With the Winnipeg Jets in dead last in the NHL midway through the season, Jets general manager (GM) Kevin Cheveldayoff was not going to have an easy time at his midseason press conference.
Indeed, the longtime GM was peppered with tough questions Monday morning about the tire fire 2025-26 has been thus far for his club, which is currently 15-21-4 and on a Jets 2.0 franchise-long nine-game losing streak.
Cheveldayoff Addresses Jets Going from First to Worst
The Jets won the Presidents’ Trophy last season but have since fallen off a cliff, and Cheveldayoff’s offseason signings — veterans that made the team older and slower — have not panned out.
Right off the bat, he was asked whether going from first to last makes this season an “unmitigated disaster.” He hedged away from using that term, but described his current team’s position as a “predicament.”
“You go into the season, and you have very high expectations,” Cheveldayoff said. “Your first job is to find a way to get into the playoffs… to this point, obviously it’s been very disappointing. We have not, I think to a man, top to bottom, and it starts with me… we need to find a way to be better.”
“When I woke up this morning, for me, the choice is put your head down and find a way to keep pushing this team to get better. I think everybody has to adopt that mentality. Again, very disappointed. Didn’t necessarily see it coming,” he continued. He pointed to coming out on the wrong side of one-goal games and the defensive structure not being up to snuff as issues.
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“What everyone needs to kind of understand, if you take a look at our roster right now, there’s a lot of veteran players on this team,” Cheveldayoff said. “Over the course of their careers, a lot of these guys have had tremendous success. Over the course of this season, a lot of those guys have had some real frustration and that’s difficult… there’s individual adversity that if you’re not achieving what you think you can and what you feel you can, the NHL is not a very forgiving league for things like that.
Cheveldayoff Feels Fan Disappointment
Fans are embarrassed — a Jets supporter in Ottawa Saturday went viral for wearing a paper bag on his head that said ‘from first to worst’ — and Cheveldayoff acknowledged their disappointment.
“Certainly fans in our market are very, very passionate. That’s something we care deeply about. This isn’t something you plan out and obviously sports are very unpredictable,” he said.
“Over the course of time, certainly we’ve had a lot of success but this is a results-oriented business and you live in the moment right now…. We’re going to continue to work and look and I feel their disappointment as much as they do,” he continued.
He said it’s on his shoulders if fans, who had only began to come out in droves again last season after attendance dropped since the COVID-19 Pandemic, simply decide it’s not worth it to come watch losing hockey. Attendance is down this season from last, and it’s hard to envision it going anywhere but further down.
“Lots of it’s on my shoulders each and every day,” Cheveldayoff said. “The National Hockey League is a very expensive league for people to come and watch and certainly the players are aware of it too… it’s the passion that pays us all, so to speak, and you can never, ever take anything in this game for granted, certainly not the fans.”
“If you’re a true fan of any team, the ups and the downs and the celebrations and heartbreaks are all a part of fandom… from a fan perspective each and every day you try to put the team in the best situation to succeed. You want to make the city proud, you want to make the fans proud, you just never take anything for granted,” he continued.
Cheveldayoff Defends Lack of Moves
Cheveldayoff has not made any trades during the losing streak, waived any underperforming players, or even promoted anyone from American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate Manitoba Moose. He was asked why he hasn’t given any of the various veterans or prospects in the AHL performance-based promotions rather than only temporarily ones when injuries arise on the NHL squad.
“When opportunity presented itself, we did call up some guys,” Cheveldayoff said, pointing to defenseman Elias Salomonsson as an example (who was called up when Neal Pionk was injured and played his first four NHL games).
He said he consults regularly with head coach Scott Arniel on who on the Moose may merit a call-up.
When it comes to searching for internal solutions, which could include waiving an underperforming veteran, he said “I’m not ruling out any of those options as we move forward here. We’ll certainly take a good look at that.”
On the potential for making a trade, Cheveldayoff said he has looked “at different opportunities to see what’s potentially available” and acknowledged that a number of sizeable deals have taken place around him already this season.
“We’ve traded a lot of draft picks and we’re paying a little bit of a price for that right now,” he said of his trade capital.
Arniel and Staff “Working Extremely Hard”
It doesn’t appear a coaching change is imminent.
Arniel, who was a Jack Adams Award nominee last season, has not been able to come up with effective lines that get the secondary scoring going or defensive structure back to where it was last season. He has also tossed what some perceived to be barbs at Cheveldayoff for the players he’s been given to work with.
Meanwhile, assistant coaches Dean Chynoweth and Davis Payne have struggled to help them team replicate the special-teams success they had last season.
“From a coaching perspective, they’re trying to do everything that they can. From a management perspective, we have to look at different avenues at some point in time to see if something is available. It’s not an ideal situation and I know they feel the same disappointment I do,” Cheveldayoff said.
Has the Jets’ Direction Changed From Contender to Rebuilder?
Cheveldayoff was asked about the public commitment he’s made to his core — that he was going to do everything in his power to help the team be competitive every season. Has the direction changed owing to the sorry state of affairs?
“My commitment to them hasn’t wavered, my commitment to ownership hasn’t wavered. You’d like success to be instantaneous, and in a situation like this, all we can control is the next game in front of us… I don’t think that group in there feels that they’re down and out of it,” he said.
“We can’t win every single game today,” he continued. “We have to worry about the game that’s in front of us. A far as the future, that’s why you’re so, I guess, careful and hopeful your younger prospects mature and when they come and play they’re ready to compete and ready to contribute in the fashion you need them to moving forward.”
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As to whether it’s time for wholesale changes, Cheveldayoff said the core who signed long-term is not the problem, but he needs to find opportunities to complement it.
“When you look at this core, it’s a strong core. It’s a good group of players. A lot of them are still in their prime and are going to be in their prime for a period of time,” he said. “The group of guys playing right now will help us forge our path or make our decisions accordingly at the right time.”
As for his own job safety, Cheveldayoff didn’t appear worried.
“The fire still burns very deeply here,” Cheveldayoff said when asked how secure he feels in the position he’s held for the 15 years since the Jets relocated from Atlanta. “It’s challenges like this in the league that you need to rise up and try to accomplish. Each and every day you wake up and you know have a challenge in front of you, and I’m up for that challenge.”
The Jets will attempt to stop their inauspicious losing streak from extending to 10 on Tuesday when they host the Vegas Golden Knights to open a five-game home stand.
