Pavelec’s play guarantees his future as Jets No. 1 goalie

By: Ed Tait Posted: 3:41 AM CDT Saturday, Apr. 25, 2015

Ondrej Pavelec has been around long enough to know this as well as anyone: One moment a guy is the grand marshall at a parade, the next he’s been run out of town by an angry mob sporting torches and pointy sticks.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/04/2015 (3792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Heck, he’s lived it during his days as the Winnipeg Jets No. 1 goaltender.

Still, the vibe surrounding the veteran Czech netminder is a lot different this spring than it was a year ago. Yes, questions will continue to hover over him and the fingers are always pointed at the goalie, fair or not, when his club is swept out of the playoffs.

But Pavelec is also coming off a year in which he posted career numbers in save percentage (.920), goals-against average (2.28) and shutouts (5) and played out of his skull in the final month of the season to help guide this team to the playoffs.

“I don’t know why that happened,” said Pavelec when asked for an explanation as to why he caught fire. “It was a time that I wasn’t playing. It wasn’t a long stretch, three or four weeks that Hutch (Michael Hutchinson) is playing every game. That’s the way it goes. Things happen for a reason.

“I don’t know why. But I had a pretty good year. I had a pretty good start in the season. And a few things happened.”

Yeah, you could say that. But if you want to trace his success this season back to any one turning point, it might not be as simple as his recovery from the long Barret Jackman goal he gave up in St. Louis in March, but the faith management showed in him this time last year.

It was back then when GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and Paul Maurice stood in front of a room of media and defended Pavelec’s play, despite a season in which his numbers had seriously regressed.

“Before they said that, I wasn’t sure what’s going to happen,” Pavelec said. “It was great for me to know what they think right before I went home, right before the summer. There wasn’t any speculation in the summer. So I had time to work out. I didn’t have to think about anything else. That was huge for me that they said that.”

It might not have shown early in the year when Michael Hutchinson started to see more action in the rotation and then essentially snatched the starting gig from him after some stellar play. But it was in March, after the Jackman goal, that Pavelec had reached what could be said was a career crossroads. If he had struggled, his days with the organization might have been in jeopardy, especially with prospect Connor Hellebuyck playing so well in St. John’s.

Instead he served up the best stretch of his career, that included a six-game win streak in mid-to-late March and three consecutive shutouts in the last week of the regular season.

Timing, as they say, is everything.

“It wasn’t an easy season for me, that’s for sure,” Pavelec admitted. “Especially that stretch in February (when he wasn’t playing) and after the goal in St. Louis. I didn’t even know if I was going to have a chance to play again for this team. Never give up. Just work hard in practice and good things happen.”

So while the vote of confidence for Pavelec a year ago raised some eyebrows and lit up the lines on sports-talk radio, this spring it barely moved the needle.

“We don’t think Ondrej has reached his capacity yet,” said Cheveldayoff on Friday. “We still think there’s room for him to continue to grow. And we’re excited to have him as the No. 1 goalie in the organization.

“We’re really excited to have Hutch as a guy that can push and continue to do the things he’s done. It’s really remarkable what he’s accomplished as well. As a group, the strength together certainly helped us get to the point where we’re at. It’s not just about Ondrej being the No. 1 goalie. You really look back at part of the reason why we were able to accomplish what we were able to is that the strength that both of them had.

“So I’m real excited about the goaltending opportunities for us going forward.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait

The 5 most important things said Friday

1. Paul Maurice on the future, and more scrimmaging at training camp because it will be productive.

“The foundation has to be gone over again,” he said. “I already know that training camp has changed, with what the first four days are going to look like and how we’re going to run that camp and what we’re going to do this year, that I didn’t feel comfortable doing with our team last year.”

2. Pavelec is the Jets’ No. 1

“We don’t think Ondrej has reached his capacity yet,” GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said. “We still think there’s room for him to continue to grow. And we’re excited to have him as the No. 1 goalie in the organization.”

3. Different feeling at season’s end

“It’s a completely different emotion (than years past),” Blake Wheeler said. “It’s less pissed off and more… I don’t know what the right word is… it hurts a little bit different now because we’re right there, where before we could talk all we wanted about being a playoff team but we weren’t as close as we are now. There’s excitement, disappointment, a lot of different emotions. But, mostly good things.”

4. This is tough. More to come

“I had hoped to be in a playoff game before I was 27,” said Bryan Little. “But I think you realize how hard it is to get in.”

5. Helping the GM

Cheveldayoff expressed great interest in retaining UFA’s and RFA’s. He just got some help. “We talk about the atmosphere, we talk about the passion, but there’s no better sales pitch than what we just went through with those two playoff home games,” he said. “The community came through in the best fashion possible.”

5. Paul Maurice, Part II

“I had more fun coaching this team than any other year that I’ve had.”

The 5 most important things not said Friday

1. Flaw dissection

There wasn’t much talk Friday about what’s the matter with the Jets, which took up the majority of previous end-of-season interviews. The team’s biggest improvement, its goals against, to 2.44 per game and into the NHL’s top 10 of defences, was mentioned about once. “We cut down on the number of goals against, things like that that you need to be successful,” GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said.

2. Nik Ehlers for 2015-16

The 2014 first-round pick may indeed be an option for the Jets in the fall. But if the scoring dynamo is not ready, his team for the season looks very uncertain. Ehlers didn’t indicate he has even the least bit of interest in returning to the QMJHL if he must. Since he’s under contract, the Jets have more than a little say. Could Europe be an option if the NHL is not in the cards right away?

3. Who’s No. 1?

GM Kevin Cheveldayoff did not identify which free agents were his priority.

4. Frolik’s wish

UFA Michael Frolik was fairly positive about his Winnipeg experience and said he liked playing here, but mostly deferred questions about his future to his agent. His agent doesn’t comment on such matters.

5. Silent three

Dustin Byfuglien, Toby Enstrom and pending UFA Jim Slater were not available for interviews on Friday.