Chynoweth, Payne ready to dive into Jets special teams

WINNIPEG – It’s too early to tell if new Winnipeg Jets assistant coaches Dean Chynoweth and Davis Payne will sit next to each other on the plane this season, but if they do, it won’t be the first time they’ve been seat mates.

The first time might have been back in Boston during the 1996-97 season, when Payne was injured shortly after a call-up from Providence. Chynoweth helped get his teammate from point A to B.

“He helped take care of me. I wasn’t able to drive because of my shoulder,” Payne recalled. “That’s when I first got to know Dean and we kept in contact as former teammates. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard his name was part of the staff that Scott Arniel was putting together.”

Of course, that announcement became public on June 17 after a two-round interview process. Throughout those conversations Chynoweth – who has spent the last three seasons in Toronto – said Arniel’s enthusiasm stood out.

“He’s getting a second crack at being a head coach in the NHL after having to work his way back up to that position. I have a lot of respect for his path,” said Chynoweth, whose NHL resume also includes time with the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders (not to mention three years as a head coach with the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters and another with the San Antonio Rampage).

“When you have the longevity like he has, it says a lot about his character and the respect he has around the league,” Chynoweth said. “From job position wise, the interviews were thorough, they were very in-depth, they were very fluid - which when you’re going to work with somebody day in and day out, you want to have those open lines of communication.”

The 55-year-old Chynoweth will focus on running the defence and the penalty kill. The Jets were 21^st in that department last season (77.1 percent) after sitting seventh (82.4 percent) in 2022-23.

It was somewhat the same for Chynoweth and the Maple Leafs in 2023-24. Toronto was 23^rd in the NHL on the penalty kill just one season after being in the top half of the league in 2022-23 (and eighth best in 2021-22).

Prior to Toronto, Chynoweth’s work with the Carolina Hurricanes penalty kill saw the team finish eighth, fourth, and third from 2018-2021.

“The one thing we went away from in Carolina was, a lot of teams were consumed with the entry and preventing it. I wasn’t,” he said. “My philosophy was there are certain breakouts where we’re not going to be able to deny the entry - whether that’s due to speed or skill set - but we need to set the pressure as quickly as we can in zone. That’s been a big difference.”

Obviously personnel will dictate exactly which system the Jets use when the 2024-25 season begins. That decision will also be made based on Chynoweth’s conversations with the staff and the players as training camp gets closer. He also looks forward to working with the Jets analytics team.

“At the end of the day, I always tell the players ‘don’t worry what percentage we’re at,’ Chynoweth said. “Does it win us the game or does it lose us the game? If it wins us the game, more often than not, you’re going to be a top-10 team.”

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Another area the Jets would like to be a top-10 team is the power play. Injuries prevented the team’s top unit from building the expected chemistry until later in the season, but there is still some room to grow.

That’s where the 53-year-old Payne comes in. His NHL career has seen him hold positions of head coach (with St. Louis from 2010-2012), assistant coach (with Los Angeles from 2012-2017), and associate coach (with Buffalo from 2017-2019) before spending the last five seasons with the Ottawa Senators.

His relationship with Arniel goes back many years, but there is certainly a bond after they both had the opportunity to become head coaches in the NHL in 2010.

“We went up against them in 2014 in the Final, and happy to say I held the edge in that one,” Payne said with a laugh. “We stayed in contact and when I saw Rick (Bowness) was retiring, I thought I’d reach out to him. It was basically the relationship between him and I that piqued my interest. Then I dug into the quality of the team, the success they’ve had recently, and looking at it from an offensive standpoint they have some very dynamic pieces.”

Payne wants to see those dynamic pieces make their way back up the league’s ranking on the power play. Similar to the penalty kill, the exact system won’t be known until camp. One thing is for sure though, power plays have continued to evolve as Payne has been in the league.

He believes it all comes down to mindset.

“I think when you’re looking at a traditional 1-3-1, you have a couple schools of thought,” he said. “One operates under a precision formula, where it’s about execution and working for your opportunity. Another element out of that 1-3-1 involves a little bit more volume, a little bit more attack, and a little less reset. It comes at you with more pace. It may not be as clean, but there is something to the volume and the mindset that goes with that.”

In the last year or so, he’s seen penalty killers get sick of allowing the constant one-timers from the flanks.

“They’ve come up with a way to reduce that,” Payne said. “You have to be able to work quickly against it. I think that’s why you’ve seen a little bit more spread stuff. From the spread you’re going to end up with some looks that are a little more precision based and some that are more volume based.”

The next couple months will involve meeting as a staff, trying to find places to live in Winnipeg, and spending time with family as the off-season rolls on.

But the excitement is noticeable from both assistant coaches, as they try to help the Jets reach the next step.

“Only one team can win,” Chynoweth said. “I’m looking at it as another opportunity to win the Stanley Cup.”