Evason: 'Of course' 1st game vs. Wild means something after firing

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason won't have to wait long to face his former team.

Evason's first game behind the Blue Jackets' bench is in Minnesota against the Wild on Oct. 10. He was candid in his introductory press conference Tuesday about the added motivation of opening the season against the team that fired him last year.

"You know what I dislike, is when ex-coaches go in and say, 'Oh, this game means nothing to me,'" Evason said. "That's such bull. Of course it means something to you, right? I mean, they just fired me last year. Of course, it means something.

"Do we wanna win any more than we wanna win Game 2? No. You wanna win every game. But does it mean something? Yeah, absolutely. ... We will do our best to get the team prepared to play that Game 1 and definitely get off on the right foot."

The Wild fired Evason on Nov. 28 after a 5-10-4 start to the campaign. In parts of five seasons with Minnesota, he amassed a 147-77-27 record and made the playoffs in each of his first four campaigns. The Wild missed the postseason after dismissing Evason.

Evason was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award in 2021 and finished fourth in voting in 2022.

"The 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 is going to put in place to make the players accountable," president and general manager Don Waddell said Tuesday, according to BlueJackets.com's Kennedy Rehklau.

Evason replaces Pascal Vincent, who was fired after one season as Columbus head coach. Vincent was promoted in the wake of Mike Babcock's resignation before the campaign.

Columbus finished last in the Metropolitan Division last season with a 27-43-12 record and hasn't made the playoffs since 2020.