- The Jets are among the teams looking for a new head coach following the retirement of Rick Bowness. In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested that some believe Todd Nelson could be a viable candidate to take over behind the bench in Winnipeg. Nelson doesn’t have much experience as a head coach in the NHL (just 51 games with Edmonton in 2014-15) but is a very experienced coach. He has been an assistant at the top level with Atlanta and Dallas (spanning six years combined) and is in his tenth season as an AHL head coach; he currently is with Hershey who led the league with 111 points during the regular season.
Jets Rumors
Jets To Explore Trading Nikolaj Ehlers
The Jets could find themselves with a much different-looking top-six forward group next season. They’re likely to make winger Nikolaj Ehlers available for trade in the weeks leading up to the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, The Athletic’s Murat Ates reports.
Ehlers, 28, has one year left on his contract at a $6MM cap hit. He can block a trade to 10 teams with his modified no-trade clause.
Signed to a seven-year, $42MM extension back in 2017, Ehlers has been a Winnipeg fixture for nearly a decade. The Danish winger has 201 goals and 457 points in 605 games since breaking into the league in 2015-16, good enough for sixth all-time in scoring in Jets/Thrashers franchise history. His career +92 rating is the franchise record.
Ehlers played in all 82 games this season, his first healthy season since the pandemic, but his 0.74 points per game were his lowest since the 2018-19 season. He was pushed down the lineup with offseason trade pickup Gabriel Vilardi making a home for himself on the top line alongside Mark Scheifele, and midseason acquisitions Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli reduced the amount of available ice time. As a result, Ehlers averaged under 16 minutes per game for the second straight season.
Despite the slight offensive decline, Ehlers remained a consistently positive possession force. His shot-attempt share at even strength has been above the Jets’ team average in all nine of his NHL seasons, including a 54.4 CF% mark this season (5.2% higher than Winnipeg’s CF% without Ehlers on the ice). He also posted a career-high +11.1 expected rating based on shot quality when he was on the ice.
In a supplementary article today, Ates listed the Hurricanes, Penguins, Red Wings, Sabres, Senators and NHL Utah as speculative trade matches. Working with someone on a sign-and-trade after July 1 would allow them to get a much better return – after all, Ehlers is slated for unrestricted free agency upon his current deal’s expiry in 2025, and there’s no guarantee he’d stay with a new team for more than one season.
One stat that may damage his value is his playoff performance. He’s made 37 postseason appearances across six campaigns but has only managed four goals and 14 points, half of his career regular-season points per game rate. His last playoff goal came in the first round of the 2021 playoffs against the Oilers. He was limited to two assists and a -4 rating in five games against the Avalanche in this year’s first-round elimination.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jets Not Expected To Re-Sign Brenden Dillon
The Jets are expected to let defenseman Brenden Dillon reach unrestricted free agency in July, the Winnipeg Sun’s Scott Billeck reports Wednesday.
Dillon didn’t have any extension talks with Winnipeg in-season, per Billeck. He also hasn’t heard from the Jets front office since their season ended over two weeks ago at the hands of the Avalanche in a disappointing first-round loss. He didn’t play in the final two games of the series after sustaining a hand laceration after the end of Game 3.
The 33-year-old left-shot landed with Winnipeg via trade nearly three years ago. He signed a four-year, $15.6MM contract extension with the Capitals before the 2020-21 season after they picked him up from the Sharks at the prior season’s trade deadline, but lasted only one season in Washington before they flipped him to the Jets for a pair of second-round picks.
Dillon has consistently logged top-four minutes in Manitoba, averaging 19:04 per game over 238 appearances since the trade. He missed just eight games in his three-year tenure, mostly due to COVID and a three-game suspension this year.
That consistency and solid defensive work made him a reasonably valuable asset for general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff at his $3.9MM cap hit. Not only did he stay healthy, he was incredibly consistent season-to-season for Winnipeg, recording between 20 and 23 points every season with a combined +38 rating.
