Winnipeg Jets Look to Name Rick Bowness Next Head Coach: Oddsmakers Got This One Way Wrong

When oddsmakers at BetOnline released odds on the next head coach of the Winnipeg Jets, there was no price offered on Rick Bowness.

It appears now that Bowness is the chosen one, though no official announcement was made at the time of this publication, and still no official word as of Sunday July 3.  A Jets spokesperson told The Canadian Press on Friday that while nothing was finalized.

Should he be named the new head coach, all bets made at BetOnline for this particular prop become losers (winners if you are BetOnline). 

The 67-year-old Bowness "is the person we're focusing on as our next head coach," the Jets spokesperson revealed on Friday.

An official announcement was anticipated before the close of this Canadian Day weekend.

Why Bowness was not in consideration by the oddsmakers remains unclear. He has spent most of his time in the NHL as coach of the Dallas Stars. leading them to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final in the playoff bubble in Edmonton.  They would go on to lose to the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that has played in the last three Stanley Cups, winning two. The Stars lost to Calgary in overtime of Game 7 in the first round of the playoff this year.

BetOnline had Barry Trotz one of the more clear-cut favorites among the NHL head coaching vacancies at EVEN odds.

Trotz is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach who most recently was head coach of the New York Islanders.  They unceremoniously fired him after missing the playoffs.

Trotz, however, said he will not coach in the NHL next season.

These were all the odds being offered:

Barry Trotz                  +100

Scott Arniel                 +450

Pete DeBoer                +500

Pascal Vincent             +600

Bruce Cassidy              +700

Randy Carlyle              +700

Claude Julien               +1200

Mike Babcock             +1200

- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com