Hope doing heavy lifting for Cheveldayoff Jets GM appears unconcerned about job security despite club’s nosedive of a season By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 5:19 PM CDT Monday, Apr. 20, 2026

Kevin Cheveldayoff admittedly felt lucky to be meeting the media on Monday to speak about everything that went wrong this season with his Winnipeg Jets.

And for good reason.

The only general manager the Jets have ever known has just wrapped up his 15th season — one that can fairly be described as landing somewhere between disappointing and disastrous — yet appears to have little concern about his job security the way he likely would in other NHL markets where owners tend to have quicker triggers.

“Very fortunate to be able to stand here today and keep on pushing forward. That’s the game. You sign up for this opportunity, you better be ready, willing, and able to take on all that comes with it,” said Cheveldayoff.

Loyalty and patience run deep at True North, and it would appear Cheveldayoff — who is on the cusp of becoming the longest-tenured GM in the league — is going to be given every opportunity to clean up the mess he helped create.

“We feel all the emotions, the disappointment, of not living up to those expectations,” said Cheveldayoff, whose team captured the Presidents’ Trophy with 116 points a year ago, then set a new NHL record by plunging 34 points and finishing 26th-overall in a 32-team league this season.

“When you go through something like this as an organization, it’s incumbent on everyone — starting with myself — to ask themselves critical questions of what could’ve been done better and what we need to do to move forward to get back to achieving the standards we’ve set for ourselves.”

Cheveldayoff insists the expectation hasn’t changed: it’s all about winning a Stanley Cup. But the cold, hard reality is this group — one built around an aging core — just took a massive step backward and appears further from that goal than it has in years.

So what’s the vision? How will that be achieved?

“We feel all the emotions, the disappointment, of not living up to those expectations.”

Based on everything Cheveldayoff said during his nearly 40-minute session, hope seems to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Hope that this past season was the exception, not the warning sign. Hope that key players who saw their production dip can quickly rediscover their form. Hope that aging stars can keep producing at a high level. Hope that injuries won’t take the same toll. Hope that a prospect pool lacking high-end depth can still provide help.

And hope that frustrated fans in the NHL’s smallest market will keep paying to support a team that, right now, looks stuck in neutral, with little indication sweeping changes are coming.

“I’m sorry that we’re not planning the Whiteout. We’re not giving them that level of excitement. Certainly, it’s disappointing. I take responsibility for that,” said Cheveldayoff.

“That’s our job, to try to keep them entertained and make them proud. It’s something that we’re not turning the page on last season yet. We’re still trying to figure out how we move forward here. So that we’re standing here next year not having the conversations we are right now.”

While Cheveldayoff may not be feeling heat from ownership, there are signs pressure could be mounting from within.

Reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck didn’t mince words last week, publicly voicing frustration with the state of the team. Cheveldayoff acknowledged the message was similar behind closed doors during their exit meeting.

“You don’t become an elite player in this league unless you have that kind of emotion, that kind of fire, that kind of drive. But as far as putting the organization on notice, that’s something that happens each and every day. It doesn’t take someone to say it in the public,” said Cheveldayoff.

“I would not expect any one of these players to have come into our exit meetings, come to the exit interviews that they had with all of you, and say, ‘You know what, it’s okay. It’s all right.’”

Cheveldayoff said he welcomes that kind of emotion, pointing to a leadership group he still believes in. He credited the culture established under former head coach Rick Bowness and continued by Scott Arniel as a reason there’s no concern about complacency creeping in.

“You don’t become an elite player in this league unless you have that kind of emotion, that kind of fire, that kind of drive.”

“I don’t think you can question one iota any player in that room how much it hurts to lose, and the desire to win,” he said.

Arniel echoed that sentiment, saying Hellebuyck’s comments reflect a player who knows exactly what it takes to succeed.

“He knows when we’re having success, how we need to play. He watches, he sees his teammates; he knows when we’re good. He’s been around the game and he has an opinion. You have to take what they say, and you can’t be stubborn about it,” said Arniel.

“For me, as a coach, I listen to what he says. He wants to win the Stanley Cup, as does everyone in that room. And so, for me, we’ve got to help him do this, and the part about (him) being here or not, I’ve never heard anything like that and that’s never come across my desk. It’s about winning. It’s about getting back to our standards of where we were last year.”

Cheveldayoff admitted one of the questions he’s asking himself — and that others within the organization would be wise to ponder as well — is whether they all got a bit too complacent after such a strong 2024-25 regular season.

“Did we think we were just going to get to the playoffs because of past performance? That’s where I have to grade myself, too. Did I feel overconfident?” he said.

“It starts with me. I’m the general manager. Everything starts and basically ends with me. So I can’t feel good about what happened.”

One thing is clear: The Jets got older and slower this past season at a time the NHL, as a whole, is getting younger and faster.

“Some of my off-season bets… that’s on me. There’s no question. You can’t hide from those type of things,” said Cheveldayoff.

He eventually seemed to realize the error as he moved out pending unrestricted free agents Logan Stanley, Luke Schenn and Tanner Pearson at the trade deadline. That opened the door for an infusion of youth such as Elias Salomonsson, Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, Isak Rosen and Brayden Yager, among others.

Several veteran players have mentioned how those moves played a factor in Winnipeg being one of the better teams in the league following the Olympic break. Unfortunately it was too little, too late — an 11-game winless streak and a 30-game stretch where they won just six times earlier in the year proved fatal.

“It starts with me. I’m the general manager. Everything starts and basically ends with me. So I can’t feel good about what happened.”

Did Cheveldayoff wait too long to pivot?

“There’s lots of things that, coulda-woulda-shoulda,” he said.

“It’s easy for me to say that, ‘Yeah, I wish I could have done that,’ or, ‘I wish I had this ability.’ I can tell you with no uncertain terms that we were trying like hell to make trades that would put you in a better situation from that standpoint. Again, it’s something we’re certainly going to look at and have to learn from.”

Which leads to the obvious question: if trades are difficult and free agency remains a challenge in Winnipeg, how exactly does this team get better?

A high draft pick is coming, but that won’t do much to help a core led by Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey — players firmly in win-now mode.

“I think right now everything seems kind of doom and gloom from that standpoint,” said Cheveldayoff.

“This group here, the way they played down the stretch, the way that after having maybe the second training camp coming out of the Olympic break they were able to reset and maybe change a few things and do a few things that helped us. I think that bodes well for what they still have and what they still want to prove.”

Hope usually isn’t much of a plan. But unless we see or hear otherwise, it remains the familiar route the Jets are taking.

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