COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dean Evason never saw it coming.

On Monday, an off day for the Columbus Blue Jackets after flying back from Salt Lake City the night before, Evason was summoned to Nationwide Arena via text message by general manager Don Waddell.

“I walked in, and (assistant coach) Steve McCarthy was there,” Evason told The Athletic. “I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Don had texted him, too. I met with Don in my office, and he told me the news. Told me I was fired.

“I was blindsided. Yeah, of course. Usually, when you go through this as a coach, you can feel it coming. But I’ll be honest with you: I didn’t. (Waddell) talked to me, then he talked to Steve, and it was time to pack our s— and get out of Dodge.”

Evason, who had been on the job for barely 1 1/2 seasons, was replaced by veteran coach Rick Bowness, who has guided the Blue Jackets to wins in his first two games heading into Saturday’s matchup in Pittsburgh.

It was the first head coach firing in the NHL this season.

“At the end of the day, do you take it personally?” Evason said. “You have to, a little bit. But you have to be accountable, too. I get that we lost leads in the third period, and that was frustrating for everybody.

“But without sounding like a whiny or petty little whatever, I don’t think (the firing) should have happened. I think it was too soon, and I think there was more to it than losing leads in the third period. What that is, I don’t know.”

The Blue Jackets lost 26 games this season under Evason’s watch, 19 in regulation and seven in overtime or a shootout. In nine of those losses, they held a lead in the third period.

In a tightly-packed Eastern Conference — the Blue Jackets are 15th in the conference, but only 7 points behind a wild-card spot before Friday’s games — it’s easy to see how devastating those lost points have been.

“We were as upset by the (third-period collapses) as anybody,” Evason said. “We were trying to figure it out. We changed our forecheck. We changed our neutral zone. In the defensive zone, we talked constantly about the end of games and being on the right side of the puck, take care of that good ice and protecting the house.

“We worked on it and worked on it. For whatever reason, a different situation would happen. It was really eerie, to be honest with you. Were we tired in the third period? Maybe. When you get physically tired, you’re mentally tired. Maybe with the lack of practice time (due to the compacted schedule), we needed to be in the gym more.”

The Blue Jackets have relieved Dean Evason of his head coaching duties.

Rick Bowness, who retired from coaching after the 2023-24 season, has been hired as his replacement 👀 pic.twitter.com/Id1ju7niRo

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 12, 2026

Evason signed a three-year contract with the Blue Jackets in the summer of 2024. The deal included a club option for a fourth year. Without getting into details, Evason said the two sides are working out the specifics of his departure.

It’s the second time Evason has been fired in the NHL. The Minnesota Wild fired him on Nov. 27, 2023, after a slow start to the season. He was also fired once as a coach in the Western Hockey League.

“You start thinking about all these things now, and I keep writing stuff down in my phone,” Evason said. “I’ve got a whole page of notes, just everything I would do differently and everything I would change.

“You go to bed with a clear mind and everything’s good, and then you wake up at 3 in the morning and all of a sudden your brain just starts spinning. ‘Jeez, I should have done this. I should have done that. Why did this happen? I’m pissed off at this guy! This guy’s pissed off at me!’

“You have to work through this process, which is why I didn’t want to talk right away. I didn’t want to say anything stupid or anything out of anger because there’s no reason for me to be angry. I can be as upset as I want, and I can disbelieve if I want, but I can’t do anything about the decision. It was not my choice.”

Even as the Blue Jackets lagged in the standings and suffered frustrating losses, the conventional wisdom was that Evason may get the rest of this season to turn around the Blue Jackets. Or, perhaps, he’d at least get to the NHL’s Olympic break next month.

But Waddell made it clear Tuesday that he didn’t think the Blue Jackets could wait. The ball started rolling on Evason’s firing, he said, when the Jackets blew a 4-1 lead and lost 5-4 in overtime to Pittsburgh on Jan. 4 in Nationwide.

It was such an abrupt end to Evason’s run in Columbus, one that started on such an impressive and inspirational note.

He was hired on July 22, 2024. One month and one week later — just three weeks before training camp was to start — Blue Jackets star winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, were killed by an alleged drunk driver in New Jersey.

Evason implored the Blue Jackets to grieve, both individually and collectively, and he made the Blue Jackets dressing room an appropriate place for all of the feelings that grief can bring to the surface.

“So many people came through during that time,” Evason said. “It was a very emotional time, and I think, as an organization, we did a phenomenal job. It was the entire staff, but I’m proud of my part in that, too. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about other people, too.

“The first time I met (Sean) Monahan was the night of the vigil. I actually walked into the dressing room, and there he was, standing in front of Johnny’s locker, all by himself, just bawling. I went over to him, and we hugged and cried.

“The first time I met (Erik) Gudbranson, I shook his hand, and we looked at each other and just started crying. It was that close to the surface, you know.”

Every player in the dressing room had two hands on the rope last season, and the Blue Jackets surprised the NHL by missing the playoffs by only 2 points. More was expected this season, but that emotion and camaraderie have been difficult to match, Evason said.

“There was a letdown this season,” Evason said. “That, combined with the fact that we weren’t sneaking up on anybody … we also had a bunch of guys have career years.”

The Athletic: New #CBJ coach Rick Bowness sees glaring areas where he can fix struggling Blue Jackets

“When you’re on your heels in this league, man, you’re going to get burnt. We gotta get nastier. We have to have a little more structure and pressure.”https://t.co/4wkN1PbJuw

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) January 13, 2026

On Thursday, Evason said members of the Blue Jackets assistant coaching staff — his former assistants — came by his Arena District apartment to help him move a large piece of furniture. They ended up talking … just like they used to do in the coaches’ offices.

“(Bowness) is a wonderful, wonderful man,” Evason said. “I’ve just kept reiterating to the coaches that they’re going to love him and love working for him. They can learn a lot from him, so they should go about their business. That’s all they can do, and that’s all they should do.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to this Blue Jackets team. But I believe that we should have made the playoffs this year if we were still coaching. That’s not a knock against Bones in any way, because he may do the exact same thing.”

Evason said he plans to stay in Columbus and is in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

“I hope I get another job,” he said. “I know I’m a good coach. I do. I know there are things I have to get better at, and every time you go through something like this, you should get better. The ones who do are the ones who keep getting jobs.”