Dillon is perhaps coming off his best season in the NHL, posting career-highs in goals (8), plus/minus (+20) and hits (241). His topped-out physicality did result in more trips to the penalty box (92 PIMs, up from the 60-70 range the past few years). He also controlled a decent 47.4% of expected goals when on the ice at even strength, considering he saw the least advantageous usage of his career, starting nearly 60% of his in-zone shifts in the defensive end.
Since breaking into the league as an undrafted free-agent pickup by the Stars in 2011-12, he’s made 892 appearances for Dallas, San Jose, Washington and Winnipeg. He’s totaled 37 goals, 159 assists, 196 points and 858 PIMs in parts of 13 seasons.
He likely wouldn’t have cost much to re-sign. His age lowers his value, and while he’s still a solid top-four contributor, he doesn’t stand out among an otherwise deep class of UFA defensemen. Evolving Hockey projects he’ll land a two-year deal with a $2.975MM cap hit on the open market, nearly a $1MM decrease from his current cap hit.
That could indicate Cheveldayoff anticipates needing to shell out to keep Dylan DeMelo around. DeMelo, a right-shot, was half of Winnipeg’s top pairing this season alongside Josh Morrissey and had a career year in 2023-24, posting 31 points and a +46 rating while averaging 21 minutes per game for the first time in his nine NHL seasons. On a mid-term deal, he’d likely receive close to $5MM annually on the open market, which will eat up a solid chunk of their $13.35MM in available cap space next season. With a new deal needed for restricted free agent Cole Perfetti coming off his entry-level contract and extending trade-deadline pickup Sean Monahan likely a priority, there’s some viable reasoning for Winnipeg to let Dillon, its oldest pending UFA defenseman, head to market.
Jets Expected To Interview Craig Berube
The Jets are now the fourth team to display interest in Craig Berube for their head coaching vacancy this offseason. He’s set to interview virtually with the team today, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports.
All indications point toward Berube heading north of the border, with the Jets and Maple Leafs as the finalists for his services. He and Todd McLellan are the reported finalists to replace Sheldon Keefe in Toronto, while associate coach Scott Arniel, per Seravalli, is a candidate for an internal promotion in Winnipeg after Rick Bowness announced his retirement earlier this month.
Berube’s other documented suitors have been the Devils and Senators, the latter of whom already filled their vacancy by signing Travis Green to a four-year deal. Meanwhile, New Jersey has reportedly tabbed Keefe and former Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft as their preferred options behind the bench.
Hiring Berube would make him the Jets’ third permanent head coach since 2014. Paul Maurice held the role over parts of nine seasons before resigning in 2021. Then-assistant Dave Lowry, now with the Kraken, stepped in for Maurice for the remainder of the 2021-22 season before the team hired Bowness the following offseason.
If it wasn’t already, it’s clear the 2019 Stanley Cup champion is the highest-valued coaching candidate on the market. He was fired by the Blues early in the 2023-24 season after posting a 13-14-1 record, ending his tenure in St. Louis with a 206-132-44 record in 382 games across parts of six seasons. Before St. Louis, his only previous head coaching experience had come in a two-year stint with the Flyers, posting a 75-58-28 record across the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.
Morning Notes: Brindley, Soucy, Reichel, Rangers
Team USA has added Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Gavin Brindley to their World Championship lineup, per Steven Ellis of the Daily Faceoff (Twitter link). Brindley becomes the fourth collegiate athlete to join the squad, stepping into a room with World Juniors teammates Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Trey Augustine. The quartet played a major role in USA’s drive towards the 2024 World Juniors Gold Medal – and they’re now rewarded with an opportunity with the Men’s National Team. Brindley isn’t expected to line up for USA’s Monday matchup against Team Slovakia, instead joining Leonard and Matt Kessel as the team’s healthy scratches.
Brindley is continuing to have a fruitful off-season, signing his entry-level contract and making his NHL debut in early April. He received 12 minutes of ice time but wasn’t able to change his stat line. With Columbus’ season ending soon after, Brindley’s scoring this season was limited to the 25 goals and 53 points he managed in 40 games with the University of Michigan. He also added 10 points in seven World Juniors games.
Other notes from around the league:
- The NHL Department of Player Safety is expected to hold a hearing for Vancouver Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Soucy could be facing punishment for cross-checking Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid in the face, after McDavid was knocked over by Nikita Zadorov, during a late-game scrum. Soucy has been suspended once in his career, receiving a one-game booking for charging Conor Garland in March of 2021. He was also assessed a $2,500 fine for a roughing penalty in November of 2022. It will likely be Noah Juulsen who steps in should Soucy miss any time. Juulsen has played in one postseason game this Spring, recording a -1 in 11:24 of ice time. Juulsen is coming off a career-high 54 NHL appearances this season, though he only managed seven points.
- Team Germany has also made a lineup addition, bringing in Chicago Blackhawks forward Lukas Reichel, per Ellis (Twitter link). Reichel has been a key piece of Germany’s international presence, recording 11 points in 13 games across the last two World Championships. He also joined the team at the World U18 Division 1-A Championship in 2019 and the World Juniors in 2020. Reichel is coming off an up-and-down year, scoring just 16 points in 65 NHL games. He’ll look to reestablish his scoring spark in the familiarity of international play, with five games remaining on Germany’s slate before the quarter-finals.
- The New York Rangers welcomed forward Filip Chytil back to practice on Monday, after he missed Game 4 with an illness. Blake Wheeler is also progressing from injury, upgrading to a full-contact jersey, shares Vince Mercogliano of USA Today Sports (Twitter link). Both Chytil and Wheeler should slot right back into the lineup, should both be cleared to play, likely bumping Jonny Brodzinski and Will Cuylle back to the skybox. Wheeler made a strong impact on the Winnipeg Jets’ first round run last season, scoring six points in five games to bring his career playoff scoring up to 45 points in 65 games.
Kristian Reichel Signs Three Year Deal In Germany
Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks will return to Milwaukee for another pre-season game at the Fiserv Forum. The Blackhawks will take on the St. Louis Blues on October 5th, 2024, two years after Chicago first played at the home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
Two years ago, the preseason game in Milwaukee sold out in just minutes and brought in over 15000 fans to watch the Blackhawks take on the Minnesota Wild. This time around the Blackhawks are hoping for more of the same from the passionate fanbase. The city of Milwaukee is currently home to the Milwaukee Admirals, who are the AHL affiliate for the NHL’s Nashville Predators and averaged over 6K fans a game this season.
In other evening notes:
- TSN Insider Chris Johnston is reporting that Utah has plans to build a brand-new practice arena that will house two or more NHL-standard ice rinks. The team hopes that the new building will be completed prior to the 2025-26 season, and it will also be the team’s official office. The building will also be used for recreation activities as well as youth and amateur hockey. The team is currently in the process of finding a temporary training and practice facility for next season.
- Former Winnipeg Jets forward Kristian Reichel has signed a three-year contract in Germany to play with Adler Mannheim (according to Derek O’Brien of The Hockey News). The move means that the 25-year-old will be leaving the Jets organization after spending the past six seasons with the team, primarily as a member of the Manitoba Moose. Reichel just completed his best professional season in the AHL, having registered 23 goals and 19 assists in 70 games. The son of Robert Reichel was undrafted but worked his way through the minors and eventually signed an ELC with the Jets in 2020 and made his NHL debut in 2021-22. He played in 15 NHL games over parts of two seasons, tallying a goal and two assists.
Rick Bowness Announces Retirement
Jets head coach Rick Bowness is expected to announce his retirement later today, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports. Winnipeg promptly released a statement confirming the news.
Bowness, 69, had mulled retirement two seasons ago after the Stars announced he wouldn’t be returning as their bench boss, but he was offered a two-year agreement with a one-year club option from the Jets to stay in the game. Speaking to reporters last week, Bowness said the team hadn’t yet decided on whether or not to exercise its option and needed to talk with his family and the team about his future.
After a 40-year career behind NHL benches as a head coach and assistant, Bowness was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for the first time last week. He guided Winnipeg to a second-place finish in the Central Division this season with 110 points and 52 wins, the latter of which tied for the most in Jets/Thrashers franchise history.
Bowness began his time in the NHL as a player. After being selected in the second round of the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft by the Atlanta Flames, Bowness made his NHL debut the following season. The right winger didn’t establish himself as an everyday NHLer until a move to the Red Wings in 1977, who acquired him for cash that summer. He played a career-high 61 games that season before spending the next three seasons as a major-league/minor-league tweener with the Blues and Jets organization, last suiting up in the NHL for the previous incarnation of Winnipeg with 25 points in 45 games in the 1980-81 campaign.
Still playing in the Jets organization, Bowness began his career in coaching as a player-coach for AHL Sherbrooke in 1982-83. He didn’t coach the team during his final season as a player with Sherbrooke in 1983-84 but took a job as an NHL assistant with the Jets immediately after retiring. He remained in an assistant role in Winnipeg until 1987 when the organization reassigned him to the minors to become the head coach of their new AHL affiliate in Moncton. A year and a half later, Bowness was back in the NHL – this time getting his first shot as a head coach in the majors. He was the interim boss for the back half of the 1988-89 campaign after Winnipeg fired Dan Maloney midseason. It wasn’t terribly successful, though, and he wasn’t brought back after finishing the season with an 8-17-3 record.
Bowness immediately landed with the Bruins organization and spent the following three seasons there — two as the head coach of AHL Maine and one as Boston’s head coach. He guided the team to a 36-32-12 record in 1991-92 and a Conference Final loss to the Penguins, the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
In the summer of 1992, he headed to the expansion Senators to serve as the first coach in franchise history. Nobody could have bolstered one of the most poorly assembled rosters in league history, though, and Bowness led the struggling franchise to a 39-178-18 record (.204 points percentage) before being let go midway through his fourth season in Canada’s capital.
Bowness spent the next 20-plus years working for the Islanders, Coyotes, Canucks, Lightning and Stars, mainly serving as an assistant or associate. He was briefly the head coach of the Isles for a time in 1997 and 1998 and served as the interim bench boss for the Coyotes in 2003-04 for the final 20 games of the season.
After going 2-12-3-3 down the stretch with Phoenix, Bowness wouldn’t get another try as a head coach for another 15 years. He took over as interim for Dallas midway through the 2019-20 campaign after Jim Montgomery was dismissed due to unprofessional conduct, later revealed to be an alcohol-related incident that led Montgomery to seek treatment for alcoholism and eventually return behind the bench for the Bruins last year. Going 20-13-5 until COVID paused the season, Bowness returned in the bubble playoffs and oversaw the Stars’ first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 20 years.
Dallas fell to the Lightning and missed the playoffs the following shortened season but returned to postseason play under Bowness in 2022. After going 46-30-6 and losing in the first round to the Flames, though, the Stars and Bowness mutually parted ways, paving the way for him to return to where his coaching career started in Winnipeg.
Bowness ended his career on a high note, posting a 98-57-9 record and guiding the Jets to back-to-back playoff appearances, even though they both resulted in quick first-round exits. He officially exits the game after 38 seasons behind an NHL bench, with parts of 14 coming as a head coach. His career record stands at 310-408-48-37 in 803 games, a .439 points percentage.
Winnipeg now becomes the seventh team with an active head coach vacancy. No candidates have been linked to the job yet.
PHR wishes Bowness and his family all the best in retirement and congratulations him on one of the lengthiest coaching careers in league history.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jets Not Expected To Re-Sign Tyler Toffoli, Laurent Brossoit
The Jets don’t have a ton of pending unrestricted free agents, but enough to lead to some significant depth turnover after failing to win a playoff series for the third year in a row. Two players who could opt not to re-sign and test the open market are veteran winger Tyler Toffoli and backup netminder Laurent Brossoit, Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press posit.
Brossoit’s return to the Jets last summer for his second stint with the club was a surprise. The 31-year-old’s stock was at an all-time high after posting a .927 SV% in 11 games down the stretch for the Golden Knights after returning from injury, and he was serviceable in eight playoff appearances as Vegas won the Stanley Cup. Some believed he would be able to land a role as a tandem netminder and eclipse his previous career-high of 24 appearances, but he instead opted to return to a familiar role backing up Connor Hellebuyck on a one-year, $1.75MM deal.
Toffoli, meanwhile, was underwhelming after the Jets paid a second and third-round pick to acquire him at 50% salary retention from the Devils at the trade deadline. He posted seven goals and 11 points in 18 games down the stretch in the regular season but saw his ice time dip in the postseason, averaging only 14:05 per game against the Avs while scoring twice with a -2 rating in the five-game loss.
Jets Sign Thomas Milic To Entry-Level Contract
The Winnipeg Jets have signed goaltender Thomas Milic to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal will carry an AAV of $841.7K beginning next season. Winnipeg drafted Milic in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL Draft and signed him to a minor-league contract in October.
Milic has since played out his first professional season, starting the year in the ECHL but climbing into the AHL starting role by February. He totaled 19 wins and a .900 save percentage in 33 AHL games this year, leading the Manitoba Moose in all three stats. Milic also represented Team Canada in December’s Spengler Cup, allowing two goals on 18 shots in his only appearance. It was his fourth time representing Canada internationally, having previously played in the World U17 Hockey Challenge, the World U18 Championships, and the World Juniors.
The climb to AHL starter has to feel rewarding for Milic, who went undrafted twice before Winnipeg selected him in his final year of eligibility. He posted strong numbers throughout parts of four seasons in the WHL, totaling 60 wins and a .917 save percentage in 91 games in juniors – but the 2023 World Juniors earned Milic his acclaim. Still draft-eligible, he won all five of his starts and posted a .932 save percentage en route to Canada’s gold medal win. He’s carried the momentum from a strong juniors career into the pros, now being rewarded with his first NHL contract.
Milic will get another chance to compete for the AHL starting role next season, going up against Oskari Salminen and Domenic Divincentiis, the only other minor-league goalies Winnipeg has under contract. Winnipeg will also need to negotiate a new deal with NHL backup Laurent Brossoit, who made up one-half of the team’s William M. Jenning Trophy win this season.
NHL Announces Finalists For 2024 Jack Adams Award
The Jets’ Rick Bowness, the Predators’ Andrew Brunette and the Canucks’ Rick Tocchet are this year’s finalists for the Jack Adams Award, the league announced Friday. The honor is given to the head coach who “contributed the most to his team’s success.”
We’ll have a first-time winner for the fifth year in a row. Last year’s recipient was Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery, who led Boston to the best regular season in league history (.823 points percentage) since the Canadiens’ 60-8-12 (.825 points percentage) run in 1976-77.
Bowness, 69, is by far the most veteran option among the finalists. A good portion of his 30-plus years behind an NHL bench has been spent as an assistant, but he’s still managed 310 wins and 803 regular-season games coached as a head coach. After guiding Winnipeg to only its second 100-point season in franchise history with a 52-24-6 record, Bowness is the first Jets/Thrashers coach to be nominated for the Jack Adams in franchise history.
Brunette is also gunning for his first Coach of the Year honor despite holding less than two full seasons as a head coach. Both have yielded great results, though, guiding the Panthers to the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy after taking over for John Quenneville early in the season. He was back in a head coaching role this year, taking over behind the Predators’ bench and guiding what many viewed to be a fringe team to a 99-point season, including a franchise-record 18-game point streak from Feb. 17 to March 26. Nashville’s 47-30-5 record placed them in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, returning to postseason play after missing out in 2023.
The 60-year-old Tocchet rightfully gets a nod here in his first full season as head coach of the Canucks. Vancouver was arguably the league’s most surprising team this season, especially considering their level of dominance. They weren’t just a playoff team like some had hoped for at the beginning of the year – they were one of the best in the league for long stretches, finishing with a 50-23-9 record and their first division title in 11 years. The Canucks’ 109 points were their most since hitting 111 in the 2011-12 campaign.