Bowness was the very first head coach in Ottawa Senators history, leading the club through some tough expansion years in the early 1990s.
Rick Bowness is one of only three head coaches (Scotty Bowman and Pat Quinn) to serve behind an NHL bench in five decades. His 2,726 games as an NHL coach (head coach or assistant) make him the most experienced coach in league history.
After a career as long as that, conducting himself as beautifully as he did, "Bones" more than deserves some R and R.
The former Ottawa Senators head coach announced today that he's retiring from coaching in the NHL after 38 seasons in the league.
Bowness's career came full circle, closing out with two seasons as Jets' head coach in Winnipeg, where he began his NHL career as an assistant to Barry Long in 1984-85. At 69, Bowness led the Jets to a 98-57-9 record in his final two years.
It's not a stretch to suggest that the league almost forgot Bowness's head coaching potential.
After being dismissed by the Islanders in 1997-98, Bowness would roll for over 20 years as an assistant coach until Dallas finally gave him another shot. He was promoted to interim head coach in 2019 when Jim Montgomery was fired mid-season. Bowness led Dallas to the Cup final that same season, serving notice to the league that he had some game left.
Bowness coached eight different franchises, including the Senators. Statistically, those won't go down as highlight years for Bowness. The league left Ottawa with very little to choose from in the expansion draft, and as a result, the team was a glorified American Hockey League team.
But Bowness and his family still loved their time here. His son, Ryan, was nine when they arrived, and speaking of full circle, Ryan is now helping to run the Senators' as their assistant GM.
"When I talk about my best childhood memories, it was Ottawa," Ryan told NHL.com. "We were here for four years; I was nine to 13 years old. It was a pretty primary part of your childhood that you think back on. A lot of my best friends in the world still live in this city to this day.
"The Ottawa Senators franchise, obviously, with (father Rick) being the first-ever coach here, meant a lot to us growing up as a family. To be able to come back here with my family now and re-establish some of those roots and pass on some of my old memories to my family now has been amazing."
For the first time in his long career, Rick Bowness is a Jack Adams Award finalist as 2024 NHL coach of the year – a fitting tribute to a remarkable career and one of the best people in our game.