It’s not just John Tortorella leaving the Columbus Blue Jackets coaching staff. The team announced Thursday that assistant Brad Shaw will not return in 2021-22. No other coaching decisions have been made.
Shaw, 57, has been coaching professionally since his retirement from the NHL in 1999. He served as the head coach of the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the AHL for three seasons before joining the New York Islanders in 2005, where he quickly took over for the fired Steve Stirling. While he wasn’t given the permanent job with the Islanders following that season, he became a staple at the NHL level, serving as an assistant/associate coach with the St. Louis Blues for nearly a decade. Shaw joined the Blue Jackets’ staff in 2016 in Tortorella’s first full season and will leave the organization at the same time.
With his departure, it adds another potential head coaching name to the market this summer. In 2019, after the Blue Jackets swept the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs, Shaw told Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun that he would like to be a head coach at the NHL again but wasn’t focused on it. His name has been brought up over the last few seasons as a potential candidate, but it is unclear if he will pursue the current vacancies around the league.
For Columbus, there are still assistants left over from the Tortorella group, but perhaps their fate won’t be decided until a new head coach is brought in.
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