The Columbus Blue Jackets made headlines Monday evening when they announced they fired head coach Pascal Vincent. Now, the search begins for a new head coach.
Host Steve Kouleas and co-host Martin Biron discussed the options for the next coach. They throw out the usual suspects in Todd McLellan and Gerard Gallant, who did not find a chair in the previous round of the coaching carousel.
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Then, Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Kouleas and Biron on the Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play segment and was asked who he thinks could coach the Columbus Blues Jackets.
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
Steve Kouleas: “Now, as you were traveling, getting organized, and everything else, Pascal Vincent let go. We’re throwing around names as the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I’m sure you heard Gerard Gallant, Todd McLellan, and others. I know this is just breaking news. What do you think the next step for Don Waddell will be?”
Dave Pagnotta: “I think he’s gonna want somebody who is experienced with the direction that this team is going in and where they want to go, obviously, to improve. This will be somebody that is established and has head coaching experience. This was anticipated, right? Like Donnie wants to bring in his own guy. Everybody understood this direction that they want to go with mandating to compete to get to the playoffs to be a wildcard contender at the very least. I would anticipate looking at somebody that has experience and can help this thing get back on the right track relatively quickly.”
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Martin Biron: “When you talk about people around the league about the Columbus Blue Jackets and their roster, and what an opportunity that could be even before Vincent got let go. I’m sure there’s talks of oh well, this could be a good place, a bad place. What’s the consensus of Columbus as an organization right now? Where are they situated themselves moving forward? Is it a place that people like Todd McLellan, Gerard Gallant and others would want to be.”
Pagnotta: “Certainly, like I said, the mandate is, and I think everybody kind of now understands that it’s probably going to take a little bit of time to get to top-tier levels if they can get there. But at the very least next season, they want to be in a position that they’re going to push towards making the playoffs and if they can get to that if we can have a respectable season where they are in the conversation in March and April you know, that’s, that’s a positive for this group.
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I think whoever comes in is going to be of that understanding. Whatever free agents they pursue, they’re going to have a good understanding of the timeline to get to potential. It’s not going to be, we need another two, three years. It’s going to be our goal is to push next spring, and, and I think it will be an attractive opportunity because we’ll see who the coach ends up being.
That certainly factors in but also the amount of youth that they have on that team. This is going to be an environment that I think some veterans are gonna look at and say, ‘I can gel with this group. I can connect with these guys. This is going to be an opportunity for me to prolong my career and do some good things with a team that’s on the up.’”
