Goaltending, team defense remains an issue for young squad aiming to improve from within.
The following THN Archive story takes a trip down memory lane to the early years of the second iteration of the Winnipeg Jets. See if you recall some of the popular names in Jets history from the year 2014.
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How to Fix the Winnipeg Jets?
June 23, 2014 – Vol. 67, Issue 26
By Tim Campbell
HOW TO FIX THE WINNIPEG JETS? If you could snap your fingers and reduce goals against, get better goaltending and more consistent play from the team’s core, you’d be most of the way there.
The impatient, hair-on-fire crowd that seems to be getting more vocal in Winnipeg would like to start yesterday, but that exercise in what-ifs and maybes seems like a lot of hot air.
Why? Because there’s no evidence GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is into high-risk transactions. His three years have seen tinkering at the edges – trading defenseman Johnny Oduya for a pair of 2013 draft picks; the acquisition of wingers Devin Setoguchi and Michael Frolik – but also a more-fervent-with-time message that the Jets will be a draft-and-develop team. So the attempted fix will almost certainly come from within.
Yes, the league’s smallest market has generated middle-of-the-pack revenues, which would allow the Jets to spend, but Winnipeg isn’t about to become an attractive free agent destination. With that option for acquiring impact players off the table, patience and internal development are it.
The Jets added bona fide NHL regulars in rookies Jacob Trouba and Mark Scheifele in 2013-14, payoffs already from the 2011 and 2012 drafts. But Winnipeg, with 237 goals against this season, has consistently been a bottom-10 team defensively. Its No. 1 goalie for five seasons, Ondrej Pavelec, has done little to inspire. His numbers, in particular his 3.01 goals-against average and .901 save percentage, were at or near the bottom among NHL starters in 2013-14 and aren’t far from his career stats.
Pavelec was becoming a lightning rod of criticism near the end of the season – a compliance buyout has been suggested in more than one corner – but in his April postmortem, Cheveldayoff was as direct as he’s ever been, declaring Pavelec will be the No. 1 goalie when camp opens in September.
Winnipeg finished seven points back of the final playoff spot, with no one issue triggering the failure: Pavelec’s play, a franchise swoon in March, the inability of core players to reach the next level for a third straight year and a key injury to Scheifele were all factors.
The year was difficult to begin with when the franchise switched from the Eastern Conference to the West. Another tough adjustment came when coach Claude Noel was replaced with Paul Maurice.
Within a week of the season’s end, Cheveldayoff extended Maurice with a four-year contract, a move that installs a more experienced coach who has a comprehensive plan for growth. The move didn’t cause much debate and Maurice, who won nine of his first 11 as Jets coach, managed to coax a little more fight and bite out of the team.
After reaching a tie with eighth-place Dallas March 1, the Jets went into a lethal six-game losing streak. Three were lost in overtime or a shootout, and all defeats were well contested. That’s a huge difference from the fatal five-game spiral in late 2012-13, when the team was non-competitive in surrendering 10 points and earning none.
Depth is building within the Jets organization. The team believes Trouba and Scheifele are the start of the next wave, but it’s a little harder at this stage to identify the next area of improvement.
Big years from established players such as Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian or even Pavelec would help. Or the fix could come in a year or two with help from draft picks Josh Morrissey, Adam Lowry or Nic Petan, or perhaps from young goalies Connor Hellebuyck or Eric Comrie.
As much as some Jets fans would like it, Cheveldayoff isn’t into speeding up the clock, so time will continue to tick.