Chevy: “I believe we are a playoff team.”

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This article was published 22/09/2022 (1129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Few outside the organization would consider the Winnipeg Jets contenders, especially after last year’s underwhelming NHL campaign and a surprisingly sleepy summer. But general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff believes his hockey club has what it takes to make plenty of noise this season.

“I feel we have a playoff team,” Cheveldayoff said Thursday as the 12th training camp in his tenure began at Bell MTS Iceplex. “But whether I feel it, or you feel it, (the players) have to feel it. They’re the ones that have to play. We sat here 12 months ago and the general consensus about the team wasn’t if we were going to make the playoffs, it was about how many rounds should this team win. Something got lost in translation along the way. You have to earn that right to make the playoffs. These guys feel that right now.”

Time will tell, of course. And Cheveldayoff, fresh off signing a three-year extension, will have plenty of pointed questions to answer if maintaining the status quo leads to the same frustrating results. Winnipeg finished sixth in the Central Division, 11th in the Western Conference and 19th in the NHL last year, yet made no trades or major player signings during a longer-than-expected offseason.

“Certainly, it was an interesting summer in many respects,” said Cheveldayoff. “There’s lots of different nuances, different conversations that you do have. You look at a lot of different options. Sometimes things happen that you see a fit for, and sometimes you don’t.”

In other words, the Jets likely tried to be more active than they were, but clearly weren’t persuaded to pull the trigger on anything of substance. The end result is what defenceman Josh Morrissey said amounts to “a vote of confidence,” with the bulk of last year’s roster remaining intact.

“I have confidence in this group is what I can certainly say,” said Cheveldayoff. “It wasn’t necessarily that I sit there in the summer and say, ‘The master plan is that we’re going to keep this guy, this guy, this guy, and not this guy.’ Some things have to play themselves out as well. There is going to be opportunity here and competition, so things may change. You can’t crystal ball things sitting here right now. I do know for a fact, this group knows it has something to prove.”

Young forwards such as Cole Perfetti, Morgan Barron and David Gustafsson will be afforded the chance to take on bigger roles, and there could be a similar youth movement on the blue line with top prospects such as Ville Heinola, Dylan Samberg, Declan Chisholm and Johnathan Kovacevic waiting for opportunities.

“I think we’re well-positioned with a strong core of veteran players and some good youth that’s knocking at the door here that’s really going to push those players,” said Cheveldayoff.

More than anything, he points to the hiring of veteran head coach Rick Bowness and a new staff including Scott Arniel and Brad Lauer as reason for optimism.

“I think we had a seismic change on July 4 when we changed the coaching staff here, the philosophy,” said Cheveldayoff. “I think if you just watched even the drills (Thursday), there’s lots of teaching, there’s lots of different systems, there’s lots of different ways that things are going to be approached. So, that’s a seismic change.”

There is growing pressure to get this right, with four core players — Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Blake Wheeler and Connor Hellebuyck — all set to become unrestricted free agents in the summer of 2024. On top of that, the Jets are currently spending near the salary cap, and are coming off a year in which they failed to sell out a single game as demand for tickets begins to wane.

“I think we have to just focus on the now,” said Cheveldayoff. “I don’t think we’re focusing on anything else other than what’s right in front of us. We start trying to talk about two years from now, so much runway between now and then. Obviously, in the meetings (Wednesday) that we had, the kickoff meeting, we talked about setting a standard and pushing each other to uphold that standard.”

That’s an important step, considering last year ended on an extremely sour note with several players voicing displeasure at the state of affairs and questioning the direction.

“There were lots of emotions that were running high. We didn’t achieve what we set out to achieve at the onset and there were lots of tough conversations that were had by lots of different players. I think everyone was just looking to see what the future holds here,” said Cheveldayoff. “I think you probably saw the rawest emotion from some of the guys that deeply care the most.”

This explains why players such as Wheeler (stripped last week of his captaincy) and Dubois (who has balked at signing a long-term extension) were suddenly being talked about as potential trade bait.

“When you don’t achieve what you want, you have to take hard looks at everything,” said Cheveldayoff. “I think I said it to some of you (last spring) that you might hear different names out there that you never heard in the past. Obviously, those conversations that we had privately remain private.

“But, obviously, when you have conversations with other general managers, things get out.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg