Blue Jackets make changes to coaching staff ahead of 2026-27

The personnel behind the bench will look a little different in Ohio’s capital next year.

On Friday, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that assistant coaches Mike Haviland and Scott Ford, as well as video coach Arun Augustitus, will not be back with the organization next season.

The trio was only under contract through the end of the 2025-26 season.

General manager Don Waddell stated that he and head coach Rick Bowness concluded that a staff shake-up was necessary.

“Following our end-of-season meetings, Rick and I determined that changes to our coaching staff would be in the best interest of our club moving forward,” Waddell said in a release. “We are very appreciative of the time and hard work that Mike, Scott and Aron have done during their time with the Blue Jackets and wish them well in their future endeavors. We will begin the process of reviewing candidates to join our staff in the very near future.”

Haviland and Ford both joined the Blue Jackets ahead of the 2024-25 season after working as assistants for the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, in each of the previous two years as assistants.

Augustitus was hired by Columbus in 2018, serving as a video assistant from 2020 to 2025.

The announcement sheds some light on the direction the organization is heading in terms of the head coaching position. Bowness was hired by the Blue Jackets after Dean Evason was fired in mid-January. Early returns for the veteran bench boss were positive, as Columbus went from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to battling for a Wild Card spot in the closing weeks of the season. Yet, the team went 2-8-1 in the last three weeks of the regular season, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again.

However, despite some discouraging quotes from Bowness at the end of the season, he received a new contract that keeps him on the payroll through next season.