Winnipeg Jets 2024-25 Coaching Thread

[Jets4Life]

Doesn't matter who coaches if there's no personnel changes...

Maurice looks like Scotty Bowman now - but he's still playing two scoring, one checking and one plug fourth line... his man D coverage is still confusing... Forsling is not a legit first pairing...

But Tkachuk, Barkov and Bennett all have that playoff fire - Jets players have to find that, no coach can make that happen especially when Scheif is now 31

Arniel is fine with me but I want Chevy to offer whatever it takes to get Buchnevich from the Blues... some kind of move like that - top six needs heart surgery

Scheif definitely has playoff fire. Wheeler did too. It's Ehlers who seems to fade into oblivion when the post season starts.

 

[marry poppins]

I hope they put more thought into the next coach position. Arniel is a good guy, but not strong enough for the head coach

 

[marry poppins]

Dean Evason & Craig Berube are my picks​

 

[marry poppins]

Scheif definitely has playoff fire. Wheeler did too. It's Ehlers who seems to fade into oblivion when the post season starts.

I disagree regarding your comment on Ehlers. When the lines got switched up during playoffs, I saw 5-6 players lose confidence, one walking off and our big scorers were slumped over the bench or not dressed for the game.

 

[marry poppins]

Scheif definitely has playoff fire. Wheeler did too. It's Ehlers who seems to fade into oblivion when the post season starts.

Scheiffe nor wheeler didn’t have the after burners on in all 3 periods by themselves. It was a team effort. Don’t keep changing things that work in the middle of a game.

 

[SensibleGuy]

Yeah, they had checked out long before Maurice quite - and they checked out on Lowry too.
When the coach quits, there's usually no plan to fill in for him - so the assistant get it.

It's not like coaches quitting is a regular occurance. It nearly never happens. That was the real issue - it shouldn't ever have gotten to the point where Maurice chose to jump ship. The move should have been made proactively by the organization. There should have been a plan and it probably should have happened one or two seasons earlier. Who knows how things might have played out had the organization made the tough decision it probably should have a year or two before PoMo chose to do it himself.

(oh noes! now I'm in trouble! In the future when we're looking for someone to replace Chevy I'm going to be the victim of all sorts of sarcasm about how "we have lots of GM candidates here on the board!" lol)

 

[Eyeseeing]

I hope they put more thought into the next coach position. Arniel is a good guy, but not strong enough for the head coach

I agree.
I really hope that we don’t just settle again.
Bowness did a great job in the regular season no doubt, but like his predecessor couldn’t get this team into playoff mode at all.
Not convinced Arniel is the guy either.
Definitely the special teams coaching must go far, far away.

 

[TS Quint]

I didn't make up a fantasy world at all lol. majority of the best coaches are employed during the season.. very rarely can you find a good coach sitting on the couch, seeing as you couldn't even name 1 coach it seems to me like you have no actual answer to who we could have got

you say it's the gm's job to find the coach, maybe he looked at all the available options and figured it was best to wait until the off season to see if better options became available, just look at all the options that were available after the season was over, trotz, monty, cassidy, deboer

it wasn't even a normal coaching change either, maurice quit gave no time to find a replacement either

you keep saying they punted the season... as if hiring a coach they didn't like would have been a better option

Coaches get fired and replaced with success frequently. It’s not impossible for the Jets to do it as well. Again I don’t have to defend your fantasy of the choices being Lowry or worse.

No, it wasn’t a normal coaching change. In fact Maurice gave them plenty of heads up that he wasn’t happy and wanted to quit. If your coach tells you he can’t do it any more and you aren’t doing your due diligence over the next 5/6 months you are being negligent.

 

[cbcwpg]

According to NHL Radio:

The Maple Leafs are believed to have met with Craig Berube on Saturday.

 

[gojetsgo]

Coaches get fired and replaced with success frequently. It’s not impossible for the Jets to do it as well. Again I don’t have to defend your fantasy of the choices being Lowry or worse.

No, it wasn’t a normal coaching change. In fact Maurice gave them plenty of heads up that he wasn’t happy and wanted to quit. If your coach tells you he can’t do it any more and you aren’t doing your due diligence over the next 5/6 months you are being negligent.

if you don't like any of the available coaches you simply wait until the summer until there is a far greater pool of coaches and more time to do a proper search, that is not some fantasy that is a fact... most teams end up promoting an assistant to interim head coach...

I think the fantasy is acting as if there were many great available coaches waiting for a job and chevy just chose to ignore them and named lowry interim for reasons unknown...

clearly if they liked somebody as a replacement they would have hired that person... just like they did after they fired noel...

