
Blue Jackets’ Brendan Smith Undergoes Meniscus Surgery
The Blue Jackets announced that defenseman Brendan Smith underwent successful surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. He’s been given a three-to-four-month return timeline, potentially ending his season.
Columbus’ final game of the regular season is on April 14. They have five games between then and April 6, which would be the three-month mark since Smith’s surgery, so in the most optimistic scenario, he’d be available for the final few games. In the overwhelmingly likely event that the Jackets don’t make the playoffs, those will be his only opportunities to add to a limited games played total for 2025-26.
Smith, 36, went unsigned all summer after spending 2024-25 as an extra defenseman for the Stars. He landed a professional tryout from Columbus in August but didn’t land an NHL contract out of training camp, instead agreeing to a deal with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. In late November, with the Jackets needing to add a body from Cleveland amid Erik Gudbranson‘s injury troubles, they opted to sign Smith to a two-way deal instead of recalling someone already under contract.
The 15-year vet stuck on the Jackets’ bottom pairing from the very beginning of his recall before sustaining the meniscus tear against the Senators on Dec. 29. In 15 games, he scored two assists with a -1 rating while averaging just 11:05 of ice time per game.
He largely did his job as a low-event stopgap at 5-on-5. Columbus only allowed 28.0 shots against per 60 minutes with Smith on the ice, the best figure among their seven qualified D, but they also only generated 22.16, the worst figure by a significant margin. All told, they were outchanced 72-49 with Smith on the ice at even strength.
The news of Smith’s surgery won’t cause much of a domino effect. He had already been placed on IR, and they filled in his vacated spot on the depth chart by signing Egor Zamula to a one-year, $1MM deal on Tuesday.
Smith will head into unrestricted free agency next summer. With such a limited resume for 2025-26 and undergoing a significant surgery this late in his career, retirement is far from being out of the question.
Blue Jackets Sign Egor Zamula
It didn’t take long for defenseman Egor Zamula to find a new home after having his contract terminated by the Penguins today. He’ll be sticking in the Metropolitan Division with the Blue Jackets, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Per PuckPedia, it’s a one-year deal worth a prorated $1MM salary. The team quickly made his deal official.
Zamula, 25, will step back into an NHL role with Columbus, ending a weeks-long saga about his future. After lengthy runs in the press box with the Flyers to begin the season, he landed on waivers in December and cleared. He initially reported to AHL Lehigh Valley, but the Flyers were working to either terminate his contract – something they could only do if he refused to report – or find a trade partner.
On New Year’s Eve, he was shipped to the Penguins for winger Philip Tomasino. With Pittsburgh then opting to keep him in the minors instead of recalling him, he immediately refused to report to their AHL affiliate and was suspended without pay. He became an unrestricted free agent today after clearing unconditional waivers, walking away from the rest of the two-year, $3.4MM deal he signed in 2024.
His agent, Gold Star Hockey’s Dan Milstein, said today that “all parties we spoke to were fully informed of the player’s position, including Pittsburgh.”
After recording one assist and a +4 rating in 13 games for Philadelphia earlier this season, the 6’3″ lefty will immediately get increased opportunity on a Columbus blue line that’s missing depth options Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Smith. Even when those names are back in the mix, with youngster Denton Mateychuk now shifting to his off-side full-time, Zamula is a natural candidate to supplant the struggling Jake Christiansen as the lefty option on the Jackets’ third pairing.
The Russian rearguard will have some support from countrymen Ivan Provorov, Kirill Marchenko, and Dmitri Voronkov in Columbus. He kicks off his Blue Jackets tenure with eight goals and 41 points in 168 career games.
Blue Jackets Add Laurence Gilman To Front Office
The Blue Jackets announced they’ve hired veteran executive Laurence Gilman as their vice president of hockey operations.
While it’s a different title, Gilman essentially replaces Josh Flynn, who was an assistant general manager under Don Waddell but left the organization last month to take the same job with the Sabres under their new GM, former Columbus head Jarmo Kekäläinen.
The Blue Jackets will mark the fourth NHL organization for the 61-year-old Gilman. The Winnipeg native technically got his start with his hometown team shortly before the Jets relocated to Arizona. He joined the Coyotes’ front office in 1998 as their director of hockey operations, just a couple of years after the franchise relocated from Winnipeg. He was promoted to AGM in 2001, eventually taking over GM duties for their AHL affiliate, before leaving the organization in 2007.
One year later, Gilman caught back on with the Canucks. He served as an AGM and the team’s VP of hockey operations from 2008-15, helping oversee the franchise’s two most successful regular seasons and a five-year playoff streak, Vancouver’s longest since the turn of the century.
Gilman was dismissed in 2015 along with most of his front-office colleagues after Jim Benning took over the franchise. It would be a few years before he returned to the league, but he was picked up by the Maple Leafs in 2018 as part of their front office restructuring. He quickly became Kyle Dubas’ top associate in Toronto, serving as AGM and GM of the Toronto Marlies from 2018-22. He spent the following two seasons working solely for the Marlies as their senior VP of hockey ops before eventually leaving the organization in 2024.
“I have known Laurence for many years, and I am very excited to welcome him to the Columbus Blue Jackets,” GM Don Waddell said. “He is extremely knowledgeable about all facets of team and league operations, and his experience and personality will be a great addition to our hockey operations staff.”
Jack Johnson Announces Retirement
Looking to add a top-six center, the Kings traded Johnson, along with a 2013 first-round pick, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jeff Carter. Carter played a crucial role in the Kings’ first Stanley Cup championship later that year, while Johnson experienced the best years of his career with Columbus.
Playing out the rest of his extension with the Blue Jackets, Johnson finished his first stint with the Blue Jackets, scoring 36 goals and 154 points in 445 games. Additionally, he could always be counted upon on the defensive side of the puck, never falling below a 90.0% on-ice SV% at even strength throughout his tenure in Ohio.
Latest On Sean Monahan
Colin Stephenson of Newsday Sports reported that Rangers captain J.T. Miller remains in a red no-contact jersey in practice this morning, while fellow forward Noah Laba was also a limited participant, skating on his own.
Miller has been out since December 20 after sustaining a hit versus Philadelphia, injuring his right shoulder. Subsequently, he was forced to miss the Winter Classic. Initially listed as week-to-week, the 32-year-old’s scoring has taken a step backwards so far this season, with 22 points in 35 games and a -11. However, once healthy, the veteran will lean into his imposing style and leadership on Team USA in the upcoming Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, Laba is also week-to-week with an upper-body injury, after taking a hard hit from Tom Wilson on New Year’s Eve. The rookie was an everyday player before the injury, with 12 points in 42 games on Head Coach Mike Sullivan’s third line. In his absence, 35-year-old depth forward Justin Dowling has slotted in from the AHL, getting to make his Rangers debut under the bright lights in Miami.
New York hosts Utah tomorrow night, and will do so without Miller or Laba. It is safe to assume neither will return for another week or so, but the club hopes their resounding Winter Classic win over Florida will kickstart a playoff push in the New Year.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network provided several injury updates on the Capitals: Tom Wilson is receiving further evaluation, and a better indication on a return time frame should come tomorrow. Aliaksei Protas is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Finally, Justin Sourdif and Jakob Chychrun are absent, but just due to maintenance. Wilson left last night’s game, seeming to suffer an awkward ankle injury. The team desperately hopes he won’t be out long, as the 31-year-old is possibly having his best season yet, in year 13. Wilson has been a force, leading the team with 42 points in 41 games, while still maintaining his usual wrecking ball physicality. Such output is a new level for the veteran who has a career high of 65 points, coming last season. Protas, on the other hand, missed last night’s game, his first absence of the year. The towering power forward has produced right on track with last season’s 30-goal, 66-point breakout, and thankfully, should return quickly. Washington is right back in action tomorrow night, taking on Anaheim at home, where Wilson and Protas’ presence will be watched closely.
- Ahead of today’s matinee action against Pittsburgh, Columbus will be missing Sean Monahan again, as reported by Jeff Svoboda, official team reporter. The center hasn’t played since December 28, with no official injury designation listed, making today his fourth straight game sidelined. Monahan, 31, had a strong campaign in his first as a Jacket last season, posting 57 points in 54 games. Things have not gone as to plan this year, with 19 in 37 contests, as Monahan has rotated at times with fellow veteran Charlie Coyle between second and third line center duties. As noted by Svoboda, the club hopes Monahan can return sometime this week. Currently at the bottom of a very deep Metropolitan Division, the Blue Jackets face an uphill battle to end their five year postseason drought.
Blue Jackets Activate Zach Werenski, Place Brendan Smith On IR
Saturday: Werenski’s activation is now official, per a team announcement. The team also revealed that they’ve converted Dysin Mayo‘s emergency recall to a regular one.
Friday: Blue Jackets star Zach Werenski will return to the lineup Saturday against the Sabres, he told reporters today (including Aaron Portzline of The Athletic). The team also announced they’ve placed defenseman Brendan Smith on injured reserve, opening the roster spot for Werenski’s pending IR activation.
Werenski, a reigning Norris Trophy finalist, hasn’t played since Dec. 20 against the Ducks. He took a hard shot to the ankle late in the third period after racking up two points in the loss, leaving him unable to get to the room without assistance.
Four games later, he’ll be back in the lineup. With Columbus also down Smith, Sean Monahan, Miles Wood, Isac Lundeström, and Erik Gudbranson, their top player missing any more time would be even more problematic than usual.
The languishing Jackets did well not only to tread water without Werenski but even gained ground in the Eastern Conference wild card race. They’ve gone 3-1-0 in their last four to get themselves back over .500, although they’re still second-last in the conference ahead of the Rangers by points percentage (.513).
While he won’t get much consideration if Columbus doesn’t sniff the playoffs, Werenski has built a solid MVP case yet again after getting votes for the first time last season. He’s the Jackets’ leading scorer, tracking for his second season over a point per game with a 14-26–40 scoring line in 35 games. Only Cale Makar has been more productive this season among defensemen, and he’s done so while posting a team-high +6 rating.
Smith’s IR placement is both expected and solely procedural. He’s already been listed as week-to-week with a lower-leg injury and will miss more than the seven-day IR minimum.
Blue Jackets Recall Danton Heinen
When the Blue Jackets placed winger Miles Wood on injured reserve earlier today, they opened up a roster spot. They didn’t waste much time filling it as the team announced that they’ve recalled winger Danton Heinen from AHL Cleveland. They still have one open slot on their 23-player roster.
The 30-year-old hasn’t been in the organization for very long as he was only acquired by Columbus back on Monday as part of the Yegor Chinakhov deal. However, his inclusion was more for salary-matching purposes rather than being a specific target as Heinen has gone through waivers unclaimed twice already this season.
Heinen has split this season between the NHL and AHL, playing in 13 games at each level, including one with Cleveland following the trade. In the minors, he has been dominant, notching six goals and 12 assists in his first taste of minor league action since 2017-18. Meanwhile, in the NHL with Pittsburgh, he has a goal and an assist while averaging 11:40 per night of ice time.
When Heinen sees any game action with Columbus, it stands to reason that his playing time will be similarly limited. But he does have a strong track record of being productive in a bottom-six role as evidenced by his career numbers of 243 points in 579 games despite an ATOI below the 14-minute mark. Given their growing list of injuries, he should get a chance to add to those numbers before long.