Rick Bowness

Head Coach, Winnipeg Jets

Rick Bowness was appointed as the eighth head coach in franchise history on July 3, 2022 and the third head coach since the club’s relocation to Winnipeg.

Bowness, 67, most recently served as head coach of the Dallas Stars from Dec. 10/19 until the end of the 2021-22 season. The Moncton, N.B. native led the Stars to an 89-62-25 record in 176 regular season games. Under Bowness’ leadership, Dallas also went 18-16 in the playoffs, highlighted by a trip to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. Dallas earned postseason series wins in 2020 over Calgary (4-2), Colorado (4-3), and Vegas (4-2) before falling in six games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Bowness was drafted in the second round (26th overall) in the 1975 NHL Draft by the Atlanta Flames. His NHL career spanned 173 games for Atlanta, the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, and Winnipeg Jets where he recorded 55 points (18G, 37A) and 191 penalty minutes. Bowness played 45 games for the Jets 1.0 in the 1980-81 season and he played and coached with the organization for nine seasons until 1988-89. He spent the 1982-83 season as player-coach for the Jets’ AHL affiliate in Sherbrooke and retired following the season to become an assistant coach for Winnipeg. He worked three seasons as an assistant with the Jets before serving as head coach and general manager of their AHL affiliate, the Moncton Hawks, beginning in 1987-88. Bowness took over as Winnipeg’s head coach on Feb. 9/89 and led them to an 8-17-3 record.

Following his time with the Jets, Bowness has served in a number of different coaching capacities at the NHL level for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Dallas Stars. He has a 212-351-76 record as an NHL head coach over parts of 12 seasons with Winnipeg (1988-89), Boston (1991-92), Ottawa (1992-96), the New York Islanders (1996-98), Phoenix (2003-04), and Dallas (2019-22). On Jan. 1/20, at the 2020 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, Bowness became the third coach in NHL history to have held a head coaching position in five different decades, joining Hockey Hall of Famers Pat Quinn and Scotty Bowman.