The Winnipeg Jets could become the first team this season to go ahead and make a change behind the bench.
The club is currently in the midst of an awful nine-game losing streak, and treading water at an alarming rate. The Jets’ 7-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on November 1 pushed their winless streak to 0-7-2, placing enormous pressure on the organization to do something.
That something may result in head coach Scott Arniel getting the heave-ho. According to the folks at BonusFinder, the market is beginning to price in Arniel’s dismissal, assigning +200 odds to see him be the first out the door this season.
That was a significant shift, after Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill previously held the top spot. And while the Blackhawks haven’t exactly improved, the Winnipeg Jets’ position has become even more concerning.
The team is fading fast in the ultra-competitive Central Division, leaving the club with little room to maneuver. The Winnipeg Jets will need to turn things around quickly if they are to get back into the NHL playoff race in 2026-27.
Winnipeg Jets Are Running Out of Time to Salvage Their Season
The Winnipeg Jets can’t afford to wait and ride things out. That would be the case if this was a two or three-game skid. But that’s no longer the case at this juncture.
There’s an unofficial Thanksgiving benchmark that teams around the NHL use to gauge their postseason chances. While it’s not a hard deadline, history has shown that teams not in a playoff spot by then, face a tough climb to get back into the race. By late November, the standings start offering a clearer picture of who is legitimately in the playoff conversation and who is facing an uphill battle.
For Winnipeg, that checkpoint is becoming increasingly important.
A nine-game winless streak is bad enough. But the bigger concern is how quickly the Jets are losing ground in a Central Division that offers very little breathing room. Every lost point makes the climb steeper, and another few weeks of this could leave the organization with an uncomfortable decision.
If the Winnipeg Jets can’t get reasonably close to a playoff spot by Thanksgiving, management may have little choice but to make a significant change. Firing Arniel could become the easiest way to signal that the organization isn’t prepared to accept another lost season.
The issue here is that a coaching change won’t magically change anything. If the organization expects to get results, there will be a lag in seeing them come to fruition. They need more than a brief bounce after a new voice takes over. They need to start collecting points consistently.
Firing Scott Arniel Won’t Fix Everything Wrong With Winnipeg
Here’s the thing: making Arniel the fall guy might satisfy the immediate demand for accountability, but it won’t necessarily fix what’s wrong with this team.
The Winnipeg Jets’ problems didn’t suddenly appear this season. Their Presidents’ Trophy-winning campaign in 2024-25 masked some underlying weaknesses, and the playoff miss in 2025-26 exposed just how much work remained.
Winnipeg needed to address those issues over the summer. Instead, too many of the same concerns have carried over, and now they’re becoming impossible to ignore.
The team needs to improve across the board. That means getting more consistent performances from its veterans, tightening up defensively, finding reliable secondary scoring, and getting the kind of goaltending that can keep games within reach. A new coach might help with some of those things, but he can’t magically turn an underperforming roster into a contender.
There is also the question of what management has done to address the team’s shortcomings. If the organization believes the roster is good enough to compete, then it needs to take responsibility for putting the right pieces around its coaching staff.
Arniel may ultimately pay the price for the losing streak. That’s often how these situations play out in the NHL. But if the Winnipeg Jets make a coaching change without addressing the deeper roster problems, it risks repeating the same cycle with a different person behind the bench.
The clock is ticking, and the Jets need answers. Simply changing the coach may not be enough.
Winnipeg Jets Could Be First Team to Fire Coach, Odds Show