Blue Jackets fire coach Pascal Vincent after 1 season

The Columbus Blue Jackets fired coach Pascal Vincent, the team announced Monday.

Vincent, who joined the Blue Jackets as an associate coach in 2021, became the head coach on Sept. 17, 2023, after Mike Babcock resigned following allegations that he had perused players’ private pictures on their cellphones by viewing them on a big screen TV using the Airplay application.

The Blue Jackets finished 27-43-12 in 2023-24, last place in the Eastern Conference.

“As I spent time with Pascal over the past few weeks, I found him to be an outstanding person and smart hockey coach who worked very hard last year under trying circumstances, but I believe a change behind the bench is in our team’s best interest,” said Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell.

Before the Blue Jackets, Vincent was head coach of the Winnipeg Jets’ AHL team, the Manitoba Moose, from 2016 to 2021.

This is the first big move for Waddell as Columbus’ president of hockey operations and GM. Columbus hired Waddell on May 28 after he resigned from his job as GM of the Carolina Hurricanes last month.

The Blue Jackets haven’t made the playoffs since 2019-20.

Is this surprising?

If there’s a surprise in Monday’s firing of Vincent after just one season as head coach, it’s how quickly Waddell got around to making the decision.

Waddell, hired late last month, indicated that a decision on Vincent’s future likely would have to wait until he handled the most urgent matters facing the club: the NHL Draft next week and the start of free agency on July 1.

Vincent was an assistant coach for two seasons in Columbus before being thrust into a difficult situation amid a controversy last fall.

Vincent, who had been passed over for the top job with Columbus twice previously, took over a club on short notice that finished with the second-worst record in the league in 2022-23.

The Jackets finished with the fourth-worst record in the NHL under Vincent. — Aaron Portzline, Blue Jackets beat writer

What this means for Columbus

It means the Blue Jackets will be working under their fifth coach since the 2020-21 season, and it means an incredibly disruptive situation for one of the youngest rosters in the NHL.

Waddell has said that the rest of the coaching staff — assistants Mark Recchi, Steve McCarthy, and Jared Boll, and goaltending coach Niklas Backstrom — are safe for now, and that a search for the new coach will begin immediately. — Portzline

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(Photo: Josh Lavallee / NHLI via Getty Images)