Jets Sign New Head Coach Rick Bowness To 2-Year Deal

The Winnipeg Jets have finally found their next head coach and locked him up for a couple of years. According to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic, Rick Bowness signed a two-year contract worth $5 million.

The deal also includes a team option for a third season, which would see the former Dallas Stars bench boss make $3 million for the 2024-25 campaign.

It’s a bit of a homecoming for Bowness as he got his first sniff of NHL coaching in Winnipeg. Bowness started with the original Jets franchise as an assistant coach ahead of the 1984-85 season. Since then, he’s tallied 639 games as a head coach in hockey’s top league.

The Dallas Stars fired the 67-year-old after an opening-round postseason series loss to the Calgary Flames this year, despite overachieving to grab the fourth seed. Bowness led Dallas to the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

FanDuel Sportsbook has the Jets as +5000 dark horses in the Stanley Cup futures market, putting them in the league’s lower half on the odds board.