Following last night’s 4-1 loss, the Winnipeg Jets are the first team to see this postseason come to an end as the Vegas Golden Knights took the series from them in five. In the first of my multipart series: Elimination Evals, I will be taking a look at the Jets, how they’re postseason run went, how it can be categorized and answer the burning question of, where do they go from here? Before we get started with that, let’s take a look at what our expectations were going into this series.
I said it back in my playoff previews of each series, this had to be one of the easiest ones to call as most people were expecting the Golden Knights to be all over this series. The Jets were the final team to solidify a playoff spot and barely did so in the process. There was a lot of turmoil and toxicity surrounding this group coming into the season but the goal seemed to be trying to turn things around and get to the playoffs. As I also said in my preview, that was unfortunately the east part as Vegas was going to be a tough matchup for them and sure enough, the Jets lost the series four games to one, just as I predicted. Now I will give them some credit, they did a little better than I was expecting considering Vegas was very capable of sweeping them. Nevertheless, Winnipeg had hockey fans everywhere kind of turning their heads following a 5-1 game one victory. Alas, that would inevitably become their high moment of the series as Vegas would even it right back up in game two and take all the momentum in double-overtime of game three.
You have to think that double overtime loss was the breaking point of the series. Any and all momentum Winnipeg had established from taking game one took a hard fall when Mike Amadio scored that goal for Vegas. If Winnipeg wanted to really have a chance at the series, they needed to find a way to come out of those extra periods of bonus hockey with a win and sure enough, they fell short. To their credit however, injuries started to really take their toll with this group. Josh Morrissey, who has undoubtedly been their top defender and a likely Norris Trophy Candidate, would go down with an injury that left him out of the series. On top of that, Mark Scheifele would join Morrisey on the injured list alongside Cole Perfetti and Sam Gagner. Winnipeg isn’t a deep team by any means so when you’re missing your number one center and top defender, it’s going to cause problems. Of course when you have a goalie like Connor Hellebuyck, you can’t rule them out until they're out.
Vegas of course wasted no time putting the series to bed. A Chandler Stephenson goal in the first minute of the game really set the tone and three more goals in the second gave them a decisive lead. Kyle Connor got the Jets on the board but it would be too little too late as Winnipeg would line up for the first handshakes of the postseason. Head Coach Rick Bowness was not shy about his disappointment in this group as he expressed his “disappointment and disgust” following his team’s efforts. He went on to say there “wasn’t any push back” and that Vegas’ “better players were so much better than ours, it’s not even close.” It wouldn’t end there as he made it clear that these weren’t just feelings relative toward this series, but to how this team has played since earlier in the season when they were in first place and began to grow complacent.
Obviously when you are extremely fresh off an elimination loss, emotions are going to be high but those are some seriously strong words from the Jets Head Coach. It’s been the main storyline with Winnipeg for over a year now that the character of some of the team’s top players and leadership group were questionable and that there was toxicity surrounding it at times. They stripped the captaincy from Blake Wheeler going into the season which seemed like a step in the right direction but on the other hand, what else changed? This team really didn’t make any significant changes or improvements in the off-season. They brought in Nino Niederreiter and Vlad Namestnikov at the trade deadline which is fine but not going to make or break anything. Now here we are with the same ole song and dance in Winnipeg.
So now comes the question of what’s next. You have to think that big changes are finally coming in Winnipeg. They tried sticking it out and giving this group the benefit of the doubt but with another early exit in the postseason, the time to tear this thing down might be here. The way Bowness was talking about this group in that post game presser, you have to think it’s reached a point where there’s just too much turmoil between the organization and some of these top players. The two names that immediately come to mind are Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele who both have one year remaining on their contracts after this season. If you're Kevin Cheveldayoff or whoever is going to be running this team for its next campaign, you have to consider trading both players and if there isn’t a buyer for Wheeler, a buyout might have to take place.
Namestnikov, Gagner and David Rittich are the only significant names on the brink of becoming unrestricted free agents. It’s safe to assume they’ll all walk. Pierre-Luc Dubois, is set to become a restricted free agent which normally wouldn’t imply the player to be gone but given Dubois’ circumstances, you can pretty much assume him to be gone. The former third overall pick has fallen off since his draft year and really hasn’t found a place to call home just yet. The consensus seems to be he is attempting to force his hand to Montreal so he can play for his home team meaning Winnipeg will have to try and find a trade for him to get there or just cut their losses all together and opt to not qualify him, leaving him unrestricted. Defensemen Brendan Dillon and Dylan Demelo will also be entering the final year of their contracts, making it worth exploring trade options closer to the deadline if not sooner.
With all that in mind, this season was definitely a failure for the Winnipeg Jets. While going into this series we sort of knew what to expect, management/ownership certainly had different expectations for this group. This was a team that was in first place in the West in early parts of the season. Going from that to barely making the playoffs and being the first team to get knocked out definitely isn’t good enough and is likely going to lead to significant changes. If I’m running the Jets, I move on from Dubois, look to trade Scheifele in the off-season, buyout Wheeler if he can’t be traded, and shop anyone else with a year left closer to the deadline. It’s clear that this team isn’t going to be a contender with this group and had they been a bit more aggressive with changes over the summer, they could have done some retooling but now it may be more of a full on rebuild. You have Kyle Connor, Cole Perfetti and Josh Morrissey. Build your team around these three.
One last point with Winnipeg; There’s no question Connor Hellebuyck is one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League. On top of that, he’s a grade A human and the type of guy you want as the face of a franchise. With one year remaining on his contract as he approaches the age of thirty, you really have to make a decision there. If I’m Winnipeg, I throw whatever money he wants at him and hope he’ll stay for the long haul as this team has no shot at competing without him. However, there’s a chance Hellebuyck has had enough and wants to go somewhere else and whether that means walking in free agency or allowing Winnipeg to explore trade options will be something to keep an eye on. The Jets also aren’t in the best salary cap situation unless they start having a yard sale so regardless of the direction this team wants to head in, changes are a comin’.
It’ll be one of the more fascinating off-seasons to keep an eye on as the biggest question regarding the Jets is how major will these changes be? Will they finally move on from some of these names that have been here for a long time or will it be the same team with the same story going into next season? Will Rick Bowness’ comments following this year's elimination trigger ownership? Players? Are we nearing the end of the Hellebuyck era in Winnipeg? Time will certainly tell.
Chris Feldman
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