No moves by Jets GM no surprise

Opinion

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This article was published 29/02/2016 (3508 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHO are the real Winnipeg Jets?

Are they the electrifying team that made the playoffs last season and brought this city to a standstill? Or are they the maddeningly inconsistent outfit from this season that is already all but out of the playoff race with six weeks still to play in the regular season?

It’s not only the most compelling question to be asked about this enigmatic Jets team, it’s also really the only one that matters.

And the Winnipeg Jets front office finally provided their long-awaited answer to that question on Monday.

Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff was quiet as a mouse at the NHL trading deadline. And by doing so, he was also loud and clear that the Jets brain trust continues to believe this team as presently constituted remains closer to the playoff contender they were last season than the also-ran from this one.

A Jets GM that was clearly in a “seller” position heading into Monday’s deadline was deafening in his silence on a day the biggest Jets news was that their worst defenceman, Adam Pardy, was claimed off waivers by the worst team in the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers.

If you were one of the Jets fans out there hoping to see Chevy swing open the doors Monday and put everything on sale — a la the complete rebuild going on in Toronto right now — you were sorely disappointed.

But you shouldn’t have been. For starters, past performance is always the most reliable indicator of future performance, and Cheveldayoff has never been particularly active on deadline day — his one and only trade on deadline day as the Jets GM came in 2012 when he moved defenceman Johnny Oduya.

And for another thing, Cheveldayoff already made his big move last Thursday when he shuffled captain Andrew Ladd off to Chicago.

But more than anything, there was no reason to expect Cheveldayoff to start dramatically dismantling what he’s spent five years building in this city because to have done so would have been a white flag of sorts, a tacit acceptance by Cheveldayoff that his oft-repeated “draft and develop” plan has been too much of the former and not nearly enough of the latter.

Rightly or wrongly, Jets fans were led to believe when this team returned to Winnipeg in 2011 that it was going to take five years to build a bonafide contender. And so dismantling the whole thing now as the fifth season winds down would be a big ask.

Hands up: who wants to be the guy in this town who asks Jets fans for a do-over?

Anyone? Bueller? Chevy?

Exactly. So what we’re going to get instead with this Jets team moving forward is pretty much the same as we’ve seen in the past: new pieces welded on to a core this team brought with it from Atlanta, plus or minus a few players here or there.

Whether that’s the right approach for a team that took a monumental step backwards this season and is currently looking up in the Western Conference standings right now at every team except the woeful Oilers is a column for another day.

But the lesson from today is, for better or for worse, that is the approach the current Jets front office continues to believe is the right one for a team that is now the second youngest in the NHL.

Progress seldom travels a straight line, and there are those in the Jets organization who will tell you what occurred this season is just one of those bumps that happen, but the overall trajectory of this organization remains upward.

Maybe. But ponder this number: the Jets are currently on pace to register 75 points this regular season, which would be a drop of 24 points from the franchise record 99 points they put up last season. That would tie the Jets with the Montreal Canadiens for the biggest projected season-over-season drop in the standings in the NHL.

So if by “bump” you mean one of those turbulence pockets where everyone slams their head into the overhead bins, then sure, I guess.

Now, it’s still possible Cheveldayoff is simply keeping his powder dry and will make a splash in the trade market closer to the NHL draft, where the Jets will have at least two first round draft picks and some pieces they could move around for the right deal.

But the bottom line remains this: it’s not a coincidence the Jets have a woeful 9-14-1 record this season against a Central Division in which every single team other than Winnipeg is still in the playoff race.

The Jets simply weren’t good enough most nights this season. And help is not on the way anytime soon.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

@PaulWiecek