Keith McCambridge will not coach the Manitoba Moose next season

The Winnipeg Jets have decided not to renew contracts with Manitoba Moose’s head coach, Keith McCambridge. McCambridge has been an employee for True North Sports Entertainment for quite some while, as head coach of the Jets’ 2.0 farm team since the purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers and two seasons as the assistant coach to the Manitoba Moose prior to that.

In many ways this comes as a surprise. Loyalty has been one of the central pillars to TNSE, even if sometimes to a fault. McCambridge has been part of the organization for seven years and it was not surprising that the farm team stumbled with so much inexperienced youth being injected all at once.

The team has had success previously under the guidance of McCambridge, although the team was so stacked that their could be arguments for being due to other variables.

However, there were signs of the team struggling beyond what could be excused with youth. In January we pointed out how the little success the Moose had was actually due to their youth not despite, and also their veterans were consistently underperforming across the board.

It will be interesting to see where TNSE moves from here.

A coaching position has now opened up. Will the Jets promote Mark Morrison, the team’s assistant coach? Will they approach a junior coach with ties to the organization, like Dale Hawerchuk?

We’ll see.