Sportsnet: Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman talking on The Jeff Marek Show about the Winnipeg Jets coaching situation.
Marek:
“It’s not going to be Barry Trotz. Jim Montgomery, Scott Arniel, Rick Tocchet has talked to the team. Which way is the wind blowing with the Winnipeg Jets?
Friedman:
“Well, I heard a lot of interesting things . I think the Jets have done a lot of work on Plan B. As in, if Plan A doesn’t work, what’s plan B.
I think Arniel has a legit chance. I think Pascal Vincent is in there. I’ve heard Tocchet’s name too. And I’ve heard Montgomery’s. I’ve heard the four of them.
I believe they’ve interviewed Kirk Muller as well but I don’t know if he’ll be in their next round of interviews. Tocchet is the only one there that doesn’t have the Winnipeg connection. Arniel does. Vincent does. Montgomery does.
I’ve had a lot of conversations. We talked on the Pod about, I don’t remember which one, it was about why Winnipeg thinks a connection to them is so important. I was having some big debates today from people who were like, ‘it’s time to break the mold.’
And, I don’t know, I still think Winnipeg feels you have to understand the city you’re in, and I think those guys with history, the Arniel’s of the world, that’s going to be big for them.”
Marek asks if we can read into anything on what the Winnipeg Jets plan to do this offseason with regards to their roster based on who they hire as a coach. If they hire someone who is good working with kids, some of the high priced players could be moved out. Can we read anything into the coaching decision?
Friedman
“No. I think potentially that is happening anyway. This is purely my opinion based on some of the stuff I’ve been hearing. And it is that they felt that Scheifele, Wheeler, Dubois, were not all coming back.
Now, Winnipeg would have control in a lot of those situations because those players have contracts or are restricted free agents like Dubois but my sense was that all three of those guys were not coming back. And I don’t think that’s changed base on who is or isn’t going to be the coach.
As we talked last pod, I think there’ve been conversations about Wheeler, between him and the team, about it’s time. I think they always thought it’s important, cause it’s so hard to find centers. Copp is gone. One of Scheifele or Dubois, if not both of them, were going to be staying. And now we know that Dubois is kind of in a bit of no mans land. Although the Jets have control in that situation.
I heard after Scheifele’s media conference the Jets worked really hard to sell him on the fact that we can make this work and Scheifele did not make a trade request.
So, I just look at it and say, if you’re the Jets, you can’t go from having Scheifele and Dubois, to not having either of them. I don’t think that has anything to do with coaching. I think that just makes sense from a team building point of view.”
** NHLRumors.com transcription