6:40pm: Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the deal is for three years.
12:05pm: The Winnipeg Jets won’t be making a change behind the bench for a while. The team announced a multi-year contract extension for head coach Paul Maurice, who has been leading the squad since 2013.
There has been chatter all season about Maurice’s future with the Jets, given the team’s performance so far. Though loaded with talent, Winnipeg sits fourth in the Central Division with a 29-24-5 record and is no sure thing to make the playoffs. Connor Hellebuyck’s performance in net has been one of the biggest reasons why the team is even within a sniff of the postseason, but obviously management believes that Maurice has done a strong enough job.
It certainly shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Winnipeg would choose to stick with Maurice. The veteran coach has a 264-186-53 record with the Jets since arriving in 2013, and actually ranks seventh on the all-time coaching list in wins with 724. Though he doesn’t have the winning percentage of some of the names around him on that list, there is little doubt that he can be an effective coach at the NHL level.
The one question now for Maurice is whether he can get over the playoff hump. Despite coaching in nearly 1,600 regular season games, he has just 80 appearances behind the bench in the postseason, and a 36-44 record in them.
Bucking the trend in the ‘Peg. Intentionally keeping a coach who isn’t going to finish the season 82-0, but may be getting more from less than many other teams in the league. Bonkers!