Buff & stuff: Jets GM Chevy gives us his take on the season

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This article was published 06/11/2015 (3618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One month into the NHL season, the Winnipeg Jets have not arrived at contract extensions for captain Andrew Ladd and defenceman Dustin Byfuglien.

Both are on deals that expire June 30, making them potential unrestricted free agents.

Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said Friday he was giving no updates and had nothing to comment on in either case.

On a day that saw the Jets cancel practice to re-charge after a four-game road trip, Cheveldayoff did talk to Free Press hockey writer Tim Campbell and addressd several other questions.

Free Press: The NHL held a hearing with Dustin Byfuglien earlier this week and Byfuglien wasn’t disciplined, which is kind of unusual when there’s a hearing. What can you tell us about the hearing?

Kevin Cheveldayoff: I don’t know that it was unusual or that anything was out of the ordinary. In all these cases, there’s a standard in the way it all unfolds. The player gets an opportunity to talk about what happened in his eyes, certainly after watching the video. We, the team, get an opportunity to be able to speak to some different things. For me, the thing that’s most important is that the NHL’s department of player safety is very proactive and very concerned that players don’t injure each other.

It’s a unique situation. There are players on both sides affected. So I think the department of player safety keeps an open mind and the hearings are there for a purpose and they obviously take all things into consideration when they make their decisions.

 

FP: You’ve had three rookies playing regularly for you in the first month of the season. What are your early impressions of them?

KC: I’m just waiting to hear an update about some medical information (on Andrew Copp) so that’s never a fun thing. You’d like everybody to be in the lineup. Obviously he got off to a good start and earned the opportunity to win the job out of camp. Paul (Maurice, coach) has had good confidence in his play and his faceoffs have gotten stronger as he’s become more comfortable. We’re looking to get him back sooner than later.

Nic Petan has been able to play wing and centre. With Andrew going down he’s back to the centre position a little bit. He’s got that ability and with Nic, it’s a different position playing on the fourth line trying to buy those minutes. But with him there’s always the ability that if you need to step someone up into the top nine, he’s certainly got that position to slide right in there. I think it’s still a learning experience for him. He would have been used to coming over the boards every third shift in junior, so this is part of the learning process.

Nikolaj Ehlers has fit in well. It’s great when you guys can have some sort of consistency and familiarity. His playing with (Mark) Scheifele and (Mathieu) Perreault has given him a chance, so he doesn’t have to worry about who (he’s) playing with and not playing with. That’s helped the process.

FP: Did you see any or much risk in having three rookies to start the season?

KC: They had to earn their opportunities, because if it wasn’t them, there are other ways to go about doing it. First and foremost, you have to leave some spots open and go from there.

You’re always looking to see if there are ways to improve. For everybody in this league, it’s a constant battle on a daily basis to keep earning your opportunity for more ice time.”

 

FP: With the injection of more young players, what have you seen overall from the team so far?

KC: Paul has had confidence in playing a little bit more of a balanced rotation at times. That’s been great because it speaks a lot to the confidence he’s had in the younger players. Just the opportunity to have some continuity in the lines has been nice.

We’re going to have to play a certain way to continue to be successful. It may not be the prettiest at times but in that room, Paul does a good job of allowing everyone opportunities to be themselves, but in the same respect, makes sure everyone understands what it’s going to take to be successful.

 

FP: The Moose aren’t off to a great start in terms of their record. What have you seen and are there any early silver linings?

KC: For us, what we want to accomplish here is to provide all the young players a chance to play. Obviously there have maybe been some struggles to find a way to notch wins but there have been a lot of games that are really close and you watch to see how different players respond to that. A couple of injuries to Thomas Raffl and Jay Harrison on the veteran side of things, and to Matt Fraser haven’t helped.

We said from the beginning we’re going to be a team that’s going to give opportunities to players to grow and to learn and to make mistakes. It’s always going to be a constant fine-line battle between that and winning. It’s important the players understand what it’s going to take to win and how hard it is. And that they need to keep trying to push themselves to make an impact on their own situation on a daily basis.”

 

FP: You’ve seen your team twice in three-on-three overtime. What are your impressions so far?

KC: From the moment we started working on it in training camp, I thought it was very exciting. It certainly provides a lot of opportunities. I’m not the one who has to go out there and play, but there is a certain element of intrigue and excitement whether you like it or don’t like it.

Again, any time there’s going to be change, there’s going to be pros and cons and people that like it and people that don’t. Things in this world and certainly things in hockey don’t change very quickly. It was interesting for me the different times we’ve seen it… it was interesting to watch the evolution of the whole five minutes (Thursday in Ottawa), that there were lots of chances early then it became more of a chess match and you actually even saw one time where we made a fantastic change and all of a sudden, it rejuvenated the whole group because there was a new skater.

FP: Same sort of question; what are your impressions of the coach’s challenge so far?

KC: It can only help in the sense whether the challenge — take it or not or correct or not in the challenge — the outcome is certainly more definitive in everyone’s mind on that play. I think from that standpoint it’s accomplished what it set out to do. I would assume, thought I don’t have an agenda yet, that it will be a topic of discussion (at next week’s GM meetings) and we’ll get a candid opportunity for everyone to speak about it.

As well as the league, who administers their end of it.

 

FP: What feedback on it have you heard from your fellow GM’s?

KC: In my conversations, GM to GM, it hasn’t been a hot topic of conversation.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca