Pavelec knows the score next season

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This article was published 12/04/2016 (3463 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ONDREJ Pavelec knows exactly what’s on his agenda in the next year.

It’s shaping up to be a fork in the road — the 28-year-old netminder is about to enter the fifth year of the five-year contract he signed in 2012 and the Jets’ goaltending position appears to be wide open for September’s training camp.

Pavelec, Michael Hutchinson and Connor Hellebuyck will undoubtedly be under the microscope when the Jets start up ahead of the 2016-17 season.

“Training camp is not fun,” Pavelec said Monday after the Jets completed end-of-season exit meetings with coach Paul Maurice and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. “You want to play the games. Exhibition games are tough to play.”

Pavelec might miss some of training camp, since he’s been selected as part of Team Czech Republic for September’s World Cup of Hockey.

It’s another complication, he said, trying to get ready for NHL camp while keeping the tournament as a focus.

“Maybe I could be the third goalie or the backup goalie and I won’t play, that I wouldn’t have a chance to play in the games and then I’m going to come here and play games right away,” he said. “So I have to be ready, I have to figure out how to get ready (out of) that World Cup.

“The (Czech) coaches haven’t decided yet. We’ll have to see how that’s going to go but I have to find a way to get ready for the season.”

In the campaign just finished, Pavelec was 13-13-3 with a goals-against average of 2.78 and a save percentage of .904.

He said he had no excuses for what happened in 2015-16.

“Disappointing season after we made the playoffs last year,” he said. “It’s a 100 per cent disappointing season that we’re in the situation that we didn’t want to be. And it’s disappointing for me that I didn’t play for three months; I was hurt for a long time.

“I was trying to get back and help the team but we didn’t make it. So we all have to take responsibility for that and try to be better next year.”

Pavelec was asked what went wrong.

“We had a lot of injuries,” he said. “It’s not an excuse. We had a young team, and had two or three injuries and that’s a big part of where we are right now. We weren’t able to win the close games (13-9-8 in one-goal decisions).

“This year we couldn’t do it. We lost so many games on the road and in our division, it’s one of the toughest divisions. You lose three or four in a row, you’re putting yourself in a tough spot. We weren’t able to make the playoffs.

“We had what we deserved. You don’t make the playoffs by accident.”

Did Pavelec see the Jets’ youth as a factor in the year?

“It could be,” he said. “You cannot buy experience. They are young guys. Our management wants to go this way, with young guys, they want to play them. The more games they’re going to play, the better players they’re going to be.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca