Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel gives insight into the two newest assistant coaches

It was a busy day in Winnipeg as word broke that the Jets had hired two new assistants in former Leafs assistant coach Dean Chynoweth (more here) as well as former Senators assistant coach Davis Payne (more here).

Head coach Scott Arniel joined 680 CJOB to talk about the newest hires in Winnipeg. This is what he said about his two new assistant coaches:

“You know what, getting two real experienced guys that both worked in the NHL but both also worked with, whether it was junior hockey year, whether it’s in the American hockey league, two guys that you know, that have been in real good organizations. Davis obviously win the cup in LA. With Dean here he’s been with Carolina, Islanders, Toronto, although I don’t want to say Toronto, you know I’m not a big Leafs fan. At the end of the day, just two guys after going through the process, the interview process that kind of jumped out and actually were excited to come here as well so I’m looking forward to that.”

Arniel was asked if either of the two were coaches who reached out to him looking for a role with Winnipeg. He indicated:

“Actually yeah Davis was one. Dean couldn’t be because he was still under contract with Toronto and they hadn’t kind of done their Sheldon Keefe stuff yet so he didn’t really come out of the woodwork until maybe a week later. Yeah you know what, at the end of day I think I talked to 12 or 13, when it came to actual interviews, 12 or 13 guys that would be responsible for the defence and the PK and then probably eight guys that were power-play and responsible for the forward work. And then obviously I got it down about five in each category and then did multiple interviews and then sent some video out for those guys to look at, to get their opinions on some things. The one tough part about it. I had all those text messages and guys inquiring, was that there was seven other teams looking for coaches as well and it got tricky. You know like there’s a lot of guys that were multiple interviews going on at the same time. So I had to sell them on all the fine points of Winnipeg and come to be at Winnipeg Jet so at the end of the day, we got it done.”

Arniel was asked about the roles they would have:

“Davis is going to come in and do like he’s done most of his career. He is going to work with the forwards and he’s gonna be running the power play, something he’s done well in L.A., Buffalo, Ottawa the last five years. One thing about Davis, he’s had some real good opportunities to work with some great veteran players but also some real good young players, whether it’s in Ottawa, Buffalo especially recently and even going back to his days in LA.

Dean’s gonna be working with the defence and the PK. I actually had some great conversations with him about with the Leafs or with Carolina where he was before his last job and you know working with that group of defence and that penalty kill there, which is kind of been one of the elite ones the last few years.

And then Marty Johnston will be back with us to help me with a lot of things that we’ve done in the past couple years that we stay consistent with that. He’s a familiar face to a lot of our players that have relationships with him, built with him over the years. And then Wade Flaherty obviously running with our goaltending with Helly and the job that he’s done has been fantastic to work with our goalies.”

Does NHL experience play a role in selecting a coach:

“To a point ’cause you can also talk a lot of BS that doesn’t make sense if the message doesn’t get sent out quite properly. I think that for me, I wasn’t looking at it, when I went into this, all these names, I had guys that were coaching in the American League, guys that were coaching in junior. I had some great conversations actually when I got down to a couple guys from college, some guys in the American league that were really, really, really sharp and I mean I was trying to push to see how far I can go with a couple of them. Some of those guys wanna be head coaches in the NHL and just feel like they’re gonna wait. They’ve already interviewed for some jobs this year and the past years and some of them, maybe their mindset, as their seeing some of these young coaches jump right into the head job. So yeah I talked to everyone, there was no stone unturned. I tried to talk to as many guys as possible. Whether that was young or old, experienced or not in the NHL. I was trying to get a feel for everybody. I just think that it came down to me, sort of the job qualities and job requirements that I was looking for, that these two guys really hit in right on, in a lot of different areas whether it was development, specialty teams, whether that was experience in the league before or also evolving as the game has changed, the analytics side in their heads how they go and approach things. They kinda checked a lot of the boxes, as some of the other guys did, but at the end of the day these are the guys I’m certainly glad to have on board.”

He was also asked about the upcoming  NHL Draft at the end of the month and he said his focus is on free agency. He was also asked about watching the Stanley Cup Final.

You can listen to it in the 680 CJOB Audio vault (select 4 PM and it starts at the 7 minute mark) here.