Arniel proving 'he was the right guy' to lead Jets as coach

WINNIPEG -- Scott Arniel stood at the lectern 2 ½ hours prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoff opener. The 62-year-old had reached this point before in this city, five times as a player with the original Winnipeg Jets from 1981-86, and twice more as an associate coach with the current franchise from 2022-24.

But now, in his first NHL postseason game as Jets coach, he was taking it in as much as he could before puck drop.

“Where we are now so far, it’s been very rewarding, obviously," " he said Saturday.

“Pretty nervous going into training camp and the season. You just don’t know how things will play out. I just can’t say enough about what the players have done throughout the year to make it that much easier for me and our staff. It’s been a lot of great things.”

How things played out for the Jets was pretty darn well. They were strong out of the gate, had few slumps during the season and won the Western Conference and the Presidents’ Trophy, which is awarded annually to the team with the most points during the regular season.

Now, Arniel and the Jets are looking for Stanley Cup Playoff success and are off to a great start, with a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference First Round against the St. Louis Blues.

After a 2-1 victory in Game 2 on Monday, Arniel joined former Washington Capitals coach Todd Reirden (2019 Eastern Conference First Round) as the second coach in the past 10 years to win his first two career playoff games.

Game 3 is at Enterprise Center on Thursday (9:30 p.m., ET; FDSNMW, ESPN2, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“He's been great this year,” Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg said. “We were all very comfortable with him, you know, and especially the D-men. He was (on) penalty kill last year, so there was comfortability for all of us, and he's been awesome. He's obviously led us to where we are today. So, yeah, he's been doing a really good job as a coach.”

It was a fairly seamless transition for the Jets and Arniel, who was named Winnipeg coach May 24, 18 days after Rick Bowness retired following two seasons on the job.

“If you go back to the day I was hired, both management and I were adamant that we hire Scott to do this, to take over when I was ready to retire," Bowness said. "So, he was the right guy and we knew he was the right guy at that point, and so I’m not one bit surprised.”

Arniel filled in as coach twice last season, when Bowness missed 11 games from Oct. 23-Nov. 22 after his wife, Judy, had a seizure, and four games from March 19-24 when Bowness was away because of a medical procedure.

“I’m thrilled for Scott and his staff and the team that they’re having such a great year, and for 'Chevy' (general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff) and the fans," Bowness said. "I mean, it couldn’t be better. I’m so happy for everyone involved, the organization, the fans. It’s fantastic.”

This was Arniel’s first opportunity as a head coach in nearly 13 years, when he held that position for the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2010-12. He also has been an assistant/associate coach with the Buffalo Sabres (2002-06), New York Rangers (2013-18) and Washington Capitals (2018-22).

Arniel said in May that he wasn’t sure he’d get another chance at being a head coach after Columbus. Blues coach Jim Montgomery said he told Arniel “how much better he’s going to be” because of that Columbus experience.

“The first experience you grow a lot and the second time (when) you get a crack at it, like he’s shown this year, you’re significantly better,” said Montgomery, who played for Manitoba of the American Hockey League in 1999-2000, when Arniel was an assistant.

“You know exactly how you want everything to run and then when you invest the time he did, coaching with so many different coaches in the League and really learning from them, it just makes you better and that’s why you see the result this year.”

Montgomery got his own second chance on July 1, 2022, when he was named the Boston Bruins coach after being fired by the Dallas Stars on Dec. 10, 2019. He then got a third chance when the Blues hired him Nov. 24, 2024, five days after being fired by the Bruins.

When Arniel was named Jets coach, he called it a “full circle” moment. He was selected in the second round (No. 22) of the 1981 NHL Draft by the original Jets, who played in Winnipeg from 1979-96 before they relocated and became the Phoenix Coyotes. A forward, Arniel had 338 points (149 goals, 189 assists) in 730 NHL games with the Jets, Sabres and Bruins, and six points (three goals, three assists) in 34 playoff games.

“He was a pretty steady up-and-down wing," said former NHL coach and forward Paul MacLean, who played with Arniel in Winnipeg from 1981-86. "There wasn’t a lot of flash to his game. He was a strong skater, strong on pucks.

“At the NHL level, his finishing wasn’t maybe like in junior. He’s not the only guy you’d say that about either, but he was a very solid, all-around player with a real intensity to play the game and play well and succeed.”

Arniel first got into coaching with Houston of the International Hockey League, when he was a player/assistant coach in 1995-96. Alongside him in the same role was former NHL coach Dave Tippett.

“He was always a good teammate," said Tippett, now a senior adviser with the Seattle Kraken. "He had a good pulse on players, and good pulse of chemistry in the room and stuff. We were both pretty green at the tactic part of it. We were just kind of getting into that. You have a certain idea of what the tactics are when you’re a player but then when you turn into a coach, there’s a whole other scope you have to go into.

“Both of us were just learning that end of it, and it’s not an easy situation because you’re a player and a coach on a team. It’s very unique. I always look back and say it was probably a good learning lesson for me as a transition from player to coach, because for a whole year you’re in that dressing room as a player but then you have ideas as a coach, also. You have to kind of tread softly in there and see how it goes.”

After three years as an assistant in Manitoba, Arniel got his first NHL assistant job with coach Lindy Ruff and the Sabres from 2002-06. He became an AHL coach for the first time with Manitoba from 2006-10 before going to Columbus in 2010.

Arniel’s time in Columbus may not have worked out, but he was still in demand in NHL. He was an associate coach for Alain Vigneault from 2013-18 with the Rangers, who he helped lead to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final and the Eastern Conference Final the following season.

“The success he’s having in the short time (in Winnipeg) has come from all the work that he’s put in since he stopped playing and began coaching," MacLean said. "Whether that’s with the Manitoba Moose, his experience with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a coach in the NHL for the first time.

“All along the way he’s learned about himself in different ways. The biggest thing you learn is the different ways to do things and the different types of personalities of the different coaches he’s worked for and worked with. He got that and it turned him into what he is now.”

What Arniel learned benefited others.

On June 29, 2018, Reirden was named coach of the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals, replacing Barry Trotz, who resigned 11 days earlier. Reirden was a first-time NHL coach, so he wanted someone with experience on his staff. Enter Arniel, who Reirden said helped him plenty during their time in Washington from 2018-20.

“I thought that just in terms of his everyday preparation, when going through a full season, I thought in situations where he had maybe hoped or wished he’d done something different, he would share those experiences with me," said Reirden, who was an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2020-22 and associate coach with them from 2022-24. "He’d say, ‘This was something I wish I had done different,’ and it kept me from doing it. I thought that was really important."

It has been quite the journey for Arniel to get his second chance at coaching in the League. The Jets are once again in the postseason hunt, and his work helped get them here.

“Yeah, it’s an unbelievable opportunity that I've been handed,” Arniel said. “Obviously, the players helping me get here this year, just the way they've played throughout the season. For me, really, I'm going to try to stay out of the way as much as possible and let those guys go out and do what they do best.”