Jets’ Chevy seems committed… right to the core

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2017 (3156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Over the next couple of seasons, the Winnipeg Jets will hope to transition from a high-scoring young team to a permanent playoff contender with a legitimate chance of drinking from the Stanley Cup each year. It’s the Chicago Blackhawks model and should be every team’s goal.

Porous goaltending and a shallow talent pool on the blue line have stunted progress, and while most talk seems to centre on just plugging those two holes, some think it should go further.

There’s been discussion over the years suggesting the Atlanta Thrashers core (players who became Jets when the team moved here in 2011) should be traded. The theory is it would allow the Jets to move on from the group that seemed to bring losing and bad habits with them from the south, including a penchant for taking terrible penalties.

But did the Atlanta environment do this to them? Here are the games (in brackets) that the main players played with the Thrashers — Blake Wheeler (23), Mark Stuart (23), Alexander Burmistrov (74), Andrew Ladd (81), Dustin Byfuglien (81), Bryan Little (282), Chris Thorburn (313), Tobias Enstrom (318) and goalie Ondrej Pavelec (100 games played in two full seasons, 19 in his first two part-timers).

Surely Ladd and Byfuglien, in one season, didn’t lose all those good championship habits they gained the year before when winning the Stanley Cup in Chicago. Did Wheeler and Stuart get infected in 23 games?

Those four (there are others, too) have all been known to take bad penalties, although after almost six seasons in Winnipeg, there is more Jets blood than Thrashers in their veins. Little has shown no signs of the illness, Enstrom only a bit.

Burmistrov was waived and Ladd traded, so we’re really down to four from the initial group: Stuart, Thorburn and Pavelec are near the end of their Jets careers.

A recent online poll startled me; more than 40 per cent of the voters would be fine with trading this older core for young NHL players, top prospects and draft picks, despite potentially setting the Jets further back in real time.

Years ago, I supported the idea of trading this group to reset the lineup’s age to be more in tune with the draft-and-development plan that was in its earliest stages.

While they are not old today, the Thrashers/Jets core is heading into the years where you start seeing at least a slight decline in play from year to year (for many but not all), which leaves me a bit skeptical of whether the two cores that the Jets have will mesh into a permanent contender.

Losing Little, Wheeler or Byfuglien, or any combination of them, would hurt, but for the right package I (and apparently others), could live with it. Enstrom would hurt, but not as much.

This would take movement that I’m pretty sure general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff isn’t willing to consider, as his map likely has a championship lineup with Little, Wheeler and Buff in it.

When he provided them with a decent surrounding cast they made the playoffs. While they lost the series 4-0 to the Anaheim Ducks, it was much closer, both by analytics and my eyesight.

Byfuglien, Wheeler and Little (who is due a raise after next season) take up a lot of cap space, which may prove to be a problem at some point when they’re playing lesser roles on the team.

The best of the Jets young guns will deservedly be looking for big money in the next few years.

It might start happening this summer with the team’s best defenceman — 23-year-old Jacob Trouba — showing all the signs of getting $7 million or $8 million per year long-term, which would kick in after next season.

Nikolaj Ehlers has been terrific in his first two years, and a hefty raise is likely coming as a result of his 22 goals and 36 assists with nine games left.

Josh Morrissey has excelled, and is the Jets third-best defenceman already, in his rookie season. The money is coming.

Care to guess what Patrik Laine is going to command?

Let’s not forget all the other younglings — less spectacular raises, but on the way.

It’s heading toward a tight salary cap situation for the Jets in the coming years, where something will have to give.

Many fans and media are demanding that Cheveldayoff plug those holes in goal and on defence this summer, and I fully expect him to. Taking advantage of this highly talented group now makes a lot of sense.

Cheveldayoff was hired as assistant general manager by the Blackhawks right before their 2009-10 Stanley Cup win. He went through the restructuring of the team (due to the salary cap) after the season so he’s been around the best in the business and seen how it’s done.

Not only was Stan Bowman the general manager — his dad, Hall of Famer Scotty was his consultant, known as one of hockey’s greatest minds.

Jets fans hope Cheveldayoff was a big sponge in Chicago and can duplicate the Blackhawks model. The most critical days of his tenure lie directly ahead of him, so he better have been paying close attention.

 

Chosen ninth overall by the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and first overall by the WHA’s Houston Aeros in 1977, Scott Campbell has now been drafted by the Winnipeg Free Press to play a new style of game.

Twitter: @NHL_Campbell