Who Is The Best Option To Be The Next Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach?
the Blue Jackets are getting closer and closer to hiring their next head coach who are the options who’s the most likely who do we like the best we’re going to talk about that on today’s locked on Blue Jackets your locked on Blue Jacket your daily podcast on the Columbus Blue Jackets part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello and welcome to lockon Blue Jackets part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day I am as always your host J Foster here to give you the Good the Bad and the Ugly about your favorite team and mine Columbus Blue Jacket before we get St I want to thank everyone for making this your first listen of the day every single day Lo and Blue Jackets continues to be free and available on all podcast platforms and over on YouTube I’ll have let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus every single day all summer long visit fol.com to get started let’s talk coaches um because that’s kind of what I want to talk about right now um because I can almost guarantee that as soon as I finish recording this episode They will announce the new head coach but uh we’ll try to get out in front of that um confirmed three finalists two of the finalists have been I think unofficially named and then the third finalist no one has been able to figure out yet but they’re pretty sure it’s between one of two guys we’re going to talk about all four guys today um who I like the most who I think is the most likely to get the job um and uh then I’ve got a couple of of really great mailbag questions when I asked earlier um or when I asked last weekend so we’re going to talk about those as well um let’s start off with I think my personal favorite option um for for coaching um it’s not necessarily the most likely um but I think he’s definitely in the top half of the four option he’s like top two of the four options you know which not a lot but I think um I think this is the guy that that it’s it’s his job to lose I think you know maybe someone else comes along and has a really great interview maybe someone wants less money than him uh all of these kind of options we’ll talk about the the money in in a little bit as well because Aaron Port I tweeted something interesting uh earlier today that I wanted to kind of touch on a little bit as well so we’re going to start off by talking about Todd mclen um this is the one that makes the most sense to me um I I think he has done a he did a pretty good job in La uh developing young players um he turned he kind of jump started Adrien kempe from fine player into really quite good player um he did a great job with the youth there um he struggled in the playoffs uh got out coached in the playoffs by um just kind of not really adapting very well but I don’t see Todd mclen as like the coach of the future you know he’s not going to be here for the next 10 years my my guess is he’s here for two to three years maximum gets the team back on track picks them out of the basement um you know I heard someone on Twitter call it uh that he’s going to take bad teams to Mid and then you find someone else to take mid to good um and I I think the Blue Jackets will probably be better than mid under mlen but I don’t know if they’re going to be cup contenders under um under mlen so he’s he’s got a decent amount of um coaching experience uh he was with the sharks from 2008 to 2015 he with the Oilers from 2015 to 2018 uh and then uh was with the uh Kings from 2019 to 2024 which I didn’t realize he was there for that long but uh he’s been coaching for he’s been coaching for a hot minute you know when he’s not that old which is great you know not that age is like a prerequisite to coaching but there comes a point in which I feel like you are too old to really be able to coach effectively um relate to the players um and also frankly if you’re like 70 years old why don’t you want to just retire like just go sit on the couch it’s fine um but Mal is my favorite of the options um and I’ve kind of talked about him in in detail on on previous episodes of this but like I just he seems to me like a good coach for for a a young team um I think that like I said I think he did good things with the youth in uh La uh they uh went to two player appearances in in the five years that he was there um and it took him a minute to get going but uh you know as of as of right now he’s got a record of uh he’s play he’s coached 100 1,144 games and he’s got 598 wins which is a near enough 500 so he’s not like the most outstanding coach necessarily I’m not looking at him as like the savior of the franchise or whatever but I think they needed and they talked about needing a coach with experience um they need someone to come in Implement system stick to it and um I think there’s been some Whispers that you know there was trouble with um a full team Buy in with firsttime coaches like Larson and Vincent so having someone like Todd mlen come in I think whether that’s you know deserved or not he’ll get more respect from players than you know a first-time coach would um so all all four of these options are experienced head coaches um some of them more experienced than others um and I think Tom NCL is is like my my preferred pick um I wouldn’t be mad if they if they went with one of the other options or like one of specifically one of the other options um uh who we’re going to talk about in a minute but Tom MCL is I think right now if they had to go with one of these four he’s at the top of my list um let’s talk about the guy in second place um I didn’t mean to come into this ranking them but uh it’s kind of just happened um and I want to talk a little bit about Jay Woodcraft who is the least experienced of uh of all of these coaching options um uh funnily enough he was a uh an assistant coach under Todd mclen in uh San