How Scott Arniel has given new life to the Jets
The Winnipeg Jets had a big offseason, replacing retired head coach Rick Bowness with Scott Arniel. Since then, the Jets have gone on to become the hottest team in the NHL, getting off to one of the greatest starts in league history.
In a recent chat with Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli for an episode of Frankly Speaking, Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff discussed how the team’s new identity has helped them become so successful so early:
Kevin Cheveldayoff: “Every team’s got talented players. It’s just you have to find something that works and you stick to that mindset. Maybe over the course of time, we had things that worked and maybe too well and weren’t really open to changing them and stuff like that. We have some new staff on a lot of fronts. Power play, penalty kill.
“The benefit I think that we had is that we went into this summer with Bones (Rick Bowness) retiring and having to make a coaching change. It wasn’t that we wanted to change the philosophy of the organization. That’s where I think Scott really fits in. He hit the ground running with relationships with a lot of different players. When we interviewed Scott through the process that we said we were going to go through before we formally hired him, that became very apparent. He had a plan for all the guys that were under contract at that time. He knew their strengths and their weaknesses, but more so their personalities. I do think that that was part of our early relationship-building and success.
“I know he went out and met with Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey in Calgary. They were all together at the same time in the summer at one point. They spent the whole day just going over the expectations of the team – I think more so Arnie listening to them about where they wanted to have the team go themselves.
Frank Seravalli: “I’m glad you mentioned the coaching staff as a whole, though, because maybe adding two new assistant coaches also gives you a fresh look at the same time. You’ve got the continuity and the familiarity with the personalities, but then also maybe some new looks and opinions from the two new assistant coaches.”
Kevin Cheveldayoff: “And we have a holdover coach in Marty Johnson as well. I think that what happens there is there’s a lot of teaching that has to go on with the coaches. You could have the same drill or same setup, but every coach explains it differently and talks differently. They have their different coaches’ language. It’s important that they’re all on the same page. The meetings that went on in the summer between the coaches was very healthy. It wasn’t like Arnie was bringing in someone that has been his assistant coach for 10 years and finishes off his sentences for him. They have to learn a little bit about each other and have the openness, like you said, to explore and talk about different ideas.
“We hired very experienced assistant coaches. Dean Chynoweth came from Toronto, Carolina. Davis Payne, Ottawa, was a head coach himself at one point in time in St. Louis. There’s lots of hockey knowledge. If one thing that really I found that’s helped me grow as a manager over the last couple of years, it has been going through coaching searches. When we hired Bones, that summer there was very extensive coaching search and interviews, and we interviewed a lot of people. I really found that, again, for me, it helped me grow because you understand that there’s more than one way to do it, and these are all very successful people. The more you can learn from them, the better. It’s these unintended things that happen along the way that certainly help you grow.”
You can listen to the full episode below: