Cap flexibility will be critical for the Jets: GM Cheveldayoff

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This article was published 28/02/2016 (3562 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The Winnipeg Jets sat on their hands at the National Hockey League trade deadline Monday, opting to back away from further blowing up or adding to a roster which has already undergone a significant makeover.

Staring up at the rest of their rivals from the bottom of the Central Division and ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs in the overall NHL standings, Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff made his requisite calls from the team’s deadline war room, but ultimately didn’t pull the trigger on any more deals.

That means that what you see is what you’ll get from a Jets squad which opens a five-game homestand against the Florida Panthers Tuesday and will play 11 of 16 games this month at MTS Centre. Now, while that might seem like death by a thousand paper cuts for an increasingly-frustrated fan base, Cheveldayoff insisted Monday there is some method to this blandness — and it’s all about having cap flexibility for what figures to be a busy summer in Jetville.

“The salary cap… no one knows where it’s going to be (set),” said Cheveldayoff. “Is it going to go up? Is it going to stay flat? That’s a big thing… you have to be able to sign your young players. You have to have that cap flexibility. You don’t want to be trading a young guys at a time when they are just starting to become good players because you don’t have the cap space.”

The Jets have some rather key pieces all becoming restricted free agents this summer — including forwards Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, Adam Lowry and Joel Armia, defenceman Jacob Trouba and goaltender Michael Hutchinson — with Scheifele and Trouba likely about to earn significant raises.

Couple those pending big-dollar deals with the recent move to ink Dustin Byfuglien to a five-year contract extension with an average-annual value of $7.6 million and the Jets payroll will spike upwards in a hurry, even with last week’s Andrew Ladd trade.

“We could have signed guys to three or four or five-year deals at different points in time that might have locked up our ability to have the flexibility to go out and get a guy like Dustin (signed),” said Cheveldayoff. “If we had committed $5 million to someone else, we wouldn’t have even been talking about the opportunity to sign Dustin and potentially keep Andrew. Once those things come into play, they eat away at what you have available to you. We wouldn’t be sitting here talking about the flexibility that we have to be able to say, ‘OK, Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba… we’re going to be able to get these deals done.

“You’ve seen teams that have to make decisions based on the fact we can’t get a deal done here, now we have to move you… That was not going to be us.”

With the trade deadline in the rear-view mirror Cheveldayoff should be pleased with the haul he got in return in the Ladd deal. Not only did the Jets get a solid prospect in Marko Dano, the first-round pick they got from Chicago was the only one surrendered by any team in advance of the deadline. (Dallas made a deal with Calgary for Kris Russell that included a second rounder that would become a first if the Stars make it to the Western Conference Final).

Some of the other notable ‘rental players’ were dealt for prospects and picks, although none of them as high as a first. Included among that group were:

-Russell, who landed the Flames Jyrki Jokipakka, Brett Pollock and the conditional second-round pick;

-Eric Staal, from Carolina to the New York Rangers for Aleksi Saarela and two second-round picks (2016, 2017);

• Mikkel Boedker went from Arizona to Colorado for Alex Tanguay (also an unrestricted free agent), Connor Bleakley and Kyle Wood.
• Lee Stempniak from New Jersey to Boston for a fourth rounder in 2016 and a second rounder in 2017;
• Teddy Purcell from Edmonton to Florida for a 2016 third-round pick;
• Jirk Hudler to Florida from Calgary for a second rounder this year and a fourth in 2018;
• Kris Versteeg from Carolina to Los Angeles for Valentin Zykov and a conditional 2016 5th-round pick.

“When we started to solicit offers or return calls from teams that had expressed interest in Andrew it became very apparent to me early on that the market was going to be very different, just by the conversations I was having with numerous general managers,” said Cheveldayoff.

“There was interest out there, but with respect to the prices that we were looking at – and we were certainly looking at a first-round pick in any return that we were going to get – it became that was going to be a very difficult thing to get in the market place as it was setting up. When we did decide to move forward with the deal, ultimately in our thoughts and in our process it was the best course of action to take.”

The only notable transaction that involved the Jets at the deadline saw the Edmonton Oilers pluck defenceman Adam Pardy off waivers. The Jets did make some calls to see if they couldn’t make a deal for the 31-year-old D-man, but when there were no takers opted to make him available via waivers to give him another shot at landing work with an NHL team.

“Over the last little while we solicited teams to see if there was any interest in moving Adam Pardy,” Cheveldayoff said. “Through different conversations with ourselves and his agent and Paul (Maurice) we felt that he’s been a really good soldier for us over the last couple of years that if there was an opportunity for him to go to another organization to try and earn another contract that it was going to be the right thing to do.”