NHL Hot Seat Radar 2023: Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets have some massive decisions to make this upcoming season, and the pressure's on the front office to make the right choices, writes Adam Proteau.

The NHL’s 2023 off-season is just about done, and with it, our continuing THN.com hot seat series comes to a close with the Winnipeg Jets. In the past month, we’ve been analyzing the different types of pressures felt by NHL players, coaches, GMs and team owners.

Moving alphabetically through the league’s teams, we’ve been identifying one player, coach, team owner or GM as a person on their organization’s hot seat, dealing with major pressure to provide outstanding results in this coming season or be banished to the organization’s doghouse. A second person will be put on the warm seat as someone not likely to be fired or traded soon but who may experience negative results in 2023-24. A third individual will be put on the cold seat as someone highly likely to remain with their franchise for an extremely long time. Occasionally, we’ll focus on four or five people per file because of ties in one or two categories.

The Jets looked like world-beaters early last season, but they cratered pretty hard in the second half of the year. After they squirmed into the final wild-card Stanley Cup playoff berth and won Game 1 of their playoff series against Vegas, Winnipeg fell apart and lost the series 4-1. That left a sour taste in the mouths of Jets fans, and more than a few Jets veterans – including winger Blake Wheeler, whose contract was bought out, and star goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who has resisted all attempts at getting his name on a contract extension.

For many, the buck stops with Cheveldayoff and Chipman, who have played the GM and owner role for the Jets since the franchise relocated from Atlanta to Winnipeg in 2011. That’s more than a dozen seasons now for the duo, and the team appears to many to be regressing. And, frustratingly, Cheveldayoff has been unwilling to tear down the roster and embark on a full rebuild, sending star center Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Kings this summer for Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi and Rasmus Kupari. Cheveldayoff has spent nearly to the salary cap limit, leaving the team with only $2.54 million in cap space to bring in help during the season.

Even with its new-look lineup, Winnipeg is going to be hard-pressed to make the playoffs in 2023-24. And if they don’t, will Cheveldayoff finally pay the price for this mushy-middle collection of players? 

You have to think Chipman will go in another direction if the Jets fail to make the post-season or be drummed out of the playoffs in the first round if they manage to get there. There has to be a reckoning for Jets brass, and by the time the summer of 2024 arrives, it could finally be happening in Winnipeg.

Scheifele and Hellebuyck are about to enter the final season of their contracts, and both will be UFAs next summer. The fact that both have not been signed to contract extensions speaks volumes about their time in Winnipeg likely coming to an end. Cheveldayoff has to trade them before the next trade deadline, as allowing them to walk away for nothing on the open market could lead to massive disappointment among Jets fans.

Really, if it weren’t for Chipman and Cheveldayoff occupying Winnipeg’s hot seat, Hellebuyck and Scheifele would be on it. With every day that passes without their names on contract extensions, it becomes more probable the star center and goalie will be ex-Jets at some point before the trade deadline. Scheifele and Hellebuyck are both 30 years old, so their next contracts are likely to be mammoth, eight-year deals that bring them close to retirement. But their status in Winnipeg seems destined to be approaching its end, and the only question is what assets the Jets get from them in a swap with a playoff-bound team.

If there was a bright spot for Winnipeg last season, it was the breakout season from Morrissey. He more than doubled his career-best points total of 37 to 76 points (including 60 assists) in 78 games last year. The 28-year-old led all Jets skaters in average ice time, with 24:13, and his average annual cap hit of $6.25 million is a great bargain for what he brings to the team.

Morrissey is signed through the 2027-28 campaign, giving him two more years of contract security than any other Jets player. He’s also got a full no-move clause for the next two seasons and a modified no-move clause in the final three years of the deal, per PuckPedia. So long as he’s a force to reckon with when he has the puck, he’ll be a fixture in Winnipeg’s blueprint for success. He’s Mr. Jet right now, and that status is unlikely to change anytime soon.