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Chevy Speaks at 12 CST Today-Preview Here |
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Today at 12:00 pm Jets General Manager and President Kevin Cheveldayoff will address the media and fans from the MTS Centre in his year end statement before going quiet up to the draft in Buffalo. Through some sleuthing and rather clandestine work I have come across the prepared and practiced responses to likely questions the media will ask and some of the static content that is prepared. I’ve pieced what I can together to give you a picture of what fans will hear today at noon CST.
On the finish to the season.
Key notes
*process*
*don’t talk about trying too hard and don’t mention ‘tanking’*
Answers
We were happy our players tried to win the season out even if it was going to cost…. Even if it meant affecting our place in a rigged lottery for Toronto.
I like the way our players competed down the stretch despite all the injuries. We though our depth was good and were able to learn lots about many of the guys who probably will not see ice time next year because of existing contracts to Stuart and Thorburn. I mean we have to honour the contracts we signed to guys who wanted to step up and be Winnipeg Jets even though there were better options for us… errr I mean them and us. I mean them, the really wanted to be here and we respect that even if the fans don’t.
On the upcoming draft.
Key notes
*it’s a process*
*say you never plan on drafting high, goal is to win and scout well for whatever position you draft in*
*don’t mention draft and develop, talk about the next phase*
*don’t mention who you are picking*
*redirect trading down or trading the pick*
*not going off the board with the pick*
Answers
I have to be honest, ever since we’ve been in Winnipeg we’ve never had a draft pick this high so I’m rather excited. There’s a lot you can do with that pick. You can pick a player with it. You can trade that player you picked for help elsewhere or you can not trade him. You can also trade the pick before you use it and do something with the return coming back or, and… get this you can actually pick a player and keep them. We don’t know what we’re going to do with it because with so many options you have a set amount variable that affect those options which in turn determine the outcome. So not knowing how we use our options means I have no idea what the outcome is and we have not yet identified variables so to say that there is a firm grasp of what we will do with that pick is making a certainty uncertain.
The idea of trading down is not always a bad idea we want to make the Winnipeg Jets the best team we can in our goal of being a champion, right Mark…. (no Mark!!!) However when you have the second overall pick you can do many things with it so we have no intention of doing anything that might affect that pick.
Our scouting team has done a great job of identifying who we may want to pick with the 2nd pick and the 22nd pick. We like the options they have brought forward and think either players are interchangeable to our needs whenever they are picked.
In the past we have picked players that no one even considered taking in the spots we picked them at and we feel that we have been vindicated in those picks as they represent our process to build a winner. Forget about the scoring prowess of Forsburg or the two-way shut down dominance of Couturier or how Wennberg has fit in in Buffalo because Morrissey might get a real good look this year and we feel Trouba will be a dominant player in this league now once his contract demands come down to something reasonable. I also don’t have to tell you how great Schiefele finished the year and almost hit 30 goals. The last Jets player do to that took a fair contract after his entry level deal expired and look where he is now… I mean look what I was able to do with him.
On free agency
Notes
*important part of our process*
*don’t want to tip our hand*
*prepared to deal with knowns as to unknowns*
*trying to find value while spending money*
Answers
Adding key personnel when July 1 feeding frenzy opens is not really part of our process as you have seen in the past. It’s important and part of any development process to acquire solid UFA players but we don’t do it when everyone else does becasue that does not make sense. 2 years ago were successful in locking up Mark Stuart for 4 years before any other team could and that same happened with Thorburn so instead o dealing with unknowns we dealt with our own knowns even though we don’t really no much about how they contribute but because they are known to us we can quantify what they do for the Jets in ways we can’t with players we don’t have or know. Another good example of being efficient with UFA signings would be Stafford, we’d wanted to get him for a long time but decided to trade for him and guess what, we made a unknown a known and then signed that known knowing what we were getting for a our money. That’s the smart way to deal with UFAs instead of tossing money into the unknown realm of the marketplace.
In the past we have tried to find value and Perreault is a good example too but it was risky because we could not acquire him before and I felt that he could be another Olli Jokinen where we thought we knew what he was before realizing he wasn’t what we thought he was.
Once UFA period opens we have some targets but our process is to spend smart not fast. Value is the key and we felt that last year we added great value by giving guys two-way deals so we could shore up the farm team and provide our prospects some veteran leadership. This gave our team depth and we think we achieved a nice balance for both teams.
On Analytics
Notes
*stats are part of the process*
*don’t mention numbers*
*stats don’t measure intangibles*
*Grit and heart aren’t things that matter with salary*
*looking a ways to know unknowns*
Answers
We fully embrace the idea of analytics in hockey but have not found a way to use them to build a better team. One of the problems is we have not been able to figure out how to value intangibles in a player or the unknown values that don’t show up on score sheet or stats measurements. Our group has worked diligently to put systems and processes in place to measure intangibles so we can then align them with the new stats as a way of cross referencing for accuracy. Once we can determine that the new stats align with our intangibles we will have a way of knowing unknowns that other teams are currently unaware of and that should give us an advantage.
We pay players for more than the salary they have and sometimes we play players because of the salary they have and that means we have to find stats that help us support that system and process. If we can find new ways of doing things we will check to see if they give us the same value as the old ways so that nothing old is lost and anything new does not make too much change for the organization. Is Randy Carlyle available yet?
On RFA contracts
*critical to retain them as part of the process*
*want fair deals for team*
*not afraid to work through summer to last minute to get deals*
*really happy Alan Walsh is not an agent for RFAs*
Answers
As you know we have 3 critical RFA contracts to deal with this year and we’re excited to extend out the negotiations as long as possible so that we can get the best deal… errr make sure we take our time so both sides get a good deal. When it comes to the process of building a team the first part is drafting the second is developing and the third is retention. If you can’t retain value from the drafting and developing you should just do what the Leafs have done and trade and sign UFAs as they managed 3 playoff wins when they were doing that.
Right now we have had basic discussions with the various representatives from our UFAs and feel we can get deals done because Alan Walsh is not trying to screw me over. That guy is a bloody Jedi, “these are the numbers and term your looking”, who would have thought that would work? Not me.
If we have to assign value to the players that will happen when their contracts are signed and we will then know how much they cost and that is an unknown right now because there are no knowns when dealing with future contracts. Our belief is that our RFAs will be Jets until we don’t believe that anymore and right now I guess the fans don’t know what to believe so we feel like we’re right there with our fans the most passionate in the league “STUUU NORTH!” I mean “TRUE NORTH!”
To close I want to say that we as a team and our ownership have never felt better about the direction of the team because it’s really hard to go any further down than we did. Not everyone can be the Oilers. I and we as a management group have the full support of our ownership and chairman as long as he’s involved in the process. We are excited about the draft and the possibility of doing things with our draft picks that we have not tried before and that could be taking the consensus pick or not but that’s still an unknown with many variables that will affect the options available and likely outcome.
Thanks to our great fans and there are still tickets available to our draft party and we hope we don’t disappoint you on that day based on the many things we could do once we know what we will do when the options and variables present a definitive answer to the unknown questions.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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