The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that they have promoted Cleveland Monsters Head Coach Trent Vogelhuber to join Rick Bowness's staff for the upcoming season. The deal for Vogelhuber is a multi-year deal. 

The Columbus-area native will be expected to coach the penalty kill, which has plagued the CBJ for what seems like two decades. 

“Trent has done a fantastic job over the past four seasons in Cleveland and is one of the bright, young coaches in our game,” said Waddell in a press release. “He is hard-working, an excellent communicator, knows our players and will be a great addition to our staff in Columbus.”

The talk for quite a while now was that the CBJ shouldn't let Vogelhuber leave the organization, and with Rick Bowness coming back for one more year, now is the perfect time to bring up the young coach to learn from the veteran Bowness. 

Fans remember when the club fired Todd Richards and brought in John Tortorella in October of 2015. In Cleveland was a young phenom coach by the name of Jared Bednar, who had just started another year as the head coach. He led the Lake Erie Monsters to their first ever Calder Cup in June of 2016.

He was then hired away by the Colorado Avalanche to lead a rebuilding club. He won the Stanley Cup with that group in 2022. So why didn't the Blue Jackets promote Bednar back then instead of bringing in John Tortorella? The answer was easy. The Jackets needed someone like Tortorella, and it was just bad timing for Bednar. 

Back to Vogelhuber, he was hired by Cleveland on June 8, 2022. After retiring from playing in 2018, he was hired as an assistant coach. He then became the youngest AHL head coach in 2022. 

Vogelhuber played at Miami (Ohio) University for four years and six pro seasons, appearing in 267 AHL games with Springfield, Lake Erie (Cleveland), and San Antonio. He was an alternate captain for the Monsters in 2015-16, helping them win the Calder Cup championship.

Vogelhuber has a regular season record of 127-111-26-6 in four seasons. He also took his club to three straight playoff appearances, a North Division title, and a 2024 AHL All-Star Classic coaching gig. He led his Monsters to the best record in the North in 2023-24. 

This can only be looked upon as a win by the Blue Jackets. They've always needed a homegrown coach to lead the team, and with a little NHL experience and help from Rick Bowness, we may just have him in a couple of years. 

Next Up For Columbus: Free agency starts tomorrow. 

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