Arniel chosen to pilot Jets Associate bench boss promoted to head coach By: Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe Posted: 4:17 PM CDT Friday, May. 24, 2024 Last Modified: 8:25 PM CDT Friday, May. 24, 2024 Updates

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Scott Arniel has worn many hats with the Winnipeg Jets organization over his career. Now, he has a new one: head coach.

The 61-year-old, who served as associate coach for the past two seasons, was named late Friday afternoon as the successor to the retiring Rick Bowness.

Arniel is the fourth bench boss since the club relocated from Atlanta to Winnipeg in 2011, after Bowness, Paul Maurice and Claude Noel. (Dave Lowry served as an interim coach between Maurice and Bowness). He is the ninth head coach in franchise history,

There was no question Arniel was the favourite for the job, and that didn’t change after a search that included interviews with several other candidates, including Craig Berube, who was recently hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Todd McLellan.

This will be Arniel’s second stint behind an NHL bench, having spent one-and-a-half seasons at the helm of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010-11 and 2011-12, compiling a 45-60-18 record.

“He has an overall great feel for the game. A great feel of the personnel that he’s coaching and the way he communicates with players and the connection that he builds, the relationship that he builds with them,” University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks head coach Brad Berry told the Free Press in a telephone interview.

Berry spent four years working with Arniel — two as an assistant to him with Columbus and two before that as an assistant with the Manitoba Moose.

“You know what? He’s grown exponentially,” said Berry, who has remained in close touch with Arniel over the years and believes those previous hardships were part of the growth process for him.

“Nothing replaces experience. As much as you prepare, going through those situations, that makes you grow. The best part for Arnie is that he took a lot of time thinking about his first time around being an (NHL) head coach, and ultimately, after that, through his different stops of coaching, he grew from those experiences,” he said.

“The coaches that have success are the ones that know you have to change and you have to adapt and you have to learn from your past experiences — and I think he’s done that. I feel he’s obviously ready to take the reins again, and I think he’ll do an outstanding job.”

Although Arniel typically portrays plenty of calm on the bench and at the podium, there’s a fiery side Berry is quite familiar with, having been on his staff in multiple stops.

“He’s a guy that likes to take charge and run his own bench, and I know he’ll have a lot of passion and exuberance when he does that,” he said.

“That’s one of the things he learned, to have that calmness at the podium and to be unfazed during the different times of the season. But I know one thing: he’s honest and direct. Working with him in Manitoba and Columbus, he’s an honest and direct guy. He doesn’t sugarcoat things.

“Honesty and clarity is a big deal. Communication is huge in this day and age.”

Arniel got a bit of a dry run with the Jets over the past two years, stepping in for Bowness on three occasions during the past two seasons with a 15-7-3 record in the interim role.

“Right from the beginning, we talked about family, and not letting Rick and (his wife) Judy down,” an emotional Arniel said earlier this year. He had interviewed for the job that ultimately went to Bowness in 2022, and it seemed like he was the team’s coach-in-waiting.

“You always want that second chance to get a kick at it,” Arniel admitted. Keeping the good ship Winnipeg afloat while Bowness tended to health issues with himself and his family served to further fuel his fire.

The Jets are coming off a regular season in which they went 52-24-6 — fourth overall in the 32-team league — and won the Jennings Trophy, which is awarded to “the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it, based on regular-season play.

Arniel’s connection to the city goes back to 1981, when he was selected in the second round, 22nd overall, in the NHL draft by the first Jets franchise. His good friend and junior teammate Dale Hawerchuk was selected first overall by the Jets that year.

The Kingston, Ont., product played five years in Winnipeg before being traded to Buffalo, then returned for another season in 1990-91. He ultimately played 730 NHL games, with 338 points (149 goals, 189 assists).

“He’s more than paid his dues. Really happy for him and the Jets,” Eric Hawerchuk, the son of the Jets legend who died of cancer in 2020, told the Free Press. “Dad would be smiling.”

Arniel wrapped up his pro career by playing his final three seasons with the Manitoba Moose, retiring in 1999 to become an assistant coach for two years with the club. After joining the Buffalo Sabres as an assistant coach between 2002 and 2006, Arniel came back to Winnipeg as head coach of the Moose for four seasons, which included a 2009 appearance in the Calder Cup Final.

After being fired by the Blue Jackets midway through the 2012 season, Arniel took the head coach job with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL for the 2012-13 campaign, then returned to the NHL as an associate coach with the New York Rangers (five seasons) and Washington Capitals (four seasons) before he was brought in as part of Bowness’ staff.

Arniel and Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff will speak with the media Monday morning. With Arniel moving up, that creates at least one associate/assistant opening, assuming both Brad Lauer and Marty Johnston continue in their existing roles.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X: @WiebesWorld