 

[Skidooboy]

Scheif definitely has playoff fire. Wheeler did too. It's Ehlers who seems to fade into oblivion when the post season starts.

not even fades... I could accept it if his scorring just fell off....

Sadly it's more like, "disastrously explodes into an out of control tirefire beside a munitions plant."

losing battles, flailing around, giving up turnover after turnover after turnover on poor decisions and pointless dangles....

he was directly responsible for no less than 10 odd man rushes in 5 games.

 

[DRW204]

What you are saying is something people need to remember ....

TNSE may have a list of 20 people they see as potential coaches, but not all of those 20 people see Winnipeg as a potential place to coach.

The Jets IMO will never get the best coach available, just the most willing to work here coach.

the Jets have supposedly the best goalie in the league, coming off a 4th place regular season, w/ probably nearly the same Fwd group (pre TDL) coming back next year. I also don't think ppl in NHL coach's age range give a shit about night-life etc. as much young athletes do.

idk how many openings are attractive as WPG right now. there might be some turnover in WPGs D Group certainly (for better or worse) but their Goaltending is elite and their Fwd group is good. Goaltending is the most important being locked down & reliable in the regular season.

& don't forget the super soft media, and job security/team expectations.

 

[Maukkis]

Playoff fire is largely a myth imo.

I mean, most of the playoffs is just random noise. Anyone can find a small sample size of any player or team and argue that the player/team is good/bad/talented/useless/insert word here. The playoffs is just that, except that those samples are produced in a more organised fashion.

The blueprint to win in the playoffs is hilariously simple. Have an above-average goaltender. Deploy a system that gets >50% xGF. Have a star forward or two (or three). Make it into the postseason in most years. Pray that you don't get goalied. That's literally it.

You don't have to rush your Vezina winner and your best forward out of the town, you don't have to panic. Just breathe.

 

[WolfHouse]

I mean, most of the playoffs is just random noise. Anyone can find a small sample size of any player or team and argue that the player/team is good/bad/talented/useless/insert word here. The playoffs is just that, except that those samples are produced in a more organised fashion.

The blueprint to win in the playoffs is hilariously simple. Have an above-average goaltender. Deploy a system that gets >50% xGF. Have a star forward or two (or three). Make it into the postseason in most years. Pray that you don't get goalied. That's literally it.

You don't have to rush your Vezina winner and your best forward out of the town, you don't have to panic. Just breathe.

I mean that's just the blueprint to win...

Don't think anyone's panicking but another season of Connor-Scheif pairing, Ehlers bouncing around the lines and Pionk in top 4 D is going to yield the same results

 

[gojetsgo]

friedman on the jeff marek show said he's heard the the devils are leaning woodcroft

 

[Andy6]

the Jets have supposedly the best goalie in the league, coming off a 4th place regular season, w/ probably nearly the same Fwd group (pre TDL) coming back next year. I also don't think ppl in NHL coach's age range give a shit about night-life etc. as much young athletes do.

idk how many openings are attractive as WPG right now. there might be some turnover in WPGs D Group certainly (for better or worse) but their Goaltending is elite and their Fwd group is good. Goaltending is the most important being locked down & reliable in the regular season.

& don't forget the super soft media, and job security/team expectations.

Would a coach hesitate to come to a 110-point, 4th place overall team when there’s realistically nowhere to go but down, other than with respect to a potential playoff run (which I expect most coaches will regard as being significantly a matter of luck)? It’s also a group that a couple of very good, exceptionally experienced NHL head coaches could never push over the hump in the past. I’m sure it’s somewhat attractive because you’re very likely to at least be in the running for a playoff spot, but I could see that there would be some hesitation.

It sort of mirrors the Leafs’ situation, but as a small market there is no huge reward waiting if you do manage to succeed in the playoffs.

 

[Maukkis]

I mean that's just the blueprint to win...

Don't think anyone's panicking but another season of Connor-Scheif pairing, Ehlers bouncing around the lines and Pionk in top 4 D is going to yield the same results

Correct, and that's exactly why it's so hard to fathom why people are suggesting such idiotic shit as dumping our best players due to what happens in the RNG fest that we also call "the playoffs". Suggesting that Ehlers needs to go is absolutely based on panic, emotions, and in the most extreme cases, very limited hockey knowledge.

You're right about the second part too: we had all the necessary pieces to contend, and we used them in a sub-optimal way. We know what happened. The main responsibility of whoever the next coach is is to start optimising the lineup and making sure that the system gets adjusted when it stops producing results. As we don't have the luxury of having generational talent like MacK or Barkov, who literally make whatever combination of wingers look like HoFers, we need to make sure that we don't waste time on broken combinations like before.

