If the Jets choose to give Scott Arniel another shot at leading the NHL, Alain Vigneault knows one thing for sure. “They won’t be sorry,” the veteran NHL captain and former bench boss of the Manitoba Moose stated to the Winnipeg Sun on Friday.
When they were juniors, Vigneault and Arniel got into fights in the QMJHL. As Arniel took over Vigneault’s position with the Moose following Vigneault’s promotion to the top job with the Vancouver Canucks, the two swiftly transformed from rivals on the rink to colleagues and close friends off it. Years later, Arniel was hand-selected by Vigneault to be his associate coach with the Rangers. This is a tale that unites two of Vigneault’s greatest all-time heroes in sports: Arniel and former head coach of the Jets, Rick Bowness. After serving as Bowness’s assistant throughout the first four years of the Ottawa Senators’ expansion, Vigneault advanced up the coaching levels.
Once Vigneault was released by the Canucks, he recalls that his assistant for seven years in Vancouver, Rick, had left for Tampa. “So, I called Scott first, and it went really well. In their first season together, the Rangers made it to the Stanley Cup final in 2013–14. Arniel spent two stints with Bowness away from the team, leading the Jets to a 10-5-2 record. That was a really good moment for him, Vigneault added. Why upset a 110-point hockey team any more than Bowness’s retirement has already caused some trembling?
Like Ruff, Peter Laviolette is a respected figure in the game as a 22-year NHL coach. Laviolette led the New York Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final this season, the Carolina Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup trophy in 2006, and Philadelphia and Nashville to the finals in previous trips.
Last October, Laviolette called Arniel “a really good leader.” “I had a great time working with Scott. It only goes to show that you can always pick up new skills from other players, regardless of how long you’ve been playing. By the manner that Arnie handles himself and conducts his meetings, it’s obvious that he has experience as a head coach in the National Hockey League.