Jose uh he was also with the Red Wings when mlen was uh in 2005 he was hired as a video coach when mlen left Detroit as an assistant to be a head coach in San Jose Woodcraft went with him as assistant coach um and then uh he also worked under him with the Oilers as well uh as an assistant coach with uh mlen as the head coach um Woodcraft was named the head coach of the bakesfield Condors they had a pretty good run under him uh they won the regular the Pacific Division regular season title in 2019 and then they won the playoff championship in the 2020 2021 season which was that weird like um not really a CH not really a playoffs playoffs um the Pacific Division basically had their own little thing that they did because of uh travel restrictions Etc um he was made interim coach of the Oilers in uh February 2022 and then they kept him on as a uh as the head coach um until uh this most recent season uh November 2023 the team started 39 and one he got fired the team turned it around whether that’s just because it was a slow start and they turned it around themselves um but I feel again this is the this is the coach that has the the least experience but in that small um in that kind of small window he did he did pretty darn good again with the Oilers that’s you can argue about whether you need a good coach for the Oilers who have you know two of the top five players in the world right now um but in his first kind of interim season he went 269 and three in his second season he went 50 23 and N uh second in the Pacific both times uh went eight went to the the Conference Finals uh in 2021-22 against uh lost against Colorado and then they lost in the second round to Vegas in 2223 and vakas went on to win the cup so you know uh some pretty good some pretty good results here like I said slow start with Edmonton um in 23 24 but I don’t know how much of that is is Woodcraft and how much of that is H just that the Oilers kind of had a a slow start you know like I said they they turned it around made it all the way to the uh Stanley Cup Final um so we’ll uh we’ll see this season I think whether um the replacement uh Chris noblock who was the head coach of the Harford wolf pack in the AHL um whether he can keep the the Oilers kind of on that trajectory of being a a good team or if it was just kind of one of those things that happened um I like mlen better than Woodcraft just because I think he has that little bit more experience um and I don’t generally I’m not a fan of uninspired retread as someone called mlen but he feels like a good right now coach for the Blue Jackets kind of in the same way that John torella was a great coach for the Blue Jackets at that point in time you know he dragged them back to uh or into I guess um respectability he put some he put their name uh he put some respect on their name around the league um and I think mlen will not necessarily do the same thing but I think he’ll be good for the Blue Jackets kind of in the phase of the game that they are right now Woodcraft feels like a longer term bet I think the team will be better this year under mlen but I think they might have more long-term success under Woodcraft so I guess that’s kind of that’s kind of what what we need to think about here is are they hiring a coach a long-term coach or are they hiring a short-term coach to try and get them back into kind of the playoff picture and then find someone to help them take them to that next level so I could really go either way I think I I still lean towards mlen but I wouldn’t be mad if they uh if they went ahead and hired Woodcraft something of note as well is uh Woodcraft will likely command less salary than mlen and the blue jacket uh are still going to be paying um I believe they’re still be paying both Mike Babcock and Pascal Vincent in uh uh in this in this season so spending money on coaching we’ll see uh we’re going to take a quick break and then we’re going to talk about the other two guys um so those are the two guys that have kind of been unofficially confirmed as um as finalists and then we’re going to look about two more guys who no one’s been able to figure out which one is the finalist of the two but these are kind of my I would rather they wouldn’t options um so we’re going to talk about those guys in just a second here unlocked on Blue Jackets first I’m going to tell you about FanDuel I love sports I love them so much I never want them to stop but playoffs have wound down there’s no games going on and the sports aren’t sporting like I want them to however it’s not all bad news FanDuel is going to let me keep the sports going whenever I want all I’ve got to do is open up the app and dream up vet anytime I’m in the mood and this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a booster a bonus every single day something for everyone every day all summer long head over over to FanDuel start making the most out of your summer you can bet on the baseball uh the NFL is going to be back real soon I believe uh so fanduel.com is where it’s at FanDuel is the official Sports Bic partner of Major League Baseball and also us the lock on podcast Network welcome back to lockon Blue Jackets we’re talking head coach uh options um and we’ve kind of gone through my my top two of the potential four um let’s talk about the other two guys which I am less enthusiastic about H one of those guys is Dean Everson who was I believe most recently head coach for the uh Minnesota Wild um coached them for I believe Four Seasons um he was named interim head coach in February 2020 uh was as an assistant coach for a couple of Seasons before that uh July 2020 uh they named him head coach and then so he spent parts of Five Seasons with the team both as interim uh and then they fired him on November 2023 uh kind of similar with the Oilers um they went 510 and four to start the season the wild uh and had a seven game losing streak that was it for everon um has got some NHL G experience as a player which is something that uh Woodcraft uh does not um and in terms of his head coaching record uh the wild made the playoffs all four times that um the that Everson was in charge they uh te technically anyway they finished six in the central in that weird covid year and uh they lost in the qualifying rounds to Vancouver so technically they made the playoffs but also did they make the playoffs um they were not one of the 16 teams that played in the playoffs but they did technically make the postseason I guess um finished third in the west uh the next season which that was the weird again the like the second weird Co season where all of the teams got messed up um lost in the first round to Vegas uh was second in the Central and then third in the central in 22 and 23 lost in the first round uh so four straight first round exits for the wild but hey they did make the playoffs during that time in 251 NHL games of coaching experience he’s won 147 of those games so that’s about 66% is I want to say 60 to 65% which again not a bad winning percentage and again feels maybe a little bit like a mlen higher um who will not boost the blue jacket into cup contention but will probably drag them out of the basement um I am not as enthusiastic about this hire as I am about mlen um I think just because again this is mostly based on what I’ve heard from Wild fans and H my friend Seth toal who host L John wild was not super enthusiastic about Everson um but all of the Kings fans that I talked to about mlen were more complimentary of him despite the fact that he maybe has a worse record on the surface he’s probably a better Coach so you know take take from that what you will that’s just kind of what I’ve heard um it it’s not the end of the world if they hire everon but I will be kind of disappointed by this hire it feels a little bit like yeah you know it’s it it’s it sure is an NHL head coach you know he’s got experience um he’s not a million years old he’s had success in the league um I just am not enthusiastic about the higher it’s a very average higher you know solid B minor C plus higher I guess not an F so there’s that at least um and he might even not be he might not even be a finalist you know again no one has really been able to find out who the finalists were uh but it’s going to be either they figure they figured it was Todd mclelan Jay Woodcraft and one of Dean Everson who we just talked about and Gerard Gant who we’re going to talk about in just a second here drug Alon is is kind of at the bottom of my list not for any kind of real reason just not like because I think he’s a bad coach he’s just like the lowest of these options I think um he has or he’s previously uh coached the blue jacket um he was not the first head coach but he coached them for three seasons um missed the playoffs the first two seasons and then got fired what 21 22 games into the season 15 games into the season uh after going 59 and one then was with Florida for three years got fired unceremoniously uh was with Vegas for three years and then got fired unceremoniously just very strange um firings both times um and then again in New York he was uh oh I believe his he wasn’t fired I don’t think his contract was renewed or they relieved him during the offseason because he play he coached two full seasons for uh the Rangers um first they finished second in the metro lost in the Conference Finals to Tampa Bay who I believe went on to win the cup that year and then uh uh in 22 23 they finished third in the metro lost in the first round to the Devils um had 99 out of 164 wins in his time with uh the golden KN H with the Rangers excuse me in 705 head coaching record games he’s won 369 of them so again and above um an above 500 coaching record there’s just I don’t know I don’t understand what is up with his career trajectory because two so Rangers lost in the first round to the to the Devils okay fine whatever but 47 wins That Season 52 wins the season before that Vegas fired him uh when they had a record of 2419 and six uh out of 49 games which again that’s just over five 100 fired uh after two straight playoff appearances uh went 111 and one fired with in Florida after making the playoffs winning the Atlantic division 47 wins in 82 games I don’t I don’t know just the weirdest the weirdest coaching trajectory like after being after uh being fired by the blue jacket uh in 2007 he didn’t head coach again until 2014 um and then took a year out between Vegas and the Rangers and then uh didn’t work this season I believe was on um was on some kind of I believe it was on some TV network I don’t remember off the top of my head or if he just had a year out but just a really weird coaching career and that’s kind of what gives me a little bit of pause is the team wasn’t losing on the ice maybe they were underperforming expectations in Vegas’s case but just very strange to fire a coach when the team is 500 or better in the middle of the Season or again when your team has almost 100 wins over two seasons um and then just deciding not to not to bring the play not to bring the coach back so it makes me wonder if something is going on behind the scenes or I don’t know but it does kind of give me pause as to why uh by all accounts a good coach can’t keep a job um again wouldn’t be I’d be I wouldn’t be dis I wouldn’t be mad if they hired golant I would be confused and maybe a little bit disappointed again he’s not one of my favorites for the for the job uh but we’ll see he might not even be a finalist again I can almost guarantee that as soon as I hit stop recording on this They will announce the new head coach and this will become um out of date immediately but it is what it is we move on uh and we’re actually going to move on um because I want to answer a couple of mailbag questions I got uh one of them is uh is really