Opinion

There is no real vision. No detailed plan. No accountability or transparency. And, unfortunately for the Winnipeg Jets and their fans, little to no chance of sustained success.

Such is the current state of the franchise, which appears to be approaching a critical offseason armed with nothing but a hope and a prayer that sticking as close to the status quo — starting at the very top — will somehow produce different results.

It’s hard to believe. And it’s going to be even harder to sell in a hockey savvy market that is finding it increasingly difficult to invest in the product, given the scores of empty seats we saw this season at the downtown rink.

But if there was any doubt we’re likely in for more of the same, Sunday’s 43-minute year-end media availability with general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff provided the smoking gun that this group is simply happy to be here, satisfied with mediocrity and not really serious about competing for a Stanley Cup.

Memo to True North: You might not want to show video of the surreal hot stove session as part of your aggressive new season ticket campaign. Not exactly a needle-mover, at least not in the direction you’d like.

As he stood at the podium with plenty of fires burning around him, Cheveldayoff was at times hostile, at times in denial and almost always on the defensive as he tried to defend a track record that would likely have the other 31 GMs looking for work. Instead, he confirmed he will be back for a 13th season while offering up zero evidence of any significant changes that are coming.

It punctuated arguably the most embarrassing few days in 2.0 history which began with last Thursday’s no-show in Las Vegas, continued with coach Rick Bowness calling out his players for a “disgusting” lack of effort and continued Saturday with many of those multi-millionaire athletes blasting their truth-telling coach for hurting their feelings.

What a gong show. It certainly says something that Bowness decried “no pushback” from his group, only to get it in spades 48 hours later in a most unexpected way. And yet, Cheveldayoff took a “nothing to see here” approach, repeatedly praising everyone for what he felt was a job well done.

Is anyone besides Bowness — along with countless fans, no doubt — upset at how this season went? Apparently not.

If championships were handed out for dysfunction, the Jets would be top contenders right now. Instead, they’ve turned into a laughingstock around the league, with plenty of out-of-market pundits wondering just what the hell is going on around here.

Consider this: Since the NHL returned to Winnipeg in time for the 2011-12 season, the Jets are just 25th in terms of playoff victories. They have won but three rounds in that span — two in the spring of 2018, and one in the COVID-impacted 2021 campaign.

Sure, there have been other promising stretches, including earlier this year when they shot to near the top of the Western Conference midway through the year, only to crash and burn, barely sneak into the playoffs as the second wildcard and then get eliminated by the Golden Knights in five games.

Cheveldayoff essentially took a victory lap on Sunday, going on at length about how hard it is to qualify for the postseason and how much fun fans had at the two home games last week. Where, of course, they watched the Jets lose for a sixth and seventh straight time in postseason action dating back to 2018. (Not including two wins against Edmonton in 2021 played in front of an empty rink due to the pandemic).

That led to a fair but pointed question from my colleague, Jeff Hamilton, about just what the standards are in Winnipeg, and whether they are high enough. Cheveldayoff, whose brother is a long-time politician in Saskatchewan, took a page out of that playbook by speaking for nearly two straight minutes without coming close to giving anything resembling an answer.

It included a history lesson about what they’ve done, but absolutely no road map for where they’re headed. Fair or not, professional sports is a results-oriented, “what have you done for me lately” business. Except for the Jets, it seems.

Not surprisingly, Cheveldayoff resorted to the tired old excuses of injuries (which all teams have) and bad luck rather that admit that they simply weren’t good enough. It’s a frustrating continuation of the culture that we often hear about, one we were told needed to change following the surprise resignation of long-time coach Paul Maurice and moving on quickly from interim bench boss Dave Lowry.

Yet as soon as things started going south this season and many of the same bad habits from the same culprits began to creep into their games, a clearly frustrated Bowness was unable to stop the bleeding.

Apparently none of that is a concern to Cheveldayoff, who spoke of how positive the exit meetings were with players, how everyone raved about how much better things are now than a year ago. And any suggestion of trying a different approach was quickly shot down.

Cheveldayoff bristled at my question of whether it’s time for the organization to bring in an outside buffer between himself and ownership, such as a director or president of hockey operations type like we’ve seen so many others teams do.

It’s a way to add another layer of scrutiny and oversight, one which can eradicate issues such as tunnel vision and complacency which can come with tenure and getting far too comfortable.

Cheveldayoff’s rather prickly response perfectly summed up the problem around here, as he spoke about how they run a “tight ship”, have made many successful draft picks and been able to retain several of those core players.

Terrific. And what exactly has that got you? There’s an arrogance to all of that which flies in the face of what they’ve actually accomplished, which is very little.

Is it any wonder why this club is stuck in the “mushy middle” — not good enough to actually hang with hockey’s heavyweights, but not bad enough to be in a prime lottery position. In a year like this, with Connor Bedard as the grand prize for epic failure, that really stands out.

Cheveldayoff’s claim that simply getting into the postseason carries immense value given the “anything can happen” mentality falls short given what we’ve seen time and time again from the Jets.

Perhaps all hope isn’t lost, with Cheveldayoff noting he’s set to meet later this week with ownership. Speaking of which, it sure would be nice, dare I say important, to hear from Mark Chipman about the state of the union. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

Cheveldayoff may be forced into at least some change due to issues beyond his control, such as whether Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois decide they’ve seen enough — it sure sounded like they have during Saturday’s exit interviews with media — and balk at signing long-term extensions.

If and when that happens, salvaging something for those three valuable assets will be the only option. In classic Cheveldayoff fashion, he wouldn’t even answer my simple question about whether he’d be comfortable bringing those three back next year without new contracts.

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Of course, that creates the very real possibility that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better around here.

Near the end of his availability, Cheveldayoff took what seemed like an obvious shot at the media by saying “don’t let the facts stand in the way of a good story.”

That’s pretty rich. The fact is, the Jets aren’t nearly good enough to compete for anything but a participation ribbon, which they certainly don’t hand out in the NHL. Unless the main characters change, we’re likely going to be writing the same old story for quite some time.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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