Pending Blue Jackets UFAs send a message about coaching to the organization

Now that the NHL trade deadline has passed, and as the dust continues to settle after the Olympics, we focus our attention towards the pending free agents of the Columbus Blue Jackets. There is a little smoke surrounding them on Thursday.

Despite explaining all season long that he intended to handle his free agents over the Olympic break, general manager Don Waddell still has yet to finalize any decisions on that end. We had pieces on several individual cases over that break, but no extensions happened.

After the break, Waddell mentioned that they used their time as a feeling out process, to gauge interest in these players returning. With today's report coming from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman via the Fan Hockey Show, we have a lot more clarity on exactly what Waddell was touching on here.

This is very interesting to hear. It's something that I don't think many people would have considered. Usually, when we're talking about pending UFAs or even RFAs, we come back to the standard boxes that need to be checked.

Those boxes usually involve the team's status or direction. Then it's the city and whether or not that jives with the player's personal situation. Then, it comes down to the money and term. The Blue Jackets seemingly check all of these boxes for their big pending free agents.

Columbus is a great city to live in, especially if you have a young family like some of these guys do. The team is finally turning a corner and seems to be heading in the right direction. And, who can offer them more money than the team with almost $30 million in cap space next season?

But, what most people might not have considered: maybe these guys don't want to stick around if this team can't find a decent head coach. After all, that's why they are turning in the right direction. They have the right coach right now, and it sure sounds like they would like to see him stay beyond this season.

Everything changed under Rick Bowness.

Through the first half of this season, the Blue Jackets were not very good. In fact, they were well out of the playoff race. For all intents and purposes, we thought we were seeing the last of Charlie Coyle in Columbus. He would bring a massive haul at the deadline.

This isn't even mentioning newly acquired Mason Marchment, or captain Boone Jenner. Or, even Erik Gudbranson. All of these guys would have been attractive rentals for contending teams ahead of the trade deadline.

But instead of throwing this season away and building for the future, Waddell pressed another button to stir things up: he fired the head coach. Since then, the team that frustrated us and underachieved all season long, has finally been playing up to their potential. Under Bowness, they have gone 13-2-3.

They look like a well-oiled machine, and are right back in the playoff hunt. Most importantly, every player in the locker room is smiling again. They're battling for each other, and winning hockey games that they certainly would not have won three months ago.

All of the positive vibes around this team have come under the tutelage of Bowness. Which makes me wonder how bad things had gotten under Dean Evason. It also makes it glaringly obvious that these guys aren't interested in being thrown back into that situation again.

The fact of the matter here is, Evason was a knee-jerk hire. The Blue Jackets had gone through three head coaches in three years, with one of them not even spending a minute behind the bench before being fired. That's a lot of uncertainty.

Then, Evason wasn't even their first choice when they were looking to hire someone.

For guys who are in their 30s, do they really want to sign on with an organization that is willing to settle on their second choice? One that is not serious about winning? Would we really blame them if they did not want to stick around?

I don't think so. Really, we shouldn't be surprised that none of them signed contract extensions, because Bowness is only under contract through this season. They want to win, and they are doing so because he's here.

The message is simple: hire (retain) the right coach this time.

It sure seems like the Blue Jackets are very happy playing under Rick Bowness. The winning culture that left this organization with John Tortorella, is finally starting to return. These guys probably all want to stay, but they will only do so if Bones is still around.

Unfortunately, it may not be fully up to Waddell or the organization. Rick could decide to hang 'em up and retire again, maybe this time for good. At that point, does the organization need to go through another rebuild? Or, can they salvage things even without him? Tough to say.

Hopefully, it won't come to that. Ideally, Rick Bowness will come back next year and help this team take another step forward. In a perfect world, he will do so with Trent Vogelhuber as part of his staff, helping the young up and comer soak up some of his knowledge before he does ride off into the sunset.

My hunch: the moment Bowness is extended, all of these guys will have new contracts in hand soon after. We shall see.