interesting uh and so we’re gonna we’re going to do that in just a second here unlocks on Blue Jackets welcome back to lock on Blue Jacket uh we’ve gone through all of the coaching options my favorit who I think is the most likely uh and some guys that I am less enthusiastic and feel are less um viable options um I do just want to finish off before we get into the uh we get into the mail bag um Aaron portzline had an interesting tweet thread earlier today uh that I wanted to just kind of touch on very briefly um here it is so something to consider uh the belief cand dates he said Todd mle Dean everon Jay Woodcraft uh all have contracts with their former clubs that run through next season so potentially they’re in two negotiations unless the Blue Jackets want to pay full Freight next season which would be five and a half million for Todd mlen and then or two million e roughly for everon or everon or Woodcraft donwell must negotiate a salary that’s acceptable to their former club which pays the remaining balance of their contract and they must approve that before the coach is allowed to take the new job once the Blue Jackets and their former Club have agreed on the 24 and 25 portion of the contract the next negotiation is directly between the Blue Jackets and the coach for the remaining years on the contract woodell is known to get S requests from candidates before the final interviews so this stage should move quickly but something to keep in mind um and I mentioned that mlen is probably going to command the most money of these options um especially if it’s everon and Woodcraft to the other two finalists um so whether that comes into account again um and I know something that hurricanes fans will frustated with was that Don woodell didn’t really seem to spend money when he when you know there was ostensibly money to be spent part of that was was the owner part of that was probably just kind of bias from the fan base but I’ll be interested to see what happens here in terms of how much money mlen Everson or Woodcraft end up getting um and again you have to keep in mind that the Blue Jackets are definitely paying Pascal Vincent for this season because I believe they signed him to a two-year contract and I don’t know the spefic specifics on Babcock they originally signed him to a two-year contract which does make me think that they’re probably paying him unless they paid him like a severance package or whatever or some kind of came to an agreement with you know termination of the contract they could potentially be paying three head coaches this season so that’s again something to keep in keep in mind especially when you’re looking at Todd mcleen who is probably going to command the most money of those three guys now let’s let’s move on from coaching uh because running a little bit long here and I do want to uh look at the two questions that I got um so we’ll start off with uh this one uh who is EP lightthe lamp on Twitter besides the Linea deal what other trade could you see go down before the season start um that’s a really great question uh I don’t know that there are any kind of other glaring options for uh for trades um just kind of again a quick quick look at the the roster um like I still think that there’s a chance that Ivan proov gets moved um at the uh at some point in the summer I think it’s more likely he gets flipped at the deadline but I could see him being moved um I don’t think M leans is going to be moved he’s kind of the other guy that everyone loves to put in in trade scenarios but woodell has kind of come out and said listen if we can get Elvis back up to where he needs to be great and that’s going to be our first option instead of probably losing a trade by having to shift prospects or picks or you know draft Capital whatever with that MOS Le’s contract um someone else that people love to put in trade scenarios is Kent Johnson and again I don’t think I don’t see that happening either I really don’t um I don’t know why you would a former fifth overall pick that struggled and was injured last season I like he’s just coming off as ELC I don’t know you would sell low on a guy like Ken Johnson um if you want him to you know he’s he should be one of the he should be part of the top six for the next 10 years you know um so I guess the answer to the answer to your question is kind of I don’t really see an option for any other trades but there are some possibilities out there you know I think the most likely is probably proov I think the least likely is um M leans uh with the kind of signing of Monahan I think there’s less rush to make a trade in the uh in the organization you know they were looking for that top six center or potential middle six center I think which I think is where monan is likely going to slot in um and they found that in in free agency so they didn’t have to give up any assets for it so there’s already kind of a log Jam that’s the other thing is when any trades that you make I don’t think you’re going to get a roster player back for um so that’s uh that’s kind of the the tough bit you know I do wonder what it means for the line a trade whether you get a roster player back or whether you get futures um we’ll see everything’s still kind of up in the air since he’s still in the the nhlpa program and uh they keep telling us any day now but they’ve been saying any day now for like three weeks so we’ll see what happens there I don’t think there will be another trade before the season starts for the blue jacket besides a potential line a deal so could be wrong we’ll see uh another question uh from uh at Mr Ed 315 on Twitter in my estimation what’s left for Blue Jackets management to accomplish this offseason to this point what letter grade would you assign for its effort in rebuilding the roster um other things that that need accomplishing obviously uh head coach I think is next on the list and then