Scott Arniel stepped up to the podium and didn’t waste any time.
“This year was certainly a lot different than last year at this time,” the Winnipeg Jets head coach said at his end-of-season press conference Monday at Canada Life Centre, before he even took a single question. “I’m extremely disappointed standing up here now and it’s not after a playoff series. Being in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is ultimately what we’re here for… and I’m extremely disappointed.”
“This is Not Where We Want to Be With the Winnipeg Jets”
“Our players are… management, ownership. This is not where we want to be with the Winnipeg Jets, not after… the hills we’ve climbed here the last few years to get to be one of the elite teams,” he continued.
The Jets, by going 35-35-12, regressed by 21 wins and 34 points from their Presidents’ Trophy winning 2024-25 and became just one of five reigning Presidents’ Trophy squads to miss the playoffs. Their many issues in Arniel’s second season as bench boss included a huge regression in secondary scoring, lack of speed, and ineffective special teams.
“I was taught as a kid — my mom and dad — take responsibility for your actions. I am taking some responsibility for a lot of what went on this year,” Arniel said. “I’m not falling on a sword… at the end of the day, there’s lots of things I have to look at. I have four-and-a-half months to do it.”
“We were chasing the pile all year long,” he continued of a campaign that included a franchise-long 11-game losing streak in December and January that really put the team in a tough spot.
While the Jets improved after the 2026 Winter Olympic break and briefly challenged for a Western Conference wild-card spot, the hole they dug for themselves was just too deep to get out of and they missed the postseason by eight points.
“We played our best hockey when it was on the line, but it was too late,” Arniel said. He added later the type of effort they displayed in late February until they were eliminated has to be an “84-game thing” next season.
Jets Have to Get Back to “Cornerstone” Of Success — Defensive Structure
The Jets got away from their defensive structure that was key to them winning back-to-back William M. Jennings Trophies in 2023-24 and 2024-25 — awarded to the goaltender or goaltenders on the team with fewest goals against — and allowed 39 more goals than last season.
“That is our cornerstone — I will always say it’s our cornerstone — is defending first,” Arniel said. “You don’t get to play right now at this time of year like those other 16 teams are unless you’ve bought into defending. There were lots of situations where we were chasing games and it had to become about offense.”
Arniel said Adam Lowry, Cole Perfetti, and Dylan Samberg being out with injuries to start the season played a big role in the defensive structure’s weakness out of the gate. Other players had to take on outsized roles they were unfamiliar with and had varying degrees of success in them.
“That’s not the excuse, but that is part of the reality of it,” Arniel said. “It just seemed like we were spinning our wheels and I was trying to figure out our group for the first 40 or 45 games and how it was going to work and how it was going to mesh.”
A Veiled Shot at the GM?
Arniel took what some will perceive as a veiled shot at general manager (GM) Kevin Cheveldayoff, whose offseason decisions played a big role in the Jets’ sharp regression from 56 wins last season to 35. The longtime GM lost the speedy and dynamic Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency and signed only over-the-hill veterans who made the team too old, dreadfully slow, and unable to keep up with up-and-coming young squads.
“My job is to coach what is in front of me. This isn’t a shot at our players. I have to coach what’s in front of me and hopefully with the best game plan to do that,” Arniel, who came under some fire for some of his lineup and player-deployment decisions this season, said.
“I would love to be a 100-mile-an-hour team, I really would, but you do have to coach what’s in front of you,” he continued.
Jets Woes “Snowballed”
A number of players, from veterans to up and comers, saw their play and production drop dramatically from last season.
“Team success helps everybody. A year ago, everybody had real good years, our team had a fantastic year, and so everybody kind of caught that wave,” Arniel said. “This year, when we hit that kind of middle of the season, we were struggling as a group, as a team, and then we were individually struggling and that can weigh on guys… it just kind of snowballed, snowballed throughout our lineup.”
“That’s one of my questions… How come we had so many guys that got stuck on numbers? That got stuck on not having the years they had the year before?” he continued.
“The supporting cast, we have to make sure it’s something that can complement what we have,” he said later. “We’ve got to continue to build that supporting cast for those guys (the star players) as well to get back to where we were last year.”
“We need to get back to where we roll four lines. That’s been our strength. When we roll four lines, everyone benefits.”
Arniel Vows to Learn From Down Season, Puts Faith in Leadership Core
Arniel said he still has things to learn and vowed to do his homework to improve as a coach and ensure the Jets get back to competitiveness in 2026-27.
“Going from what happened last year to this year, it’s like I got knocked off a ladder. I got gut punched, but that’s where I’ve got to grow, that’s where I’ve got to learn, I’ve got to move forward here,” he said, adding he’d reach out to coaches who have been in similar situations.
“You either win or you learn, and if you don’t go out and learn, if you don’t go out and find why you didn’t win, you’re just going to end up kind of repeating the same thing.”
Arniel said he still believes in the team’s leadership group and that the culture, which was a huge issue prior to his arrival as an assistant coach under Rick Bowness, isn’t regressing.
“They’ve had small tastes of being a top team and they all want to win,” Arniel said. “Our group, they’re good people. They’re looking ahead to how are we going to win a Stanley Cup.”
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