Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness is retiring after 38 NHL seasons

Rick Bowness walked off the ice following the Winnipeg Jets' final loss of the season, which eliminated them from the playoffs, unhappy with his performance and how his team played, and it dawned on him that it should be the final NHL game he coaches.

“Coaches have always told me ... they’ve always said you’ll know it’s time,” Bowness said. “It just hit me then: It’s time.”

Bowness announced his retirement Monday after 38 NHL seasons, a well-respected career that included leading the Dallas Stars to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020 and more time spent behind the bench than anyone else in league history.

“When I leave, I just want to be remembered,” Bowness told reporters at a news conference in Winnipeg, choking back tears. “I just love the game, and I respected the game. I love this league. I respect the league.”

Health issues of his own and his wife, Judy, played a role in his decision, which went beyond disappointment over losing to Colorado in five games. After all, Bowness did a good enough job the rest of the time to be a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year for the first time for leading the Jets to a franchise-record 52 wins and a second consecutive postseason appearance in as many seasons on the job.

Bowness was planning to retire in the summer of 2022 before Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff called to try to persuade him to take one more shot at winning the Stanley Cup. He didn't return that call right away but eventually decided to give it a go.

“We asked them to put their lives on hold to come here to Winnipeg to help give us, this group, a different voice, a different path, some strong structure,” Cheveldayoff said. “Just really wanted to thank Rick for the two years that he came and gave us here.”

“We asked them to put their lives on hold to come here to Winnipeg to help give us, this group, a different voice, a different path, some strong structure,” Cheveldayoff said. “Just really wanted to thank Rick for the two years that he came and gave us here.”

Bowness at 69 was the oldest head coach in the league. Word of his retirement led to plenty of well-wishes from those he has gotten to know around the game for several decades.

“I’m hearing today from guys I played with, and that’s a long time ago, and from all over the world — just people you coached,” Bowness said. “They’re over in Europe and I’m getting texts from them. It’s the friendships and the people you meet.”

The Moncton, New Brunswick, native worked 2,726 games as a coach in some capacity, the vast majority of it as an assistant across numerous roles dating to 1984. He is one of just three to coach across five decades, along with Hall of Famers Scotty Bowman and Pat Quinn.

“A lifetime in hockey and obviously well-respected by all of the coaching peers but also the players he’s had an effect on over their careers, especially the young defensemen in the league,” said Peter DeBoer, who succeeded Bowness as Stars coach. “It’s a who’s-who list of the last 20 years. Great career, and I feel fortunate to have coached against him, and I just want him to enjoy his retirement and congratulate him on a great run.”

It was not immediately clear if associate coach Scott Arniel, who filled in for several games this season when Bowness was away for personal reasons, would be considered as a potential successor.

That was Bowness many times, taking over as a midseason replacement for the original Winnipeg Jets, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and then the Stars in late 2019. He also coached the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators and had lengthy stints as an assistant for the Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning that included long playoff runs.

The closest Bowness got to the Cup was Game 7 of the 2011 final with Vancouver on Alain Vigneault’s staff. As a head coach, his Dallas team fell two victories short of the Cup against Tampa Bay while playing in the Edmonton “bubble” in 2020.

“It’s not winning the Stanley Cup: It’s always been important, but over the years as you age, you hope you have an impact on your players’ lives off the ice, on the ice and that’s been more important to me over the last 10 years,” Bowness said. “I’ve had some runs at the Stanley Cup and things happen that are out of your control with injuries and everything, and then you lose the Cup and, OK, things happen out of your control. What is in your control every day is the impact that you can have on your players on and off the ice.”

AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Frisco, Texas, contributed to this report.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness speaks to media during an NHL hockey end of season availability in Winnipeg, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness speaks during an NHL hockey press conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness, center top, directs his team in the second period of Game 4 of an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Winnipeg Jets' head coach Rick Bowness, left center, and players react at the end of Game 5 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday April 30, 2024. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness speaks during an NHL hockey press conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

LONDON (AP) — The host of a news conference about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition fight wryly welcomed journalists last week to the “millionth” press briefing on his court case.

Deborah Bonetti, director of the Foreign Press Association, was only half joking. Assange’s legal saga has dragged on for well over a decade but it could come to an end in the U.K. as soon as Monday.

Assange faces a hearing in London's High Court that could end with him being sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges, or provide him another chance to appeal his extradition.

The outcome will depend on how much weight judges give to reassurances U.S. officials have provided that Assange's rights won't be trampled if he goes on trial.

Here's a look at the case:

Assange, 52, an Australian computer expert, has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over Wikileaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010.

Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He faces 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. If convicted, his lawyers say he could receive a prison term of up to 175 years, though American authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much lower.

Assange and his supporters argue he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing and is protected under press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

“Julian has been indicted for receiving, possessing and communicating information to the public of evidence of war crimes committed by the U.S. government,” his wife, Stella Assange, said. “Reporting a crime is never a crime.”

U.S. lawyers say Assange is guilty of trying to hack the Pentagon computer and that WikiLeaks’ publications created a “grave and imminent risk” to U.S. intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While the U.S. criminal case against Assange was only unsealed in 2019, his freedom has been restricted for a dozen years.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country.

He was arrested by British police after Ecuador’s government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and then jailed for skipping bail when he first took shelter inside the embassy.

Although Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed, Assange has remained in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison while the extradition battle with the U.S. continues.

His wife said his mental and physical health have deteriorated behind bars.

“He’s fighting to survive and that’s a daily battle,” she said.

A judge in London initially blocked Assange’s transfer to the U.S. in 2021 on the grounds he was likely to kill himself if held in harsh American prison conditions.

But subsequent courts cleared the way for the move after U.S. authorities provided assurances he wouldn’t experience the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.

The British government authorized Assange's extradition in 2022.

Assange's lawyers raised nine grounds for appeal at a hearing in February, including the allegation that his prosecution is political.

The court accepted three of his arguments, issuing a provisional ruling in March that said Assange could take his case to the Court of Appeal unless the U.S. guaranteed he would not face the death penalty if extradited and would have the same free speech protections as a U.S. citizen.

The U.S. provided those reassurances three weeks later, though his supporters are skeptical.

Stella Assange said the “so-called assurances” were made up of “weasel words.”

WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said the judges had asked if Assange could rely on First Amendment protections.

“It should be an easy yes or no question,” Hrafnsson said. “The answer was, ‘He can seek to rely on First Amendment protections.’ That is a ‘no.’ So the only rational decision on Monday is for the judges to come out and say, ‘This is not good enough.’ Anything else is a judicial scandal.”

If Assange prevails, it would set the stage for an appeal process likely to further drag out the case.

If an appeal is rejected, his legal team plans to ask the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. But his supporters fear Assange could possibly be transferred before the court in Strasbourg, France, could halt his removal.

“Julian is just one decision away from being extradited,” his wife said.

Assange, who hopes to be in court Monday, has been encouraged by the work others have done in the political fight to free him, his wife said.

If he loses in court, he still may have another shot at freedom.

President Joe Biden said last month that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the case and let Assange return to his home country.

Officials have no other details but Stella Assange said it was “a good sign” and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comment was encouraging.

FILE - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being taken from court, where he appeared on charges of jumping British bail seven years ago, in London, Wednesday May 1, 2019. Assange faces what could be his final court hearing in England over whether he should be extradited to the United States to face spying charges. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)