I would look for uh the the RFA contract that’s got to be the next priority as opposed you know instead of adding to the roster you need to reather the the roster the roster um assets that you have so marchenko uh Greaves and Christensen I think are probably the priorities there um for arbitration purposes they can get to a contract without going to arbit arbitration that’s great Cole singer probably next because he’s at risk for offer sheets and then unfortunately Kent Johnson is a 10o to see uh RFA which means they haven’t accured the number of professional Seasons required for group 2 RFA status which means they can’t get to arbitration and they are also ineligible for an offer sheet so he is still an important task that needs to be done but that I think is the lowest priority to me the biggest priority right now is marenko um and then once You’ finished the RFA talk signed all those guys then I think Patrick l trade is the next step um and after that I think they’re pretty they’re pretty good you know um I think it’s what July 9th so they’ve got about two months before training camp starts two two and a half months no probably closer to closer to two and a half months they’ve got the rookie tournament um which is like mid September sometime normally um so we’ll uh we will see what happens um but there’s nothing out there that I’m like they absolutely need to have this done immediately get the coaching sorted get the RFA sorted line a trade and then enjoy the rest of your summer come back mid-september rookie camp training camp preseason let’s go um in terms of letter grades uh I would give this a I think I would give this a solid B you know um they haven’t done a ton um they’ve cut some some quote unquote fat obviously getting rid of Adam boquist getting rid of Jake Bean um who aren’t returning uh adding sha Monahan adding Jack Johnson um but for the most part they’re just kind of and this is kind of this is what Dom Mella has been saying I think pretty much since he got the job is that he has he doesn’t have to do a ton to this roster just tweak it and I think he’s I think he’s done that you know he hasn’t overreacted he hasn’t gone out there and you know a lot of people over the summer were like man new GM’s going to come in trade everyone Burn It To The Ground Bo Jen is going to get sent to Toronto Ken Johnson is going to get traded for beans like everyone’s going to get traded and they’re going to start from scratch and he hasn’t done that you know because there’s there’s good bones here for this team and so I’m going to give him a solid bb+ for what they’ve accomplished so far this offseason like the Jack Johnson contract is what it is it’s fine like it’s not the end of the world even if he’s terrible it’s it is what it is the Onan contract you know I’ve talked about it I’ve come round a lot on that signing I still think it’s a million too much uh and a year too long but that’s what happens in free agency um the draft I liked I thought they got a lot of really good pieces really excited about Kaden Lindstrom um I would probably have have kept one of boquist or Bean but they both went so op up options for Ur for matuk potentially for Jake Christensen um I’ve liked the contract that he’s out so far so I mean again nothing that’s going to break the bank but I like the chov extension um I liked rewarding uh a couple of the AHL guys with uh NHL contract so Owen singer Cole singer’s older brother and uh Cole Clayton uh earned um he earned his El a oneye ELC and then Owen singer earned a just a two a a one-year two-way contract um so you know rewarded those guys I like the signing of Zach sawchenko so yeah I’m going to give them a solid B+ for uh for this offseason um you know obviously final grades aren’t in yet there’s still moves to be made still things to be done but as of right now I’m pretty happy with dwell’s choices thus far the off season excited to see what the next choices are Who the head coach is going to be what these new contracts are going to look like and what the team looks like in October and uh that’s kind of all I’ve got for today um no episode tomorrow unfortunately I am traveling but I will be back on Thursday uh hopefully with a breakdown of whoever the new head coach is uh which again reminder I’m going to be on a plane all day Wednesday so fully expect the new coach to be uh announced somewhere between noon Eastern and midnight Eastern um potentially well I would say potentially later but it won’t be announced later than probably about 10 p.m. Eastern but imagine expect it to be announced some point tomorrow because that’s when they love they love to announce things when I am actively on a plan that’s when they hired Mike Babcock that’s when so many things happened so thank you for listening to this episode though uh like I said no episode tomorrow back Thursday I’ve been J Foster you can find me on Twitter _ jaob Foster j a k o b f o r s t r you can find the show at lore Blue Jackets uh you can email us if you have questions comments criticisms at lockon Bluejacket gmail.com uh thank you once again for making us your first listen of the day every single day even when I put an episode out at 600 p.m Eastern uh I appreciate everyone who listens and you can find us uh wherever you get Podcast you can find us on YouTube you can find us on SiriusXM and until Thursday make sure you stay locked on
We’re likely to get a coaching decision very soon for the Blue Jackets; who will Don Waddell hire? There are three (maybe four) names out there: Todd McLellan, Jay Woodcroft, Dean Evason, and a wild card of Gerard Gallant. Who’s the best hire? Who’s the most likely? Plus, we talk about potential trades later in the offseason, and how good a job Waddell has done in his first month or so on the job!
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1 comment
You always do a great show. I appreciate you!