Years later, Vigneault hand-picked Arniel as his associate coach with the Rangers — a story that features Vigneault’s two favourite people in the game: Arniel and former Jets head coach Rick Bowness.  Vigneault came up in the coaching ranks under Bowness as his assistant during the first four years of the expansion Ottawa Senators.

“Rick (Vigneault’s assistant for seven years in Vancouver) had gone off to Tampa,” Vigneault remembers after being let go by the Canucks. “So my first call was to Scott, and it worked out real well. The pair led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup final in their first year in charge in 2013-14. “We were hand-in-hand there, we had some real good years,” Vigneault said.

Asking Jets fans if they would like to see Arniel as the club’s next head coach is like asking Winnipeggers if they want Portage and Main open to pedestrian traffic.

It’s a divisive topic.

On the one hand, the 61-year-old is more adept than anyone at what this team has fostered over the past two seasons under Bowness.

He’s been a big part of turning this team’s defensive game around and instilling a culture of inclusivity that has brought this crop of players closer together than they have been in years.

“His player relationships, how to deal with them, how to improve them and get them to understand the team-first concept, it’s top-notch,” Vigneault said. “He knows everyone there. From the owners to the GM to the scouts. I find it hard to find someone who would say anything different.”

Arniel led the Jets to a 10-5-2 record during two stints with Bowness away from the club. “He did real well in that situation,” Vigneault said. Why rock the boat of a 110-point hockey club more than it’s already been wobbled with Bowness retiring?

On the other hand, Arniel hasn’t held a head-coaching gig at any level for more than a decade. His one shot came in Columbus and lasted fewer than two seasons due to the team’s poor play, particularly its goaltending, which hid a team that had positive possession and expected-goal metrics during Arniel’s only full season there.

“Every time I’d call him or I’d text him, I’d tell him the same thing: ‘You can’t win with that goaltending,’ ” Vigneault said. “It’s the most important position in the game. You have to have it.

“But he’s not the same coach that he was in Columbus. He’s a much more knowledgeable hockey person with all the experience he’s had over all of those years. Every year that you stay in this league, with how competitive it is, if you’re not constantly on top of everything that’s out there, and you’re not constantly trying to improve yourself, you’re not going to stick around.”

Arniel’s first job behind an NHL bench came in Buffalo in the early-to-mid aughts beside Lindy Ruff, one of the most well-respected coaches in the league today.

“Just a rock-solid guy. A good communicator,” Ruff said last November. “He’s spent a lot of time in the game. He understands both sides of the game. (He) was a penalty killer, a power-play guy and is just a good person.

“Just think, with working with all of the personnel he’s worked with, you can always take a little bit from everybody that you’ve been around. From all the head coaches, the assistant coaches you’ve been around. He uses all of those experiences to make himself better, (and) make the team better.”

Ruff’s opinion holds significant weight in the game, and Vigneault said it was Arniel who convinced him to hire Ruff as an assistant in their final year in New York.

Ruff has coached 1,774 games in the NHL, including a 15-year stint with the Sabres before spending time in Dallas and New Jersey. He was let go mid-season this past year, but he’s now back behind the bench for a second go-around with the Sabres.

Peter Laviolette, who has coached in the NHL for 22 years, is a reputable voice in the game, like Ruff.

Laviolette guided the Carolina Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup banner in 2006, Philadelphia and Nashville to the finals in other stops, and the New York Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final this season.

“A really good leader,” is how Laviolette described Arniel last October. “It was really good to work with Scott. It just goes to show that no matter how long you’ve been in the game, you can constantly learn from people.

“You could just tell that Arnie had been a head coach in the NHL before, just by the way that he conducts himself, the way that he runs his meetings. He’s a really smart guy. “I got to leave Washington knowing that I was a better coach because I got to spend time with him.”