Scott Arniel lands on Dean Chynoweth and Davis Payne as new assistant coaches for 2024-25.
The Winnipeg Jets have officially rounded out their coaching staff for the 2024-25 season.
Having named former associate coach Scott Arniel as the team's bench boss just under a month ago, the new head coach acted swiftly to get his ducks in a row for the coming year.
"I wanted to make sure that I was real thorough in this search process, and I'd like to think I was," Arniel told The Hockey News.
"At the end of the day, the hardest part was that I was competing against seven other teams that were looking for coaches. So, that was why I had to get going on it right away. But at the end of the day, I'm really excited about these two guys."
In landing on Dean Chynoweth and Davis Payne, Arniel has two veteran coaches at his wings that will bring about past experience and a new flavour to the bench.
Chynoweth will focus on the team's defensive structure and its penalty kill, while Payne will turn his attention to the offence and Winnipeg's power play.
"Both Davis and Dean, they've been in the game a long time at all different levels," Arniel expanded. "They've both been head coaches and assistant coaches. They've done a lot of things over their careers: they've won, they've had success, they've been developers, they've worked with young players and they've worked with veteran players to create great relationships."
Although not knowing either individual personally, Arniel said the reviews came back extremely positively for both candidates from his near 20-person queue.
"I have heard nothing but awesome things about each guy," he said. "Whether it came from players that played for them or coaches that worked with them. Management did a lot of digging on not just those guys, but everybody.
"I got some great things back on those guys and it really helped me feel confident that I was making the right choices. I am really happy and excited that they chose Winnipeg as well, because they, too, could have gone somewhere else."
Having interviewed over a dozen possible leads, Arniel settled on the duo of Chynoweth and Payne, who will join the current coaching staff consisting of Marty Johnson (assistant coach), Wade Flaherty (goaltending coach) and Matt Prefontaine (video coach).
The process of sitting down and talking about the Winnipeg Jets with other like-minded individuals gave Arniel a fresh outlook on how outsiders may view his team - something he rather enjoyed.
"I talked to a ton of guys and got a lot of different opinions, a lot of different ideas and a lot of different thoughts from some candidates. You know, some of the guys talked about our team and their thoughts of some of our players - and they're guys that are in the league or have been in the league - so it was a really interesting experience. It was great to talk to those guys and really get a good feel for people."
With the NHL Awards, the NHL Draft and the first week of the NHL's official free agent signing period set to begin all within the coming two weeks, Arniel is expected to have a busy start to his first offseason in charge of the Jets. But for now, it's a couple days of rest and relaxation at his family cottage in Lake of the Woods.