Chasing a top draft choice kills locker-room spirit

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/01/2016 (3778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As I looked around the dressing room on Day 1 of the first training camp of Winnipeg Jets 1.0, my stomach churned. It was my first look in a dressing room missing former teammates Terry Ruskowski, Kent Nilsson and Rich Preston — among others. Empty stalls where they used to sit had reality clubbing me over the head.

That National Hockey League team was stripped of some of its top players from the previous season. While GM John Ferguson Sr. didn’t orchestrate the “tank” job, vengeful NHL owners took care of that by dismantling our roster. They made sure our World Hockey Association Avco Cup championship team would be an NHL bottom feeder coming out of the gate.

Today, there’s a lot of talk about the current edition of Jets 2.0 possibly tanking — trading away players for futures, whether they are young prospects or draft picks. This should lead to less wins and a better chance at a higher pick this summer in the NHL Entry Draft. As we walk through this, keep in mind how different your Jets would look if they start trading away prime players for future assets; inferior players would fill their stalls resulting in games that aren’t pretty to watch.

The reward would potentially be the No. 1-rated prospect in this summer’s draft, Auston Matthews, in a Jets uniform. Easy to say, but a lot of things would have to go right for that to happen.

The architect of this proposed tank job would of course be general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.

The last couple of summers I would have supported a tank job if Cheveldayoff decided he needed to go in that direction. It wasn’t my first choice, but I wanted him to set a definite course for the Jets. Either beef up the roster and make another run at the playoffs or go into sell mode and rebuild. He has to have had a feeling whether he was going to be able to sign his players and what their trade values were, so I looked to him to make that decision.

It’s crunch time and the Jets are stuck in the middle — and need an answer. I have some concerns about Chevy being able to make the necessary moves to ensure a decent shot at the No. 1 pick.

It’s easier to slough off a trade rumour than it is to think about what a depleted lineup would look like. If Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault are suddenly looking at two empty stalls where Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien used to sit, they would certainly have an internal response if the returns on the trades were not going to help the Jets today.

To get there, Cheveldayoff would have to pull off a hard tank accompanied by a huge sales job on the players. Wheeler, Little and Perreault are in their prime and want to win now. Telling them, “In a few years we’ll be good,” just doesn’t fit. They would publicly say all the right things, but these players are successful because of their burning desire to win.

Having called the idea of seeing Byfuglien in another uniform unfathomable, this additional fallout from a hard tank has me dismissing the idea. It could easily turn into a dismantling of the Atlanta Thrashers core. Are you ready to say goodbye to Wheeler and Little too?

A softer tank would be just dealing Ladd for draft picks and/or prospects. He’s had an off year and replacing him is easier to do than replacing Byfuglien. This would have been tough to swallow in past years, but it is more palatable today.

With the lack of depth on the Jets, it might push them down enough to give them a serious shot at a top five pick in the draft.

Drafting is the strongest part of Cheveldayoff’s resumé. The Jets are almost universally acknowledged as having one of the best prospect pools in the National Hockey League. Grabbing youngsters for Ladd and drafting a top pick because of the Jets futility would be right in Chevy’s wheelhouse.

This is the safe thing to do, tanking wise. Therefore the most likely if we go by Chevy’s history.

I can’t tell you what I would do in Chevy’s case because I don’t know what he’s been offered for Ladd and Byfuglien, nor do I know what exact money and contract terms are on the table in negotiations.

What I do know is that looking at empty stalls where star players once sat is a terrible feeling.

 * * *

I left something out of last week’s column that I need to address regarding the Jets penalty killing. This has been bothering me for a while, and it’s a player change suggestion.

Give someone else a chance to kill penalties other than Mark Stuart.

I don’t understand why he is continually trotted out as a premiere penalty killer. Shot blocking and clearing the crease are two reasons I hear from supporters, but it’s not working.

Cross-checking an opponent to the ice in front of the net (clearing the crease) is from my playing days, folks. You need to be quick and win puck battles in tight situations and have the ability to handle the puck deftly and get it out of the defensive zone to get the job done.

He blocks shots and he’s the type of heart-and-soul player I would love as a teammate.

He’s just not a good penalty killer. Stats more than confirm this and my eyesight says the same.

Adam Pardy awaits the call.

 

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