Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness has retired after spending 38 seasons behind an NHL bench, the team announced Monday. The 69-year-old Bowness is retiring after having one of the best seasons of his career.
He guided the Jets to a 52-win campaign that saw them finish with 110 points before they lost in the Western Conference quarterfinal round to the Colorado Avalanche in five games.
Leading the Jets to one of the NHL's best records led to Bowness being named one of the three finalists for the Jack Adams Award which goes to the coach who is «adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success.» Shortly before announcing his retirement, the Jets posted a video on X with the caption, «Hockey won't be the same without you, Bones.» Initially drafted in the NHL and the WHA, Bowness was a forward who scored 18 goals and 55 points in 173 NHL games with the Atlanta Flames, Detroit Red Wings, St.
Louis Blues and the original Jets. He was a player-coach with the Jets' AHL affiliate in 1982-83 and became a Jets assistant once the 1983-84 season was finished.