Jets hire Dave Lowry, father of Adam Lowry, as assistant coach

There will be a father-son dynamic on an NHL bench this season. Just probably don’t expect the peewee-style preferential treatment.

The Winnipeg Jets announced Monday that they’ve added former NHL player and assistant coach Dave Lowry to Paul Maurice’s staff for the 2020-21 season. Lowry has a lengthy hockey resume, which includes 19 seasons as a player and five seasons of experience working on an NHL bench. But what makes the hiring particularly noteworthy is that Lowry is the father of Jets centre Adam Lowry, who is entering his seventh season — and last on his current contract — with the franchise this winter.

While not the first father-son relationship to extend onto an NHL bench, it’s most certainly out of the ordinary. Though the Jets do not believe it will be an issue, it will undoubtedly be a challenge — or at least an added consideration — the Lowry duo will have to deal with for this season and perhaps beyond.

Dave Lowry has toggled back and forth between head coaching gigs in the Western Hockey League and support positions at the NHL level since his playing days ended in the early 2000s. He was most recently the head coach of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings after two seasons as an assistant with the Los Angeles Kings, and spent five seasons in charge of the WHL’s Victoria Royals before that.

Lowry’s coaching resume also includes a turn at the helm of Canada’s 2016 World Junior squad, which failed to medal.

A third-round selection in the 2011 NHL Draft — Winnipeg’s first as a franchise — Adam Lowry has carved out an important and lasting support function with the franchise. Only Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little, Dustin Byfuglien and Mark Scheifele have appeared in more games since in the Jets provided a soft landing for the now defunct Atlanta Thrashers almost a decade ago.

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