Blue Jackets hire Ford, highlighting AHL coaching pipeline

Scott Ford reached the Columbus Blue Jackets after eight seasons as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Admirals, a move that put a 44-year-old AHL bench veteran on an NHL staff and reinforced how often the minors supply coaching talent to the top level.

Columbus finalized its 2024-25 staff with Ford and Mike Haviland as assistant coaches, adding an instructor who had spent years in the Nashville Predators organization and had also played for the Admirals before moving behind the bench. That combination of playing experience, daily work with prospects and constant adjustment to roster churn is exactly what makes AHL assistants attractive to NHL teams.

Ford’s Milwaukee track record fit the profile Columbus wanted. The AHL is built around development, and assistant coaches there spend long stretches teaching details to young players, managing veterans on two-way deals and helping fringe NHLers chase permanent jobs. In that setting, success depends on communication as much as systems, and the ability to simplify without stripping away structure. For a Blue Jackets club trying to balance urgency with development, that background gave Ford a direct line to the kinds of players who often determine whether a roster holds together through an NHL season.

The hire also carried implications for Columbus’ development model. A coach with AHL experience tends to understand the daily work needed to keep younger players engaged, accountable and improving when ice time, role and confidence can change quickly. That matters in an organization where the message to prospects has to stay consistent from the minors to the NHL bench. When that continuity is strong, defensive habits, special-teams details and bench communication can travel with players instead of resetting every time they move up.

The Blue Jackets later showed how fluid that coaching pipeline can be. After end-of-season meetings with head coach Rick Bowness and general manager Don Waddell, Columbus announced on April 24, 2026 that Ford, Haviland and video coach Aron Augustitus would not return for 2026-27. Ford surfaced again in July 2026 when the Coachella Valley Firebirds hired him as an assistant coach, another reminder that AHL bench experience remains one of hockey’s most reliable paths into NHL work and back again.