Scheifele has something to prove

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This article was published 09/09/2022 (1354 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Scheifele sure sounds like a guy who has something to prove. He looks like it, too, thanks to a new off-season training program that has him in peak condition.

And now, at the age of 29 and less than two years from free agency, the first-ever draft pick of the Winnipeg Jets 2.0 might just hold the key to which direction the new season will go.

He’s that important of a player. And after a surprisingly sleepy summer that saw very little roster movement around here, there’s going to be even more pressure on him to perform if the hockey club is to compete for a playoff spot.

Scheifele is more than capable of rising to the occasion.

Consider this: since he signed that eight-year, US$49 million extension prior to the 2016-17 season, only six NHL centremen have racked up more than his 432 points. You likely have heard of them: Connor McDavid. Leon Draisaitl. Nathan MacKinnon. Sidney Crosby. Auston Matthews. Aleksander Barkov.

If you’re using points-per-game as the metric, you can add Steven Stamkos and Evgeni Malkin to that list, placing Scheifele ninth. That’s pretty elite company no matter how you cut it. I suspect that may surprise some local fans who have come to take Scheifele for granted, but the numbers don’t lie.

Sure, he’s coming off a disappointing campaign by the high bar he’s set, one which began with a suspension, was interrupted a few weeks later by a positive COVID-19 diagnosis and ended early with a major shoulder injury. Despite all that, he still posted a respectable 70 points (29 goals, 41 assists) in 67 games.

But the Jets are going to need a lot more from Scheifele, especially when it comes to play in his own end. That’s where new head coach Rick Bowness is going to have to work some magic, getting the kind of buy-in from an offensive-minded player who too often in the past has appeared disinterested in the defensive zone.

There are plenty of recent success stories around the league — Barry Trotz got Alexander Ovechkin to become a more complete player, and it played a huge role in the Washington Capitals winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. Darryl Sutter did the same last year with Johnny Gaudreau in Calgary, and the result was a career year for the pending UFA that led to a massive payday in Columbus. Their cases show you don’t have to necessarily sacrifice offence for defence, but that the two can often go hand-in-hand.

It was noteworthy that Scheifele, speaking last month prior to competing in the Manitoba Open golf tournament on a sponsor’s exemption, said it’s going to be nice to have someone like Bowness calling the shots given his reputation for being a strong communicator.

“I haven’t really had that,” said Scheifele.

Oh? Paul Maurice is one of the best talkers in the sport, so it certainly wasn’t the case of him giving Scheifele the silent treatment. Rather, it was more a case of the player not liking the message his frustrated coach was sending, which played a role in Maurice finally taking his puck and going home in the middle of the year.

Dave Lowry had even less success getting through to Scheifele, whose play noticeably dipped under the interim bench boss who wasn’t long for the job. It was an ugly situation by the end of the year, with Scheifele’s now infamous “garbage bag day” news conference in which he sounded like a guy ready for a change of scenery.

It’s been said time heals all wounds, and the Jets are no doubt hoping that’s the case. There was a concerted effort this summer to put out any smoldering fires, including plenty of one-on-one chats between general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and Scheifele.

On the surface, it appears to have worked. Scheifele is saying all the right things, including how he plans to channel the frustration from last year going forward, and there’s reason for optimism with training camp now less than two weeks away. The plan of (mostly) maintaining the status quo and running it back is contingent on internal improvement, and Scheifele is at the very top of that list.

Say what you will about the self-professed “hockey nerd,” but this is a fiercely proud athlete, one I suspect was humbled by how last year played out. Even if you believe he can at times be a selfish player, there should be no shortage of personal motivation this season.

As noted above, his goals, assists and points put him among a very select, special group of skaters in the league — all of whom make a lot more money than he does. McDavid is paid US$12.5 million. Matthews US$11.64 million. Barkov US$10 million. Crosby US$8.7 million. Draisaitl US$8.5 million. Only MacKinnon, with one year remaining at US$6.3 million, is in the same range, and he’s going to get a massive raise on his next deal.

Scheifele, at US$6.125, will obviously be seeking a major jump as well, especially with the (justified) feeling that he ultimately left a lot of money on the table by signing that deal when he did, coming off his third full NHL season at the age of 23. Regrets, he likely has a few. It’s not a coincidence he later parted ways with his old agent and signed on with Newport Sports, who have done solid work lining up various endorsement deals for him in the past couple of years.

But just how lucrative that next deal is at the age of 31 — regardless of whether it’s coming from Winnipeg or another organization — is going to largely depend on how the next year plays out. A rejuvenated, energized and more complete Scheifele, one who resembles the dominant player that almost single-handedly led the Jets to an upset victory over the Nashville Predators in the second round of the 2018 playoffs, would be good for everyone’s bottom line.

There’s a strong chance Scheifele starts the year with Nikolaj Ehlers on one of his wings. Whether it’s Blake Wheeler, Cole Perfetti or Kyle Connor on the other wing remains to be seen. (Pierre-Luc Dubois will centre the other top line). Given the combination of skill, speed and savvy those players bring, there’s no reason to think Scheifele can’t be in the middle of something special, helping both his own cause and that of the club’s.

It’s noteworthy the 2022-23 season is going to begin with the unveiling of a Dale Hawerchuk statue in True North Square, just outside Canada Life Centre. “Ducky,” was Scheifele’s junior coach in Barrie and a mentor, friend and role model. There was a time, a few years back, where Maurice predicted they’d one day erect such a monument to Scheifele in Winnipeg.

“I think he has that (potential) to be a one-team player that wins cups, and is the captain of it at some point and gets a bronze statue in front of the building kind of guy. I do,” Maurice said in 2019.

You don’t hear that kind of chatter very much anymore, and the clock is starting to tick a lot louder. Still, I firmly believe that player still exists, even if we haven’t seen a whole lot of him lately. The time really is now for Scheifele to let his play do the talking, and perhaps silence plenty of critics along the way.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg