Welcome in to the first Winnipeg Jets mailbag of the 2023-24 season. With roughly one month until the beginning of training camp, plenty of questions remain unanswered regarding the Jets organization.
What was hyped up as an offseason where the Jets would “blow it up” and move off of the majority of their core players, turned out to be the opposite. Pierre-Luc Dubois was the only main piece who was moved, and the Jets seem content running it back with the additions of Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, and Rasmus Kupari.
The way this offseason has played out has raised some question marks among Jets fans, and this mailbag will attempt to provide some answers. Today’s topics: Mark Scheifele, the defensive logjam, and Rick Bowness’ relationship with the team heading into next season.
Why haven’t the Winnipeg Jets traded Mark Scheifele?
– @ScratchGolf16
I see two answers to this question. The first one is that the market for Scheifele is simply not what general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff had hoped. If that is the case, he has the ability to kick the can down the road and re-visit that market at the trade deadline or wait for an in-season deal to arise, similar to the Patrik Laine/Dubois swap.
The second answer, which ties into the first one, is that the Jets’ centre depth heading into this season is an area of concern. If they were to move Scheifele without receiving a top-six centre in return, who is the Jets’ top line centre going to be? With Connor Hellebuyck currently on the roster and many fans believing that this roster is improved over the 2022-23 version, it looks as though Cheveldayoff is going to wait in hopes that a competitive season changes the minds of his pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs).
Related: Jets Must Avoid Repeat of Kovacevic Situation
A scenario where the Jets are competitive comes with the question — what do you do with Hellebuyck and Scheifele at the trade deadline? Do you keep them and let them walk in free agency, or trade them despite being in a playoff position? That is a question that could loom over the Jets organization throughout the season and one that should be answered sooner rather than later.
How will the Jets improve their defense and clear out the log jam on the blue line?
– @204Joey
Flying under the radar with Scheifele’s and Hellebuyck’s contracts expiring is the fact that Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo are also pending UFAs. That leads me to believe that the “logjam” won’t be cleared this season but next offseason through a multitude of moves. As we near training camp, the Jets have nine waiver-eligible defenders, meaning one will have to clear waivers when sent down to the Manitoba Moose.
To improve the defence core, you first have to spend your money more efficiently. For example, Nate Schmidt played mostly third-pairing minutes last season at a $5.95 million cap hit. If the Jets were able to replace 80 percent of his production with a defender making league minimum, like Declan Chisholm or Ville Heinola, that would give them the cap flexibility to acquire another player via trade.
The issue with this scenario is that the salary cap has yet to jump up the way teams have hoped and therefore offloading money has never been more difficult. Spending less money to improve the roster seems backward, similar to saying “turn right to go left,” but for small market teams such as the Jets, spending money efficiently will always be the easiest path to success.
Do you think the relationship between coach and players will hold things back this season with how it ended last season?
– @ZacharyMaggart
This is a storyline that I believe is somewhat flying under the radar heading into this season. Everyone remembers how last season ended and the drama that came with it. Head coach Rick Bowness mentioned the lack of “pushback” from his team seven times in a one-minute post-game press conference. Many players shared their displeasure with how Bowness handled this, and it was seemingly all swept under the rug. However, with this rant from late April, holding the team back this season seems unlikely.
It seems likely that the Jets organization is going to name a captain for the 2023-24 season. They did not have one last season as upon Bowness’ arrival he removed Blake Wheeler’s “C” and the franchise went the course of the season with three alternate captains. Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry seem to be the favourites among Jets fans to be given the captaincy, and having a bona fide leader in the room should help ease the tension between coach and players.
That is without mentioning the fact that Bowness has been coaching since the 1982-83 season. He is a pro’s pro when it comes to coaching, and he will likely be able to put all of this in the rearview mirror come training camp. The players may not have agreed with how Bowness handled himself in that moment, but a new season and a new opportunity should help that become an afterthought.
It is worth reminding that things were going quite well in Jets land last season, as they were firmly in the fight for first place in the Western Conference up until February. Having a new captain, new players coming in from the Dubois trade, and a desire to contend for a playoff spot again should make Bowness’ rant a moot point. The real answer to this question will come in February and March of the upcoming season. If you see a similar decline begin to happen, you may see another rant from Bowness.
Which defencemen are on the outside looking in?
– @AlexAdamsBTP
The top six names on the defensive depth chart seem fairly set heading into training camp. That group consists of Morrissey, DeMelo, Neal Pionk, Dillon, Schmidt, and Dylan Samberg. That leaves Logan Stanley, Kyle Capobianco, and Chisholm as waiver-eligible defenders who are without a regular playing spot.
Stanley and Capobianco combined to play 33 games for the Jets last season, and barring injury, that number is likely to decrease this season with the emergence of Samberg. Former 2019 first-round pick Heinola is likely to spend another year in the American Hockey League (AHL) barring an incredible training camp performance. The logjam has prevented prospects from playing up until this point, and it looks as though that will continue in 2023-24.
Training camp begins in the middle of September, and that is when we will be able to receive some answers to some of these questions. A captain could potentially be named, certain defensive prospects may impress their way into the lineup, and we could potentially get some clarity regarding Scheifele and Hellebuyck’s contract situations.
