THE players will change as they always do but the Manitoba Moose bought a big helping of continuity on Monday when the Vancouver Canucks gave head coach Scott Arniel a new contract.Arniel, who guided the Canucks' affiliate to a record-setting 50-win regular season, a record 25 regular-season road wins, first overall in the standings and was named AHL coach of the year, has signed a three-year deal.

"Any time you can keep continuity in the group, especially the coaching group, it's a positive," Moose GM Craig Heisinger said Monday. "Scotty came here to gain experience; he's got three successful years under his belt and people are taking notice.

"In due time, he's going to reach the pinnacle of his profession. Is that time now? Apparently not but the coaching wheel spins awfully fast."

Arniel said again Monday the NHL is clearly his goal -- he does have an escape clause for such a job offer -- but he's not in a big rush to tackle such a head job because he's got lots to learn.

"I don't think there will be one date, one or two years from now or whatever, when I know that I'm ready (to go to the NHL)," the former member of the Winnipeg Jets and former Moose captain said. "I was going to go down that road and go into some interview situations recently. I don't think I'm not ready but I'm still learning on the job every day.

"I have talked to guys at the NHL level and they're still doing some of those same things, learning, finding different way to figure players and systems out and ways to handle their hockey team."

Arniel said that his immediate priority is two-fold -- he wants to have his new assistant coach hired within days and then he wants and needs a break from hockey.

"We're down to three guys and I want to finalize that," Arniel said. "Then I need to try to take a couple of weeks off. I haven't had a chance yet to put my feet up and relax.

"We got beat out on June 12 and since then it's been nothing but go, go, go."

Though he was a free agent as of July 1, further employment with the Canucks and a fourth season behind the Moose bench seemed the only likely outcome from late last season onward.

Arniel, 46, had a courtesy call from the Edmonton Oilers during the spring. It was both an acknowledgment of his work and window dressing for the NHL club, which hired Pat Quinn.

Heisinger said Monday that even after seasons of 45, 46 and 50 wins as Moose head coach, Arniel recently showed him a new element of value.

"It was the way he handled things during the playoffs when there was some NHL interest," Heisinger said. "He put the Moose first and foremost and he wasn't interested in discussing anything until our team was finished.

"That showed me he's the consummate professional, that his team was first and foremost and he would discuss it when he was ready, not when somebody else thought he was ready."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 14, 2009 C1