Arniel's second chance a season of firsts

Winnipeg Free Press

22-05-2025

All the effort Scott Arniel put into rebranding himself was time well spent.
Although his second chance as an NHL head coach didn't lead directly to the promised land, Arniel showed over the course of the season that he was the right choice to replace Rick Bowness as the bench boss of the Winnipeg Jets.
Certainly his familiarity with the organization was a benefit, dating back to his time as the captain and eventually head coach of the Manitoba Moose, but this hire was about an opportunity that Arniel worked extremely hard for.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel coached the Jets to the team's first Presidents' Trophy win in his first season at the helm.
When that chance came, the Winnipeg resident wasn't about to let it slip through his fingertips.
Whether it was a historic 15-1 start, an 11-game winning streak down the stretch, posting the best record in franchise history (56-22-4) or capturing the first Central Division title and Presidents' Trophy in franchise history, Arniel pushed a lot of the right buttons this season.
His passion and intensity were evident, but so was his calming presence.
'Arnie had a great demeanour on the bench, he never wavered. He never got too high or too low. He always kept the ship steady,' said Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo. 'Great messages throughout the year. He was more focused on the process than the results and worried about our game because he knew we were building towards Game 83 and the playoffs. There was great leadership back there for us that really set the tone for our leadership group and that sprinkled throughout our whole organization.'
That leadership resulted in six playoff wins — which was four more than the previous two springs combined — but ultimately was 10 wins shy of the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.
So while Arniel was quick to express his gratitude to his players for all of their hard work along the way, he admits he will be asking them for more when they check back in for training camp in September.
'A whirlwind, honestly. It seems like yesterday I was sitting here talking to you guys about how thankful I was about getting a second chance,' said Arniel. 'For me, it's a dream come true to be back doing it. For me, this is the start of something that I'm hoping ends with us one day holding that Stanley Cup.'
Since being hired for the job on May 24 of 2024, Arniel has not shied away from that goal and the Jets took some important steps towards accomplishing it over the course of the 101 games they played, including the exhibition season.
'Obviously to come in, us having the success we did early, means that we had a good camp and we were prepared and ready to start the season,' said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. 'And then throughout the year, obviously to win the Presidents' Trophy and have the year we did, a ton of that falls on him. The relationship a lot of guys had, especially the defencemen, but all the returning players from the last few years with him, really helped.
'We wanted to be pushed, we talked about that in exit meetings, we talked about that in the media. And he pushed us and found which buttons to press, but also what areas in our game could we tangibly improve, and I thought he did a great job isolating those areas.'
Arniel's ability to build on the foundation put in place during Bowness's tenure — when Arniel was an associate coach — was essential, as was putting his own stamp on the structure and how he deployed the personnel.
'I thought he did an unbelievable job. He should win the Jack Adams, to be honest,' said Jets captain Adam Lowry. 'He does such a good job of communicating his expectations, communicating with players, so you know where you stand with him. He's hard on us at times but he's extremely fair.
'He does a really good job of pushing to get the most out of us. As he gets more experience, he's only going to grow in that role and his confidence in himself and the way he views the game.'
Arniel is up for NHL coach of the year with Spencer Carbery of the Washington Capitals and Marty St. Louis of the Montreal Canadiens.
As proud as he is to be included on the list of finalists, Arniel spent plenty of time since the Jets were eliminated to sort through some of the things he'd wished he had done differently.
'I have a whole bunch,' said Arniel. 'There's moments, there's things that happened. For me there's areas that you'll look at, whether it's lineup or matchups or little things. We put ourselves in a position to get home here for Game 7 (against the Dallas Stars), after not winning Game 1, and it didn't happen.
'That sort of grabs at you. That's a part that really bothers me a bit about that we didn't get that chance to come home for Game 7. Because I really liked our chances.'
Prior to taking questions from the podium after his team eliminated the Jets in the sixth game of the second-round series, Stars head coach Pete DeBoer offered the ultimate compliment to Arniel and his entire staff.
'I can't imagine there's a better-coached team in the league than what that coaching staff did with that group,' said DeBoer, noting he thought Arniel should get the nod as the Jack Adams Trophy winner. 'I'm a little biased because we work in the West, but, (the Jets) won the Presidents' Trophy. They give you nothing, they play hard, they play as a team, great leadership.'
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel says he's still bothered that the Jets didn't get the chance to play Game 7.
It's been well documented that things didn't go as planned for Arniel in his first stint as an NHL head coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2010 to 2012.
For all of the talk about lessons learned over the course of the past season for the Jets, Arniel applied plenty of those to how he approached this task.
There's a lot to be proud of and a whole lot left to tackle — and Arniel knows that's exactly what he's signed up for.
'That's why we're here and it's what this group wants,' said Arniel. 'And we've got to do all the right things to get there. But for me, maybe a month from now, we'll sit back and kind of look at certainly the great things that happened but, at the end of the day, we didn't win. We're not playing Edmonton (in the Western Conference final). And that's the one thing that is still sort of gnawing at me a little bit. But, you know, real proud of our hockey team, real proud of, certainly, all the things that went on over the course of the year.
'Yeah, it's been quite a year for me.'
The exit meetings held during the past two days were the start of an off-season project that will include a full homework project for the Jets' players and members of the coaching staff.
The 15-minute sessions were the appetizer to what will likely be one-hour chats that encompass individual and team plans for the upcoming campaign.
Since this group made it clear that they want to be pushed like an elite team, that's going to be the new normal for a Jets club that yearns for additional post-season success.
'One of the things that came through in our exit meetings in talking to some of the players, there was the accountability that he was able to hold the players to,' said Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. 'We talked about it going in and extensively in the interview process. Communication is such a key thing when it comes to coaching. Going back to when we made the decision to ultimately hire Arnie, it was that familiarity and that knowing that he was right for this group here to help push them. He knew where the strengths and the weaknesses of the players were. And again, he's continued to grow.
'Probably the most important thing that I've seen was the human side of Arnie. When you want to develop that family atmosphere, you have to be able to bark at the guy but then be able to say 'good morning' and have a cup of coffee with him the next day. That's an important trait today, and I think the guys respect that.'
Winnipeg Jets Game Days
On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.
Respect is a necessity in the pursuit of hockey's Holy Grail.
'We haven't achieved what we're all trying to achieve. And that's to win a Stanley Cup,' said Arniel. 'And if you're not in this game to do that, not really sure why you're playing. Like last year, and those other years, there was big learning. Just learning what playoff hockey actually means. This year, we learned it, we lived it, we grew through it. But our goal now is to win the Stanley Cup.
'We know we have done a lot of good things. But now, we know what it takes. We still have more to do. We scratched the surface this year, so now it's about what happens moving forward.'
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Ken WiebeReporter
Ken Wiebe is a sports reporter for the Free Press, with an emphasis on the Winnipeg Jets. He has covered hockey and provided analysis in this market since 2000 for the Winnipeg Sun, The Athletic, Sportsnet.ca and TSN. Ken was a summer intern at the Free Press in 1999 and returned to the Free Press in a full-time capacity in September of 2023. Read more about Ken.
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