The Blue Jackets have hired Scott Ford and Mike Haviland to serve as assistant coaches under new bench boss Dean Evason this season, the team announced Thursday.
They replace the outgoing Josef Boumedienne and Mark Recchi, who Aaron Portzline of The Athletic previously reported would not be returning. The club’s other two assistants from last season, Jared Boll and Steve McCarthy, will be back in 2024-25 as expected.
Ford, 44, will jump behind an NHL bench for the first time. The British Columbia native had spent the last eight seasons in the Predators organization as an assistant coach with their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.
Before transitioning to coaching, Ford played 522 AHL games across 10 seasons, 378 of which came with the Admirals. A burly right-shot defenseman in his playing days, Ford had played or coached for Milwaukee in parts of every season since 2008-09.
Ford also spent six seasons with Evason in Milwaukee as a player and coach. He played out the final three seasons of his career with the Admirals with Evason at the helm and began coaching as Evason’s assistant for three seasons before Evason departed in 2018 to take an assistant coaching role with the Wild.
Haviland, 57, brings considerably more coaching experience to the Columbus bench than his new colleague. He’s technically an internal promotion, having spent the last two seasons with their AHL affiliate in Cleveland as their associate coach.
Before that, the Middletown, New Jersey native was named the AHL’s Coach of the Year in 2007 with the Norfolk Admirals and later won the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks as an assistant in 2010. Prior to joining Cleveland in 2022, Haviland spent seven years as the head coach of Colorado College.