Jets coach Rick Bowness retires after 38 years in NHL

Watching the Winnipeg Jets‘ season finish with a Game 5 loss in the Western Conference quarterfinal spherical was one thing that bothered coach Rick Bowness.

He didn’t like the way in which the Jets performed. He was sad with himself, and he was sad that they misplaced.

This was the second that Bowness realized it was time for him to retire.

Bowness retired Monday after spending two seasons with the Jets for a complete of 38 seasons behind an NHL bench. The 69-year-old Bowness is retiring after having the most effective seasons of his profession. He guided the Jets to a 52-win marketing campaign that noticed them end with 110 factors earlier than they misplaced in the quarterfinal spherical to the Colorado Avalanche.

“As I was standing there and looking around, it dawned on me,” Bowness stated throughout his retirement information convention. “Coaches have always told me — I’ve talked to the older coaches, older than me — they’ve always said you’ll know when it’s time. When I was looking around and wasn’t happy with the job I had done, it hit me. It’s time.”

Bowness, who sat subsequent to Jets normal supervisor Kevin Cheveldayoff, joked that Cheveldayoff talked him out of retirement earlier than he took the Jets job two years in the past.

Bowness stated he instructed his teaching workers about an hour after Game 5 final Tuesday that he was executed. Bowness stated that his staffers requested if he was positive of his choice earlier than he confirmed to them he was going to stroll away.

He stated that he reached out to Jets captain Adam Lowry together with the remainder of the crew’s management group Monday night time to allow them to know he was going to retire. Bowness stated he referred to as them as a result of he didn’t need them to seek out out about his choice elsewhere.

“I knew in my heart it was time,” Bowness stated. “It goes back and [my wife] Judy and I talked about this after Tampa. I had a couple of offers for three- and four-year contracts with other teams. I went to Dallas on a one-year deal. I love [Stars GM] Jimmy Nill, trust Jimmy Nill … and loved our time in Dallas and so we kept going. There comes a time, and right now seems to be the time.”

Bowness stated his solely remorse was that he didn’t take the Jets any additional than the primary spherical.

The choice to retire additionally comes as Bowness was named one of many three finalists for the Jack Adams Award that goes to the coach who’s “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”

Bowness, who was jovial throughout his information convention, joked how his spouse, Judy, was going to overlook the NHL greater than him. He recalled how as he was strolling off the ice after what can be his last sport that she was in the stands cheering on the Jets.

Reflecting on his profession additionally made Bowness open about his relationship with Judy. He stated they’ve been collectively since they had been 16 and that she has been with him all through each step of a profession that has taken them everywhere in the continent.

Earlier this season, Bowness took a short lived depart of absence to be with Judy after she had a seizure. In March, Bowness took one other transient depart to have what the Jets stated on the time was “a minor medical procedure” that noticed him return later that month.

Bowness stated his well being alongside together with his spouse’s well being was one thing that factored into his choice.

“Like I said at the time, those are life-changing moments. They are, they are,” Bowness stated. “And I’m still dealing with some minor issues that I got to get resolved. The last thing I want to happen is for me to go to [Jets ownership and management] in November and say, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ There was no way I was going to let that happen. There’s some issues we got to get fixed and they’ll be fixed.”

As a participant, Bowness performed 173 video games in a profession that noticed him play for the Atlanta Flames, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and the unique Jets.

He started his teaching profession as a player-coach with the Jets’ AHL affiliate in 1982-83. He then turned a Jets assistant as soon as the 1983-84 season was completed.

That began Bowness down a path that led to him spending an NHL-record 2,726 video games behind a bench as both a head coach or an assistant. It’s a profession that took him from an assistant with the Jets to stops as a head coach or an assistant with the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Bowness spent 5 years with the Lightning earlier than the Stars employed him as an assistant in the 2018-19 season. He was later elevated to go coach in December 2019 after the Stars parted methods with Jim Montgomery. Bowness led the Stars to the Stanley Cup Final in the Edmonton bubble, the place they misplaced to the Lightning. The Stars would miss the playoffs a 12 months later earlier than returning to the postseason in the 2021-22 season.

The Jets employed Bowness earlier than the beginning of the 2022-23 season. His first season noticed them win 46 video games and end fourth in the Central Division earlier than dropping to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights in the primary spherical.

What in the end turned his last season in Winnipeg noticed Bowness lead the Jets to a stage of success that had him named an All-Star Game coach for the primary time in his profession.

Bowness finishes his head-coaching profession with a 310-408-48-37 report having made 5 playoff appearances.

Cheveldayoff stated he joked with Bowness and his spouse that they most likely regretted seeing his cellphone quantity when he referred to as to see if Bowness would need to coach the Jets and delay his retirement plans in 2022.

That led to Bowness quipping how that decision, “took me off the golf course.”

“We asked them to put their lives on hold to come to Winnipeg and help give this group a voice, a different path, some strong structure,” Cheveldayoff stated. “Just listening to hear Rick talk just right now, those are the things being around Rick that you sit and think about each and every day. I think I have a greater appreciation for the National Hockey League and what it means to be in the National Hockey League each and every day for being around Rick and how he carried himself and what he talked about.”