Winnipeg Jets hire Rick Bowness as head coach
The Winnipeg Jets have hired Rick Bowness to be their new head coach, according to Darren Dreger.
The Winnipeg Jets and veteran coach Rick Bowness are working on finalizing his agreement to be the next coach of the Jets. This will end a thorough interview process for the @NHLJets that began with Barry Trotz as the target. Experience a key factor here.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 1, 2022The Jets needed to fill the position after previous head coach Paul Maurice resigned from his role in his ninth season behind the bench, believing that the players needed a new voice, and assistant coach Dave Lowry took over the position with an interim tag. They looked at several candidates, including Barry Trotz before he decided to take some time away with his family, and there were rumours that they hired Rick Tocchet for the role, but they ultimately decided on Bowness. Bowness will become the fourth coach in Jets history, and the ninth in the history of the franchise dating back to its time as the Atlanta Thrashers.
Bowness comes with plenty of NHL experience on his coaching resume, including his recent stint from 2019-2022 with the Dallas Stars, where he helped lead them to the Stanley Cup Final in the bubble in 2020, and coached them to an 89-62-25 record. It’s also not his first time behind the bench in Winnipeg, as he was the head coach for the older iteration of the team in 1988-89, and even later returned to the organization in 2003-04 when he coached the Phoenix Coyotes. He has also spent time as the coach of the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and New York Islanders, coaching a total of 639 NHL games with a 212-351-48 (ties)-28 record.
Bowness also has a couple of unique distinctions. He’s currently the only active coach to have also coached in the 80s’, and also is at this point the only coach to have coached at some point in the ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, ’10s, and ’20s, especially impressive when you consider that he’s only coached for 12 seasons.
Beyond this hiring, it’s not quite clear what the Jets plan on doing this offseason. There’s already talk that the team is looking to move captain Blake Wheeler, and along with rumours that they might move Mark Scheifele and that Pierre-Luc Dubois already has plans to test unrestricted free agency when he’s eligible in 2024, there’s potential that the Jets may blow up the core as a result.