3 Noticeable Blue Jackets' Changes Under Dean Evason

The Columbus Blue Jackets are off to a good start in 2024-25. Some key early changes under head coach Dean Evason are paying early dividends.

Coming off an impressive 6-2 win on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Columbus Blue Jackets are off to a 3-3-0 start in 2024-25. Given the way many hockey experts gave them no chance to do anything this season, this start has turned some heads.

What makes this start even more impressive is that the Blue Jackets are off to their best offensive start in franchise history. Their 24 goals in six games is a new record for them breaking the old mark of 22.

The Blue Jackets are also getting contributions from all over the lineup. They have 12 different goal scorers with four players tied with three goals each.

It’s early but there is a different feeling around these Blue Jackets. What has changed so soon for them? Enter head coach Dean Evason.

Evason Brings Experience

After John Tortorella left the Blue Jackets, it’s been an adventure when it comes to the bench boss. Brad Larsen made it only two seasons. Mike Babcock couldn’t even make it to training camp. Pascal Vincent was thrown into the fire and made it just one season.

When GM Don Waddell first came on board, he quickly identified the importance of finding a head coach with NHL experience. It was easy to see why. Not counting the Babcock debacle, two first-time NHL head coaches found it very difficult to have success.

Although the coaching search took a little longer than first anticipated, the Blue Jackets took their time to get this hire right. Waddell elected to bring Evason on. He had both experience and success on his resume.

A 3-3-0 record at the six-game mark with convincing wins over the Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs counts as a successful start even if it is a small sample size of games. Scoring six in each game against two teams considered by many as true Stanley Cup contenders is nothing to sneeze at.

Evason has the Blue Jackets playing well so far. The question we’re going to consider here is how? How are they doing it and what changes has the new head coach brought to the table that’s leading to some good early results?

Evason Willing to Experiment

Recall under Vincent that the Blue Jackets tried some experiments. The big one that comes to mind was when Patrik Laine moved to center. That kind of experiment was an admission they had no other answers given who was on the roster.