Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel making most of second chance in NHL spotlight

Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel takes to Josh Morrissey (44) during their NHL training camp practice in Winnipeg, Friday, September 20, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Scott Arniel was head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets just over 19 months.

It didn’t go well.

A winning percentage of .439 across those 123 games, including a disastrous 11-25-5 start to the 2011-12 season before getting fired, left him bitterly disappointed — both at the opportunity lost and how he had gone about his business.

“I certainly wasn’t happy with the job I attempted to do,” Arniel said. “If I was ever going to get a second chance, I wanted to make sure I was ready.”

He reflected, studied and prepared for another NHL shot that was far from assured. More than a decade later — much longer than he hoped — the coach from Kingston, Ont., has grabbed onto an opportunity that finally arrived.

Arniel was promoted by the Winnipeg Jets from associate to head coach in May following the retirement of Rick Bowness.

The club not only hasn’t missed a beat, it’s taken a massive step forward with the playoffs looming.

Winnipeg secured the franchise’s first-ever Presidents’ Trophy with the league’s best record at 55-22-4 and one game remaining on the regular-season schedule.

The transition to Arniel has been seamless after he filled in for Bowness during a pair of health-related absences the previous two seasons. Familiarity and established lines of communication have paid off since he was introduced as the Jets’ bench boss.

“It wasn’t like I came in fresh,” Arniel said. “It helped an awful lot.”

He also wasn’t about to make wholesale changes.

Led by two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, the team’s identity under Bowness stressed defensive buy-in from top players and not relying on their star netminder to make 40 saves a night.

“Our play without the puck has been outstanding,” said Arniel, a former forward drafted by the original Jets in 1981. “There were some things on the offensive side we wanted to improve.”

It turns out there was plenty of room to grow for a group that finished with 110 points last season only to be bounced in the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive spring.

Winnipeg’s power play sat first in the league at 29.4 per cent heading into Tuesday’s action after finishing 22nd in 2023-24, while the overall offence for an organization that hasn’t won a playoff round in a full NHL campaign since making the 2018 Western Conference final jumped from 15th to a tie for fourth.

The Jets haven’t fallen off defensively — they’ve actually improved — and once again occupy top spot with the fewest goals allowed at 2.33 per game compared to 2.41 last season.

Arniel is a big reason why.

“You never know how a team’s going to respond,” Winnipeg captain Adam Lowry said of coaching changes. “He’s intense, but he’s real fair.”

“Tweaked some things,” added centre Mark Schiefele. “Also just pushed us to try to reach our full potential.”

Former NHL head coach Alain Vigneault, who has known Arniel since their junior days and hired him as his associate with the New York Rangers from 2013 through 2018, isn’t surprised by the success.

“Getting a first opportunity in the NHL is not easy,” Vigneault said. “Getting a second one a lot of times is a lot harder. But when you do get it, and you’re like Scott on a quest for knowledge, I just knew he was going to do a great job.”

Hellebuyck said Bowness and Arniel, who’s in the running for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, have similar core principles.

“Bones really put his thumbprint on us,” said this season’s league leader in wins, save percentage, goals-against average and shutouts. “Arnie comes in and keeps pushing the same things, adds a few details and doesn’t let us off the hook.”

Moving from a supporting role to the top job can, however, present challenges. The relationship between player and coach changes when the latter shifts to the big chair.

Arniel, who led the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose from 2006 through 2010, made a point of travelling to meet Lowry, Schiefele and defenceman Josh Morrissey in Calgary over the summer. He detailed the impending system shifts and wanted to know of any concerns among Winnipeg’s locker-room leaders.

“There can be a disconnect,” Lowry said. “Arnie found that happy medium. He asks and makes demands of us because we know he respects us, we respect him.”

Arniel spent one more season in the AHL after the axe fell in Columbus before joining the Rangers. He was then an assistant with the Washington Capitals from 2018 to 2022 before landing on Winnipeg’s bench.

The 62-year-old interviewed for a number of head coach openings, including with the Jets when Bowness got the gig in July 2022.

Lowry believes Arniel used the time spent waiting wisely.

“Didn’t change his identity, but you learn,” said the centre. “He’s fair with the demands and he lumps himself right in there. That resonates with players when coaches have accountability.

“Couldn’t have been a better fit.”

It’s also one Arniel wasn’t sure would materialize after an ugly opening act that ended more than 13 years ago with the Blue Jackets.

“It doesn’t even have to be in sports,” he said. “But you’re always looking for a second chance.”

Arniel is making the most out of his.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2025.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press