What does the future hold for Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness? What changes will the Jets look to make this offseason?
TSN: Darren Dreger and Jay Onrait on what’s next for Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness, and what kind offseason may be in store for the Jets.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Onrait: “… Darren Dreger, our hockey Insider. So what can you tell us about the future of Rick Bowness in Winnipeg?
Dreger: “Well, and then obviously Jay, that’s the big question, right? And the assembled media wanted to know and find out whether or not you know, they could expect the veteran head coach to be back on the bench with Winnipeg Jets.
My gut tells me that that’s unlikely. I don’t think that Rick Bowness will be back. I don’t know that for sure. But I do take stock of the season that it’s been.
NHL Rumors: Victor Hedman, Anthony Duclair, Matt Dumba, and Jon Cooper
I mean, this man is as deeply invested as any coach that I can remember. No different this year, but he also had family issues that he had to pay attention to. You know, his wife Judy went through a tough time. He had the leave of absence to look after Judy. He had his own health issues near the end of the regular season.
Two things I know about Rick Bowness. One priority, top of the list is his family and two, he loves to coach. In this case I think that the family is going to win out. He’s going to slide back into retirement again, unofficial, we’ll see.
But what a way to go out. I mean, he has to be has to be in the Jack Adams conversation. That’s the job that Rick Bowness did this year in Winnipeg.
Onrait: “And, it’s interesting to hear Connor Hellebuyck‘s comments. You know, he can’t do it alone. It was an eventful offseason last year in Winnipeg. How eventful is it going to be this offseason in Winnipeg?
Dreger: “Yeah. I mean, there’ll be changes organically. There’ll be changes. I mean, you look at the unrestricted free agent list in Winnipeg. What’s going to happen was Sean Monahan who was acquired from Montreal Canadiens? What about Tyler Toffoli, who came in from the New Jersey Devils? That stuff will look after itself.
But then you take stock of what you’ve got. And it was interesting, there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to the core of the Winnipeg Jets as part of the media availability and that’s what I’m most interested in. You know, again, to, to analyze, maybe some of the weakness. I looked at the top four defense of the Jets and that feels like an area that Kevin Cheveldayoff the GM is going to want to try and improve.
But here’s a newsflash for you, Jay. Unless you draft those pieces, they’re incredibly hard to acquire. You know, Winnipeg struggles when it comes to convincing unrestricted free agents to come into the small market. So how do you acquire that piece? And that’s where I think it’s going to get interesting.
NHL Rumors: Washington Capitals, Ottawa Senators, and the Seattle Kraken
Does Cheveldayoff use, say a forward like Nikolaj Ehlers who will go into his final year of his contract as a trade asset to acquire that defense?
So I’m not saying that’s going to happen either, it’s just I think those are the conversations hockey operations has to have in Winnipeg to move forward.