In a shocking Friday morning development, Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice resigned after a 13-10-5 start.
Maurice was in his ninth season coaching the Jets.
The 54-year-old, who has spent parts of 24 seasons as an NHL head coach with Hartford, Carolina, Toronto and Winnipeg, would be a strong candidate to take over behind the bench in any other organization that makes a coaching change. However, the sudden and shocking way he's departing the Jets opens the question: Does he still want to pursue a coaching career in the league?
"I don’t know the answer to that," Maurice said.
"You’re a performer just like the player and you have to be at your best, and I'm a pretty honest critique of my performance. Maybe sometimes a little too critical with it, but I'm honest about it with myself. And the only way I would step back again is if I felt I could be even better than I was before -- and that's not today."
Assistant coach Dave Lowry will take over the head coaching job on an interim basis, which GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said Lowry would hold for at least the rest of this season.
"Going back to the bubble, to the lockout year, I didn't enjoy it and that's the very first time in my career I didn't enjoy coming to the rink and I thought that maybe it was all of what was going on," Maurice explained about his decision to step down. "And if you lose some of that passion for the game, the love of the game, you can still be good, but you can't be as good as you should be or you could be, and that's how I feel I am. So, this is where I'm at today."
Maurice was the second-longest tenured active coach in the NHL, getting hired by the Jets on an interim basis in January 2014. Tampa's Jon Cooper, on the job since 2013, is the longest-tenured active NHL coach.
"I don't have a game to coach tonight and I don't have to get a job tomorrow, and in 26 years that's probably the first time I could say that," Maurice said.
The Jets host the Washington Capitals Friday night.
