Team: 2022-23 Winnipeg Jets

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 31, 2023

Published: Mar. 31, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

It's no secret that the jets have had major struggles since January which have resulted in many fans believing that the core needs to be reset and tear it down. With all the Dubois stuff, scheifele giving up, wheeler being himself, bones wack lines it's hard to see the positive this team was able to achieve and Frankly look like two completely different teams.

This may what fans want but from indications from Darren Dreger the jets will try all that they can to keep Dubois thus showing a lack of desire to build up a new core. Winnipeg has so many question marks when it comes to Dubois and the state of the ufas where they can't afford to have many valuable assets walk for free. The jets are a heavy draft and develop team as getting people to sign here or trades (trade protection) can be quite difficult to impossible without an overpayment.

So with the vast disconnect between the fans and management how will this affect the plan going forward? I for one think that sure they can try to keep guys around but does that give them the best chance to succeed? We seen this team completely disappear so why would management invest into something that has shown major aspects that will majorly affect the ability to stay consistent into the future.

With all the assets the jets have they are in a great position if they do decide to rebuild as many teams would be lining up for several players if they were to become available (Connor, ehlers, helle, etc) so if done right you are already starting off with some young assets like perfetti and Samberg as nhl guys, some promising players in lambert, mcgroarty, lucius and with the assets via selling it wouldn't be that long of a rebuild depending on how well they can draft and develop which is their bread and butter.

So why does the management want to hopefully keep Dubois around with all the news surrounding him? Sure he may have his foot out the door but ultimately he is just a good player and most teams tend to want to keep the players that are important to their team. This combined with the price they paid would seem like a massive mismanagement of assets to then trade him 2 years later. The jets can want to keep players around as they are important but it's also a need for these top players to put their soul into their play which has been vacant for many top end guys. It wouldn't be fair to reward a scheifele or a Dubois when their effort hasn't been consistently there all season where players like barron, niederreiter, Lowry and more. So what is management doing?

Similarly to Vancouver management has had this disconnect with its fans and really not having a direction has been a major factor in why we have essentially seen the same team since 2019. Little changes have been made but ultimately you either are actively improve the team towards a cup or transition to selling pieces to get assets that can. The jets have been so patient which has help them in many situations but ultimately lead them back to never being either good or bad.

How can this be resolved? It is definitely something that management needs to discuss in the coming months and may be accelerated via a playoff miss while having a point of best team in the west at a point this season. Tough questions will be asked as the players we have can be great players and there is no guarantee that players we pick will be as good as some of them so it can be hard to sell off someone who is great rn for something that isn't guaranteed to even come close to what they can be worth.

To conclude I'm not fully against either way of going about how the team should go forward but ultimately needs to be provided why it's better than the latter. Sure you can keep the team relatively together and have a decent team but the ultimately loss for winnipeg will always be the loss of assets that could be used to create more long-term value for the team. Chevy has a difficult job no doubt but now he will have to male some choices that are pivotal in where this team ends up next season and in to the near and distant future. The winnipeg jets are at the mercy of Chevy and frankly nerve-wracking.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully a discussion on the likely outcome we can expect to see.