Rick Bowness stood behind an NHL bench for more games than any coach in league history. His coaching career spanned five decades and 2,726 games — and that followed 173 NHL games as a player. He made the Stanley Cup Final three times without winning it all, earned an All-Star selection this season and is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for the first time in his career.

Yet, after Bowness announced his retirement Monday, his legacy will go well beyond his on-ice accomplishments.

“The X’s and O’s are such a minor detail of the impact that he’s had on our group. He’s a tremendous human being, a tremendous communicator,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “He empowers everyone in our room. He talked about wanting to have an impact on our lives and he’s a tremendous role model. When he had to step away to take care of Judy (after she suffered a seizure) and the emotion, you (could) see the love he has for her. The amount of things he was willing to sacrifice to come to Winnipeg, to come to a spot where the rumblings were that we weren’t in that great of a spot.”

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Jets coach Bowness announces retirement

Winnipeg is in a better spot now as it begins its search for its next head coach, but the Jets were in a state of chaos in 2022 before he arrived. They had grown publicly self-critical, turning a 2022 playoffs miss into a series of exit interviews wherein team culture was called into question. Bowness’ impact includes democratizing Jets leadership — Lowry credited him for the team’s ever-increasing sense of inclusivity — and helping to transform the Jets from the group of individuals they seemed to be back then into the 110-point team they were this season.

“You talk about someone who left it better than when he came in, I think Rick really embodies that,” Lowry said.

Bowness’ retirement leaves the Jets with one more enormous challenge. They must consolidate the gains they made during his tenure, keeping the improvements to team cohesion and defensive play while pushing the organization forward. Winnipeg is days removed from a devastating first-round exit, wherein it was outclassed by a dominant Colorado Avalanche team. Jared Bednar’s talk of systemic adjustments, the pace with which his team played, and the way Colorado used data to inform the way the Avalanche attacked Winnipeg — as per this tremendous story from Corey Masisak — showed that the Jets still have a long way to go to be great.

This is a delicate moment in organizational growth. Consolidate the wins and continue to strive forward and Winnipeg will compete for home ice in the playoffs all over again. Backslide to what it was just two years ago and it won’t take a team of Colorado’s quality to expose the Jets’ weaknesses.

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What went wrong and what needs to change for Jets after another first-round exit

So who will be responsible for the next era of Jets history? Associate coach Scott Arniel appears to be first in line. Arniel spoke to reporters after Bowness did, offering a simple, direct “yeah, it is,” when asked to clarify whether he hopes to become Winnipeg’s next head coach. He’s already played the role, albeit temporarily, finishing this season with a 10-5-2 record spread between Bowness’ two absences.

Before we dig deeper into Arniel’s candidacy, let’s be clear about one thing: After GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and so many players talked about everybody in the organization needing to come back from this offseason 5 or 10 percent better than they are right now, it would be a surprising move on the Jets’ part to name him Winnipeg’s next head coach by default.

In 2022, the Jets spoke to Barry Trotz, Jim Montgomery and John Tortorella, among others, and learned a lot from them on the way to hiring Bowness. The Jets need to cast a similarly wide net now — even if they ultimately choose to believe in Arniel’s local track record and organizational fit — and I expect they will start a formal search in the coming days. For now, let’s take a look at the candidates.

Scott Arniel

“In a perfect world, this scenario leads Winnipeg to a long-term succession plan,” we wrote in 2022. Since then, Arniel has carried himself well when forced into emergency head coaching action. He’s also been at the helm of Winnipeg’s defence corps, which should be a point in his favour given the team’s systemic defensive strengths — and the Jets’ penalty kill, which struggled miserably in the playoffs and throughout the season that preceded them.

Winnipeg’s players like Arniel, and he’s made an impression with his calm demeanour on the bench. He played six seasons for Winnipeg’s first NHL franchise, keeps his home in the city, and has already been hired by True North three times in his coaching career.

Arniel worked as an assistant coach for the Manitoba Moose for two seasons in 2000-01 and 2001-02 before getting hired as an assistant coach for the Buffalo Sabres. True North hired him again in 2006, setting up four consecutive playoff appearances and a Calder Cup Final loss in 2009.

“Chevy, Mark (Chipman), they know my intentions, they know what I want, they know what I’d like,” Arniel said on Monday. “We’ll talk more. It really is in the early stage.”

Todd Nelson

Nelson is one of three people to win the AHL’s Calder Cup as a player, assistant coach and head coach, and his Hershey Bears currently lead the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 2-0 in the Atlantic Division semifinals. Nelson has NHL head coaching experience — he took over from Dallas Eakins in Edmonton on the Oilers’ way to drafting Connor McDavid in 2015. Nelson’s record on that team (17-22-7, compared to Eakins’ 7-19-5) wasn’t enough to convince Edmonton to keep him around; instead, he took over the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, with whom he won the 2017 Calder Cup.

Nelson has ties to Winnipeg. He worked with Bowness on Montgomery’s staff in Dallas, then for Bowness when the Stars went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020. He worked for Cheveldayoff as an assistant coach with the Chicago Wolves for two seasons in the AHL.

Most importantly, Nelson has won at every level. As head coach, he’s a UHL champion, a two-time AHL champion and has a chance to go back-to-back with Hershey after posting a 53-14-5 record during the regular season — a feat that earned him coach of the year honours.

Todd McLellan

McLellan is a Stanley Cup champion — he won with the 2008 Detroit Red Wings as an assistant — and a Presidents’ Trophy winner with the San Jose Sharks in 2009. He also took over in Edmonton after the Oilers let Nelson go, but was unable to get the team out of its struggles at that low point in franchise history. McLellan’s biggest impacts have come in the defensive zone, making him a reasonable comparable for Bowness. However, he never guided any of those great Sharks teams to the final, nor has he had much recent playoff success — and that includes two good Kings teams in recent years, featuring Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari.