 

[WolfHouse]

Correct, and that's exactly why it's so hard to fathom why people are suggesting such idiotic shit as dumping our best players due to what happens in the RNG fest that we also call "the playoffs". Suggesting that Ehlers needs to go is absolutely based on panic, emotions, and in the most extreme cases, very limited hockey knowledge.

You're right about the second part too: we had all the necessary pieces to contend, and we used them in a sub-optimal way. We know what happened. The main responsibility of whoever the next coach is is to start optimising the lineup and making sure that the system gets adjusted when it stops producing results. As we don't have the luxury of having generational talent like MacK or Barkov, who literally make whatever combination of wingers look like HoFers, we need to make sure that we don't waste time on broken combinations like before.

I suspect that there's more behind the scenes than we understand and that now 3 different coaches maybe have their hands tied a bit...

We had a generational player in Laine actually and completely bungled that seemingly to keep Wheeler happy - I think there's a lot more at play. Not sure exactly what though

 

[abax44]

but as a small market there is no huge reward waiting if you do manage to succeed in the playoffs.

Just the same large silver Cup everyone else, large or small market, is playing for.

 

[DRW204]

Would a coach hesitate to come to a 110-point, 4th place overall team when there’s realistically nowhere to go but down, other than with respect to a potential playoff run (which I expect most coaches will regard as being significantly a matter of luck)? It’s also a group that a couple of very good, exceptionally experienced NHL head coaches could never push over the hump in the past. I’m sure it’s somewhat attractive because you’re very likely to at least be in the running for a playoff spot, but I could see that there would be some hesitation.

It sort of mirrors the Leafs’ situation, but as a small market there is no huge reward waiting if you do manage to succeed in the playoffs.

if a PO run is only a matter of luck... out of the vacant teams NJD SEA WPG TOR SJS, given the groups at Fwd, D, and especially Goaltending... the Jets are probably one of the safer bets to be a PO team, given their goaltending is elite and reliable (in the regular season). each team will have their strengths and weaknesses, id say the Jets' goaltending is probably the ultimate game-changer comparatively.

they were 1st in SV% this year (w/ Helle coming back), SEA was v good at 9th (unsure how much you can bank on that on a year-to-year basis), and the rest of the teams were bottom-10, including 30th for NJD. neither of the other vacancies have a group that could go over hump either, then consider the soft media coverage esp. compared to Toronto.

 

[drumzan]

Creed Bratton (Dean Evason) was discussed in today's Athletic.

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[snowkiddin]

I hope they put more thought into the next coach position. Arniel is a good guy, but not strong enough for the head coach

Welcome to the boards, marry.

 

[WolfHouse]

Welcome to the boards, marry.

Marry Poppins is actually Sheldon Keefe

 

[Zhamnov5GoalGame]

Hopefully if Toronto cans Keefe they stay far far away. Playoff choking is already a big enough problem.

A team that has success in the regular season but fizzles in the playoffs turns to a coach of a team that has been very successful in the regular season and sh$ts the bed even worse than our team in the post season (season over season). Sounds like a recipe for success!

 

[GNP]

I hope that ownership stays out of the selection process except for giving the final stamp of approval. We don’t need a Jets alumni as a coach or a serial BS’er for positive PR. We need a youngish hockey guy with a proven record and someone who isn’t limited by the group think of older hockey guys. I know I will get flamed for this but I love the way Patrick Roy coaches. He might not X and O you to death but his team would walk over hot coals for him. MSL is similar. Love those coaches.

I have to agree with Keith here, and I've always thought Patrick Roy would have been great for the Jets. He gets every ounce possible, out of players that play for him. However, he's with the Islanders now. I know a lot of posters will not agree with me on Roy tho.

So what I don't like is Scott Arniel for a head coach, but as an assistant, he'd be OK. He just doesn't seem to have the intensity, or fire in his belly, to motivate guys. To listen to him talk, is very uninspiring. I think it be a big mistake to hire him.

I'd first start interviewing Keefe, from Toronto, as he always had great seasons with the Leafs, but didn't have the hard nosed talent, that's needed in the playoffs, somewhat the same problem the Jets have. I believe he did well in the AHL when he was there as well.

Another guy I would talk too, is Todd Nelson who just won the AHL championship with his team. I believe that's his name. A lot of people speak quite highly of him, and the Jets should interview this guy.

I think we need a young Coach, with a lot of ambition, personal presence, with a strong personality, and desire to win, so let the search begin.