How NHL coaching staffs handle firing rumors

Outside a select few, the life of an NHL head coach is fluid at best. In the 2025-26 season, the average tenure was under 2.5 years, with pressure to perform in the modern NHL at an all-consuming level, even as teams look toward a rebuilding era. 

For some, it comes with plenty of warning. Scott Arniel, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets since 2024, looks set to be the next one out of a job, but has picked up a pair of wins, with a historic four-goal comeback win against the Montreal Canadiens before a dominant victory on home ice over the Vancouver Canucks. 

Yet, it still seems like he’s on his way out. On a recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, former NHL coach Steve Peters joined co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to break down what life is like in the weeks ahead of a predictable dismissal. 

Carter Hutton: From your experience being inside those coaches’ rooms when things are going this way, and the pressure is building about getting fired, what is that like for a staff, you included, being around a situation where you’re kind of waiting for the axe to drop? 

Steve Peters: It’s really hard because you read it in the media. Like right now in Winnipeg, they’re talking about Arniel. You know it. You walk in, but don’t talk about it, and you kind of pretend it’s not there, but there’s just this dark cloud, and you are extremely worried because it’s nothing that you, especially as a lower-level video coach, can control, but you know it’s there, and you’re just wondering if it is going to be that day? 

I’ve only been around once when a coach was fired in the middle of the season: Bobby Francis, and Rick Bowness took over, and you knew it. Everybody in the locker room knew it was coming. It was just when? You just knew it was coming; there was just this terrible feeling. You read it in the media; you couldn’t stop the bleeding, and eventually, the shakeup came. 

When you get that change, it does give you just a little sense of relief. One, if you survive it, and two, that you’re going to get a little bit of a change. I do think it’s too early in Winnipeg. I don’t think the Winnipeg Jets, with the construction of their roster, are good enough to really throw Arniel under the bus. 

But yeah, inside the room, it’s tough; it’s dark days, and I guess think about it. If it’s your job, whatever that job may be, you go in every day during a reorganization thinking, am I going to survive? Those kinds of things are real, and it’s scary.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of the episode right here…