Barry Trotz will not be the next Winnipeg Jets head coach – Winnipeg | The Canadian News

680 CJOB Confirmed Barry Trotz has decided not to return to his home province to become the new head coach of the Winnipeg Jets.

The hockey club does not comment on the reasons for Trotz’s decision and will now focus on other candidates for the vacant position.

Boston and Detroit are the only other NHL teams besides the Jets without head coaches under contract for the 2022-23 season.

Trotz, born in Winnipeg and raised in Dauphin, became the immediate favorite to take over the Jets’ bench after being fired by the NY Islanders on May 9. He had one year left on a $4 million contract when he was surprisingly relieved. of their homework

The two-time winner of the Jack Adams Trophy as NHL Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2019 guided the Isles to a 37-35-10 record, missing the playoffs as head coach for the first time since what would be his 15th and last season with the Nashville Predators in 2013-14.

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In the seven years between those non-playoff seasons, Trotz guided Washington and New York to at least the second round on six of those occasions, including the Capitals’ first Stanley Cup championship in 2018. The two seasons prior to the one just played, the Islanders advanced to the conference finals twice, only to lose to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning both times.

Trotz is the third-winningest coach in NHL history with a record of 914-670-60-168. Only Scotty Bowman has coached more games than Trotz’s 1,812 since the start of the 1998-99 season, when he became the first bench manager for the then-expanding Nashville Predators.

While Trotz’s .567 career winning percentage ties him for 13th among the 31 men who have coached 1,000 or more games in the NHL, that number improves dramatically to .635 over the past eight seasons after he he compiled a record of 357-191-68 with Washington and the Islanders.

Dave Lowry was named Winnipeg’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season on December 17 following the unexpected resignation of Paul Maurice just 28 games into the season. Maurice resigned three days after his 600th game in charge of the Jets, a disappointing 4-2 loss at home to the lowly Buffalo Sabers on Dec. 14.

Under Lowry, the hockey club continued to perform inconsistently, going 26-22-6 in the last 54 games and missing the postseason for the first time since 2016-17.

During his season-ending media availability, Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff confirmed that Lowry, as well as associate coach Jamie Kompon and longtime assistant Charlie Huddy, would not receive contract extensions. Cheveldayoff said at the time that Lowry had earned the right to an interview for the open head coaching job.