Healthy and rested Rick Bowness ready for next challenge as Blue Jackets head coach

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Rick Bowness was enjoying time on his boat in Florida when he received a call from Don Waddell on Monday afternoon.

Bowness thought the call from the Columbus Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and general manager was about a player Bowness once coached.

It turned out to be something else — a head coaching offer.

Bowness was on the ice at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday morning, conducting practice after accepting Waddell’s offer to take over as head coach. Bowness doesn’t have much time to get acquainted with his new team as the Blue Jackets host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

This move marks Bowness’ return behind an NHL bench. He had retired in the spring of 2024, ending a two-year stint with the Winnipeg Jets. Bowness explained on Tuesday that he stepped down because of health issues he and his wife, Judy, were experiencing.

The 70-year-old hockey lifer has coached both iterations of the Jets, as well as Boston, Ottawa, the New York Islanders, Phoenix and Dallas. He took over the Stars during the 2019-20 season and led them to the Stanley Cup Final in the 2020 pandemic bubble.

Even though Bowness becomes the league’s oldest head coach and turns 71 on Jan. 25, he says he is ready and rested for another opportunity.

“I feel a whole lot better. Judy’s doing great, and so that opened the door again,” Bowness said. “I did want to coach again.”

Bowness replaces Dean Evason, who was in his second year and became the first NHL coach fired this season. Assistant coach Steve McCarthy was also fired.

Columbus is last in the East with a 19-19-7 record, seven points out of a playoff spot with 12 games until the Olympic break.

Last season, the Blue Jackets were the feel-good story, coming within two points of the final playoff spot after the death of star forward Johnny Gaudreau in August 2024. During that emotional year, Evason was a Coach of the Year candidate as he guided the team to a 23-point improvement.

“For us, a bit of a shock, a wake-up call that we can use and hopefully use in the right way,” team captain Boone Jenner said.

Bowness is the 14th coach in Columbus’ 25 seasons. He will try to get the Blue Jackets into the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20.

Waddell cited blowing a three-goal lead in a 5-4 overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Jan. 4 and a subsequent 1-3 road trip as reasons why he felt a change was needed.

“I have all the respect in the world for Dean and Steve. I think last year they did a tremendous job in very difficult situations, but again, I think our expectations this year were higher than what we’re achieving right now,” Waddell said. “I talked to some of the younger players and some of the leaders. They weren’t, by any means, bashing the coach, but I could tell they were frustrated with how things were going. So it all came to a point over the weekend.”

Besides eliminating poor third periods, Bowness cited other defensive factors, including limiting odd-man rushes and shooting chances in the slot. Columbus also has the fourth-worst penalty-killing unit in the league.

“You don’t score your way into the playoffs. This isn’t the ’80s, man,” he said. “I’m going to say whatever has to be done. I’m not a 30-year-old coach worrying about my career. I’m at the end of my career. Anybody who’s worried about next year is taking the wrong approach on this whole thing.”

Sean Monahan, who played for Bowness in Winnipeg in 2023-24, said he was surprised by the move but that Bowness can bring structure to the team while being heavy on details.

“He can be hard on guys. He’s vocal. He’s fun to play for because he’s motivated to be out there to coach to get the two points every night, and I think he’s been through it all,” Monahan said. “He’s done it a long time, and he’s had a lot of success at it. So, you’ve got a lot of respect for a guy like that.”

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FILE - Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness yells during the first period of Game 4 of an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series April 28, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of the three court challenges to an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades has ended after the immigrant detainee who filed the lawsuit agreed to be removed from the United States and will be out of the country soon, his attorneys said.

The detainee at the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” asked that his case in federal court in Fort Myers be dismissed Monday.

“Petitioner is no longer detained at Alligator Alcatraz, he has formally agreed to be removed, and he will soon have left the United States,” his attorneys wrote in a court motion. One of his attorneys, Spencer Amdur of the American Civil Liberties Union, said by phone Tuesday that the detainee, referred to only as M.A. in court documents, would be returning to Chile.

The lawsuit claimed that immigration was a federal issue, and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state had no authority to operate the facility under federal law. Detainees who entered the facility disappeared from the normal detainee tracking system and had difficulty accessing legal help, the lawsuit said.

Florida has led other states in constructing facilities to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Besides the Everglades facility, which received its first detainees in July, Florida has opened an immigration detention center in the northeastern part of the state and is looking at opening a third facility in the Panhandle.

M.A. is married to a U.S. citizen and has five stepchildren who are U.S. citizens. He entered the United States in 2018 on a visa and later applied for asylum. Before his arrest last July, he had a work permit, a Social Security card and a driver’s license, according to court documents.

After his arrest, but before he was sent to the Everglades facility, officers pressured him to sign an English-only form that he didn't understand but was later told it was a voluntary removal form, according to court documents.

During his time at the Everglades detention facility, he was twice hospitalized and put in a wheelchair because of a condition in which he was unable to feel his legs. “M.A. entered the facility able to walk, but he is now in a wheelchair,” his lawsuit said.

M.A.’s case was one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the immigration detention center that was built last summer at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In a separate case, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open.

In the third lawsuit, detainees were seeking a ruling that would ensure that they have access to confidential communications with their attorneys. During an online meeting Tuesday, attorneys for the detainees and lawyers for the state and federal government defendants outlined plans for a hearing at the end of the month over a request for a preliminary injunction. ACLU attorneys said they would likely call former detainees at the facility now living outside the United States who would testify remotely as witnesses.

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social

FILE - A loader holds a sign reading "Alligator Alcatraz" in its bucket as workers install it at the entrance to a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, July 3, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)