National Hockey League head coach Rick Bowness of Moncton, New Brunswick has retired from coaching at the age of 69 according to Rogers Sportsnet on Monday. Bowness spent 14 seasons coaching in the NHL from 1988 to 2024.
Bowness began his head coaching career with the original Winnipeg Jets, before they moved to Arizona. The timeframe he was with the first Jets was from 1988-89. He then was the head coach of the Boston Bruins from 1991 to 1992, the Ottawa Senators from 1992 to 1995, the New York Islanders from 1997 to 1998, the Phoenix Coyotes in 2004, the Dallas Stars from 2019 to 2022, and the current Winnipeg Jets from 2022 to 2024.
In 803 regular season games, Bowness had a record of 310 wins, 408 losses without a point, 48 ties, and 37 losses with a point.Five times Bowness made the postseason. The furthest he took a team was to the Stanley Cup Finals, where the Dallas Stars lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games during the Edmonton bubble.
This past season with the Winnipeg Jets (the franchise that moved to Winnipeg from Atlanta), the Jets had the second most points in the Western Conference with 110. They only had three fewer points than the first place Colorado Avalanche. This was the first time in Bowness’s 14-year NHL coaching career that he reached the 100-point plateau in total points.
However, in the playoffs, Bowness and the Jets lost in five games to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference first round playoff series. The early exit for Winnipeg was disappointing because they beat the Avalanche three times during the regular season, and outscored them 17-4 in the process.
Bowness also spent a remarkable 24 additional seasons as an assistant/associate coach in the NHL. He was with the Winnipeg Jets from 1984 to 1987, the New York Islanders from 1996 to 1997, the Phoenix Coyotes from 1999 to 2006, the Vancouver Canucks from 2006 to 2013, and the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2013 to 2018.
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