Rick Bowness agreed to a one-year contract extension to remain as coach of the Blue Jackets, team president and general manager Don Waddell said on Thursday, April 16.
"If you look at the body of work that happened here over the last 37 games, I'm very pleased with Rick's work," Blue Jackets president of hockey operations/general manager Don Waddell said. "I've said all along the strengths of this organization from a coaching standpoint has been the communication he's had with the players and getting the players ready to play on a regular basis."
More Blue Jackets news: Coach Rick Bowness rips team after playoff miss: 'They don't care'
Bowness, 71, took over the bench from Dean Evason on Jan. 12 and guided the Jackets to a 21-11-5 record that nearly took them from last in the Eastern Conference when he accepted the job to a playoff spot. In fact, they climbed as high as second in the Metropolitan Division before a 3-9-1 finish.
"It's always interesting when you do make changes, how players are going to respond, and even through all the exit meetings that have happened so far, every player to a man said they loved playing for Rick, they respect Rick and they were all hoping he'd come back for another year," Waddell said. "So, we're very pleased to announce that signing."
Bowness' first season ended with some turbulence after his meltdown following a 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals in a season finale that didn't mean anything to either team in the standings. After bashing a wall outside the interview room at Nationwide Arena, presumably with a hockey stick, Bowness boiled over at a news conference that prompted pushback from players the next day.
“All you’ve got to do is look at the stat sheet,” Bowness said after the final game. “Three hits. Twenty-three giveaways. Like, I don’t know if I’m back, but if I’m back, I’m changing this culture. These guys, they don’t care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn’t bother them. Like, how can you go out and play like that?”
Those words resonated throughout a fan base that has felt largely the same way over much of the franchise's 25-year history. The Blue Jackets have qualified for the playoffs only six times and have won only one playoff series, a 2019 sweep of the heavily favored Tampa Bay Lightning.
They also upset the Toronto Maple Leafs in a five-game postseason series held inside the league's 2020 Toronto "bubble" during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was just to qualify for the official playoff field.
The Blue Jackets haven't sniffed the playoffs since, extending their drought to six years after replacing former president of hockey operations John Davidson and former general manager Jarmo Kekalainen with Waddell in May 2024, and replacing head coaches Brad Larsen in 2023, Mike Babcock in 2023, Pascal Vincent in 2024 and Evason in January.
The initial goal in promoting Larsen to replace John Tortorella in 2021 was to maintain the winning culture built under Tortorella while doing so with a kinder, gentler approach that some feel is better suited to the NHL's youngest players. Larsen lasted two seasons before Kekalainen replaced him with Babcock, who had left his previous stop with the Maple Leafs under scrutiny for bullying allegations.
Babcock made it 78 days with the Blue Jackets before a forced resignation following allegations that he violated players' privacy by scrolling through their cellphones. That led to Vincent being promoted as an emergency fill-in option on a two-year contract, and Waddell opted not to let him coach a second season after replacing Davidson/Kekalainen.
That led to Evason's hiring, and he lasted only halfway into his second year before Waddell plied Bowness out of retirement to finish the season. Now, Bowness' turn at the rudder.
"Coming in, I knew, 'OK, this is a pretty good team, a lot of good pieces,'" Bowness said. "We had some success early and that made it a lot of fun, but it just scratched the itch a little bit more and I'm very excited ... because I am anxious to come back and finish the job that I came here to do, and that's to get the Columbus Blue Jackets in the playoffs."
As Bowness pointed out, things cruised along nicely during a 19-3-4 start to Bowness' tenure, boosting the Jackets into second place of the Metro, but the bottom soon fell out. Bowness bit his tongue through most of the collapse, slipping just once following a 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on April 2 in Raleigh, North Carolina, but all he had pent up came out following the season finale.
“Should’ve done this about a month ago,” Bowness said. “But this is why we are where we are. This is why we’re out of the playoffs, that kind of effort. Losing ... you have to hate losing. I don’t care if it’s a meaningless game. I don’t … care. Show up and compete. Three hits! Twenty-three giveaways! What else you want to know?”
Two days later, Bowness was asked if he regretted anything about the outburst and shook his head.
"No," he said. "Did I push the bar a little bit? Yeah. I know that, but that's me, right? So, I've got to live with myself. I'm not going to walk in here and say, 'Oh, I should've done this and I shouldn't have ..." did I push it? Yeah, I pushed that envelope a little bit, but that's who I am. I'm not going to come in here and B.S. you people, right? I'm going to tell you what I see and what I don't like, and was that a little over the top? Probably. I'll be the first to admit that, but I've got to live with myself, too, man."
Players pushed back while meeting with reporters during their first day of exit interviews April 15, saying they do, indeed, care about losing. Those who were asked about Bowness' future, however, all said they hoped to keep playing for him and that no fences needed mending.
"I'd be ecstatic if 'Bones' is back," defenseman Damon Severson said. "He's the best coach I've personally ever had. I've had a couple really good coaches. I've had some really ... not good coaches. Bones has been the best one so far. I read a little bit of the guys' comments (after the rant), who were around here with the media, and I think that was the biggest thing they said was, 'We're all big fans of Bones.'
"We just let the team down, we let the organization down and the fans down by not being in the playoffs, but Rick Bowness is not the issue at all. He's going to be part of the solution here."
Severson, who missed the final 10 games with a season-ending shoulder injury, met with reporters April 16 via teleconference. Mathieu Olivier did, too, after missing the final eight games with a fractured bone in his hand. His thoughts on Bowness echoed Severson.
"I'd love for him to be back, and I know my teammates feels the same way," Olivier said. "I just love the passion and the energy that he brings every day, and the communication with everyone. It's been really good to have him around. I've been working with him and we've started to build a really good relationship with him and the coaching staff, and everyone here. I'd be really excited for him to be back."
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets agree to contract extension with Rick Bowness