Jay Woodcroft

Woodcroft was the video coach on the same 2008 Cup-winning Red Wings and was head coach of the AHL champion Bakersfield Condors in 2021. He was also the victim of horrible goaltending early this season in Edmonton, despite a roster that was — and is — good enough to go deep in the playoffs. Woodcroft had a 79-41-13 coaching record with the Oilers, led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He will be on Canada’s staff at the World Championship in Czechia.

Dean Evason

Depending on your frame of reference, Evason is either a proud product of Flin Flon, Man., whose Wild were a more aggressive, up-tempo team than Minnesota’s NHL franchise is known for … or he’s the coach Bowness nearly fought the day Winnipeg clinched its 2023 playoff spot.

Either way, Evason led Minnesota to its highest points percentage in franchise history. Some of that came from coaching a team that featured Kirill Kaprizov coming into his own; some of it is due to his sometimes freakish level of competitiveness.

“I don’t need time off,” Evason told Michael Russo after the Wild let him go. “What do I need time off for?”

I think the hard-nosed, accountability-focused coach will be hired this summer.

Craig Berube

Winnipeg has made a habit of being eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champions. The Jets did it last season, falling to Mark Stone’s Vegas Golden Knights in five games, and they did it in 2019 when Berube shocked the NHL by turning the St. Louis Blues’ ugly start to the season into the league’s most consistent, committed team.

The Blues weren’t able to recreate the formula that won them the Cup in 2019 and Berube was let go in December. The Ottawa Citizen has reported he’s had extensive talks with the New Jersey Devils.

Gerard Gallant

Gallant has become famous for pushing good teams to great heights for two-to-three-year stints and then promptly getting let go. Florida made the playoffs in Gallant’s second season as head coach, then fired him in the third. The Golden Knights beat Winnipeg with Gallant behind the bench on their way to the 2018 Cup Final, lost in the first round of Gallant’s second season, and replaced him with Pete DeBoer in his third. The New York Rangers eventually picked him up, surpassing 100 points in back-to-back seasons, but replaced him with Peter Laviolette after losing in the first round last season.

I don’t think the Jets would have interest in another two- or three-year tenure in anything but the most unique circumstances, making Gallant’s short-term supernovas an unlikely fit.

Lane Lambert

I don’t think Winnipeg would hire a top prospect’s uncle. Still, Brad Lambert’s uncle was one of the NHL’s most highly touted assistants when he worked on Barry Trotz’s New York Islanders staff. Taking over for Trotz in 2022-23, Lambert hoped to maintain Trotz’s tremendous defensive schemes while generating more buy-in (it’s a pain to play defence as hard as Trotz demanded it). In the end, Lambert’s head coaching tenure lasted just one and a half seasons and his 61-46-20 record lagged behind Trotz, his predecessor, and Patrick Roy, his replacement. Islanders defensive and PK metrics were miserable under Lambert but it still shocked many to see him let go after just one and a half seasons.

Dave Hakstol

Hakstol was a University of North Dakota legend before he was an NHL coach, leading UND to the Frozen Four in seven of his 11 seasons as head coach. He won two Coach of the Year awards within his conference and was an eight-time finalist for NCAA Coach of the Year. He’s coached Team Canada on multiple occasions at the World Championship, including on Alain Vigneault’s staff — notable for Vigneault’s many ties to the Moose and Jets. The Seattle Kraken didn’t have Vegas-esque success in Hakstol’s three seasons there but that might not be a fair bar for comparison.

Sheldon Keefe

At 43, Keefe is the youngest NHL coach on this list. It’s also possible he’s not made available at all — Toronto’s exit interviews will be held later this week, with Keefe’s future appearing up in the air. He won the 2018 Calder Cup championship with the Toronto Marlies; last season, he helped the Maple Leafs win their first playoff series since 2004; and his .665 is substantially better than that of his predecessor, Mike Babcock, as well as the highest points percentage among head coaches with at least 300 games of NHL experience. There’s a lot to like about his resume, even as Toronto loses in the playoffs again, but firing Keefe would be among the easiest transformative moves the Maple Leafs could make right now.

David Carle

Carle took over as Denver Pioneers coach when Montgomery was hired by Dallas in 2018. Since then, Carle has done little else but win; Denver has won two out of the last three NCAA championships, while Carle’s winning percentage has surpassed Montgomery’s before him. If and when he makes his NHL transition, one imagines Carle will be just as sought after as Montgomery and other NCAA stars have been on their way out of college. Between that star status and his youth — Carle turns 35 in November — he seems like a highly unlikely hire, but his success makes him a popular name in coaching discussions. He’ll coach Team USA at the world juniors again in 2025 after winning gold, captained by Rutger McGroarty, at the 2024 tournament.

There have been so many recent head coach firings — and there are so many candidates outside of former NHL head coaches — that even this summary leaves out valid candidates. Jeff Blashill, David Quinn, Jay Leach, Marco Sturm and Ryan Warsofsky are all next-wave coaches with various levels of NHL experience and success.

Winnipeg’s last hiring process found Bowness, the coach who pushed the Jets forward for two straight seasons, leaving them in a better place than he found them. There’s still a ton of ground to cover and, if Arniel is the coach for the job, Winnipeg needs to be sure it’s hiring him for performance and not familiarity. Even if the Jets decide he’s the best coach available, they need to show they’re leaving no stone unturned.

If not, it will get a lot harder to pitch the idea of continual improvement to a market that just watched five games of Avalanche dominance with a Stanley Cup champion at the helm.

(Top photo of Dean Evason: Matt Krohn / USA Today)



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