Jets should be all-in: Connor

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This article was published 01/03/2023 (921 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets haven’t exactly put forth their best sales pitch to Kevin Cheveldayoff with their play over the last month. That doesn’t mean there isn’t hope brewing in the locker room that the Jets general manager still has a couple deals up his sleeve come Friday’s NHL trade deadline.

Simply put, the players want to be buyers.

“Absolutely. We’ve shown that we can beat the best teams in the league this year, that we have that capability,” Jets forward Kyle Connor told the Free Press following practice Wednesday. “We should, for sure, should look at this as an opportunity based on what the contracts look like on our team the next couple of years and everybody’s aware of it. Yeah, we should be all-in, from my point of view.”

The Jets have been a far cry from the team that only a few weeks ago was in a fight for top spot in both the Central Division and Western Conference. Indeed, a rough stretch of late, including losses in 11 of their last 17 games (6-10-1), has no doubt created a bit of pause from Cheveldayoff, who will need to decide if his current group is worth potentially mortgaging the club’s future.

Winnipeg (35-24-2) entered Wednesday’s action in the second wild-card playoff spot, tied with the Edmonton Oilers, with the Calgary Flames five points behind in ninth place. The Jets are just three points back of the Dallas Stars for first in Central, with the Stars having a game in hand, and only two points and one point behind the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche, respectively, for second and third in the division.

“Obviously, we’re going through a bit of trying to re-identify ourselves and I’m glad we’re going through that right now,” added Connor. “There’s no question that we’re going to get out of this and become a better team, a stronger team in the playoffs.”

Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt expressed a similar sentiment. He, too, feels the Jets are about to turn a corner, that they’ve been headed in the right direction the last couple games despite not earning many valuable points in the standings.

Schmidt admitted the last month has been tough on the team’s collective confidence, but that he’s seen an improvement there as well. It helped they were able to find their scoring touch, while also collecting a point, in a 6-5 shootout loss to the L.A. Kings Tuesday.

“We’re being tested. Our room is being tested. Our on-ice play is being tested,” Schmidt said. “I find that our guys are clawing themselves out and clawing our way back in.” It was Schmidt who said two weeks ago, while in New Jersey to play the Devils on Feb. 18, the coming weeks were being viewed as a “last little audition” before the deadline and that what they could achieve over the four-game road trip “kind of decides where you are as a team.”

Asked if he felt the Jets were still in a position to buy at the deadline, Schmidt traded his helmet for a reporter’s hat, as curious as anyone about what might happen in the coming days.

“I’d love to ask Chevy that question with you. I find that our group has shown that we have the capability to do it and there’s no wavering in that sentiment from myself or from the group,” he said. “You have to understand that these things happen. How you are going to handle it and how you conduct yourself as you go through it really says a lot about your group.”

He added: “It’s been fun seeing what’s going on around the league right now. I find that we’re not going to have as many fireworks on the final day as we’ve had because of all the things that have happened around the league already.”

There have been several deals made over the last couple of weeks, and particularly over the last few days. The Jets got in on the action, acquiring Nino Niederreiter from the Nashville Predators for a second-round pick in 2024.

Jets head coach Rick Bowness has been tight-lipped about what he thinks the team should do before the deadline, deferring those types of questions to Cheveldayoff. He was coy once again on Wednesday, unwilling to answer if he feels his club is deserving to be buyers and instead pointing to what’s been the team’s focus all season.

“Listen, our goal going into training camp was to make the playoffs and then as the season progresses, you try to move up in the standings as best you can. That hasn’t changed,” Bowness said. “We’re in the top eight, we don’t like where we are but there’s enough games left to move up. Our goal is to stay in that playoff position.”

Then there’s the fact that the West remains wide open, with just four points separating first and eighth in the conference. That’s not the case in the East, where the Boston Bruins are 30 points better than the eighth-place Pittsburgh Penguins.

Unlike the East, where there appears to be a competition for who can make the most trades by Friday, the West has seen much less movement. A chance to compete in the playoffs would go a long way to building up some positive mojo between the fans and team and adding some key pieces would provide the spark and help needed for a lengthy post-season run — the first for the Jets since 2018.

“I miss it, man. It was disappointing when we had the “bubble” season and swept the first series and just missed the White Out,” Connor said. “The fans rallying, you can hear them in warm-ups, chanting ‘Go Jets Go,’ and the place is rocking. That’s what you want to play in front of, that’s why we play the game at the highest stage and, for sure, myself and my teammates included, we just want to get back there.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton