Opinion

If you’re the Winnipeg Jets, it’s hard to imagine a more painful Stanley Cup Final than one involving the Florida Panthers taking on the Vegas Golden Knights. Barring a miracle comeback by the Dallas Stars (who trail Vegas 3-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference final series) that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Talk about having to pick your poison. Open wide and say, “Arggghhhhhh.”

Consider the following from the local club’s perspective: It will pit the coach who left you against the team that ended your season. Twice, if you’re keeping score at home.

Your former partner now at the big dance with your sworn enemy who just so happens to have made many friends from your own backyard. It’s a squad that finished behind you in the regular-season standings and that you beat in both head-to-head meetings facing an organization that didn’t even exist seven years ago going farther than you ever have — for the second time!

Salt, meet fresh wound. Wipe away the tears. I say there’s some valuable takeaways for the Jets in all of this. Here are three key ones in my eyes:

1) Maurice was not THE problem: Let me be crystal clear. He had absolutely reached his “best-before date” in Winnipeg, with his message no longer resonating with the masses. That was an issue, and a big part of why this team was consistently inconsistent. He had to go, and it’s not a good look for the organization that it waited for Maurice to say when, rather than forcing the issue. As the man himself noted following his December 2021 resignation, a fresh voice was needed.

It’s also important to note Maurice contributed to the culture that was clearly an issue for the club. There’s a reason few coaches stay behind one bench as long as he did, without at least winning a championship. Bad habits begin to creep in, and correcting those becomes more difficult over time. It’s like the parent who lets their kids get away with increasingly naughty behaviour. At some point, the little hellions are running wild, and good luck getting that under control.

Anyone who thought getting Maurice out of Winnipeg would somehow fix long-standing problems with the Jets has been proven wrong, especially after interim bench boss Dave Lowry and current head coach Rick Bowness ran into many of the same frustrating obstacles.

Maurice was a very good hockey coach then and he remains a very good hockey coach now. He is a natural leader, a master motivator and communicator. Don’t just take my word for it. You have pivotal Florida players such as Matthew Tkachuk, a guy who had no time for an old school grump like Darryl Sutter in Calgary, singing Maurice’s praises. His actions on the ice prove those words are anything but hollow.

Some want to discount the Panthers accomplishments to date, noting they won a Presidents Trophy last year without Maurice, then finished 17th overall in the regular-season standings and barely snuck into the playoffs this year. They heap most of the credit on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who is clearly on a world-class heater.

At the end of the day, professional sports is a results-oriented, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. The playoffs are are a different animal, as last year’s Florida team can attest to given its speedy first-round exit. Maurice has them playing the right way, at the right time.

The Jets organization needs to keep digging deeper when it comes to fixing what ails them.

2) A little local flavour doesn’t hurt: I’m not sure why, but Winnipeg appears to shy away from drafting, trading for or signing any players who happen to be from our little neck of the woods. Yet Vegas clearly goes out of its way in that department.

Manitobans Mark Stone, Keegan Kolesar, Brett Howden and Zach Whitecloud are all playing prominent roles for the Golden Knights, which boasts a league-high 17 Canadian-born players on its roster. These are all high-character individuals who are leading on and off the ice.

Several Western Hockey League scouts have told me they find it puzzling the Jets don’t make more of an effort to mine for talent in the Prairies, especially when two of their heart-and-soul players, alternate captains Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey, are drafted-and-developed success stories from Alberta. Many readers in recent years have expressed similar sentiments.

“We’ve never really looked at the region or logistics of where a player is from,” general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said last summer in Montreal following the draft.

Canadian players in general have become a bit endangered in Winnipeg.

In the last four years, only three of Winnipeg’s 20 picks have been from the Great White North. There’s been a major emphasis on American and European players, at a time when the Jets have had trouble keeping many of their former ones in the fold. Jacob Trouba and Andrew Copp both sought trades. Kristian Vesalainen, Mikhail Berdin and Leon Gawanke are three recent examples of prospects opting to go back overseas to continue their careers.

Don’t mistake this for some xenophobic rant. Hockey is a worldwide game, and taking the best player available is a good practice. As Vegas is reminding us this spring, our province and our country are producing plenty of world-class players, too. An organization such as Winnipeg, which isn’t exactly a prime landing spot for free agents and happens to be on plenty of no-trade lists, sure could use all the help it can get, especially if that happens to be close to home.

3) Trading a star player or two doesn’t automatically mean taking a step back: Jonathan Huberdeau finished tied for second in regular-season scoring during the 2021-22 season, with a career-high 30 goals and 85 assists in 80 games. Mackenzie Weegar was a top-paring defenceman coming off a tremendous campaign for the league’s best team over 82 games. Under no circumstance would you look to trade those players, right? Wrong.

Florida general manager Bill Zito saw an opportunity last July and jumped with both feet, landing the disgruntled Tkachuk from Calgary in exchange for Huberdeau and Weegar, who promptly signed long-term extensions in their new homes. Many at the time saw it as a big win for the Flames. Now, it’s a totally different story, with Tkachuk a prime candidate to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, fresh off scoring three game-winning goals in a four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes. He’s changed the entire dynamic of a talented but flawed squad.

Which brings us to the Jets, who face their own uncertain future when it comes to stars such as Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois, all of whom might not wish to remain here past their current contracts. Some believe trading any or all of those players, rather than letting them get to unrestricted free agency next summer, would represent a full-blown “rebuild,” ushering in several dismal years for the organization.

As the Panthers are proving, it’s possible to pull off a blockbuster that can also help you in the here and now, especially if the current mix just isn’t working.

Obviously, Cheveldayoff has his work cut out for him, but there should be no shortage of potential trade partners out there who might want to try to pull off some Florida magic of their own in an attempt to get to hockey’s promised land. The fact this summer’s crop of unrestricted free agents is rather thin should help Winnipeg’s cause when it comes to building a potential bidding war.

No doubt the upcoming Stanley Cup championship might be a tough one to swallow for True North. You know what they say: No pain, no gain.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg