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Expect Little but Hope for Something |
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Expect Little but Hope for Something
First the game take:
I'm going to put this here, I think @Sadsackjetsfan summed up best.
Those are three things that have arguably just devolved after the initial bump that came with Paul Maurice. Sack is right. Fix those and this team might have a better chance at success. How do you fix it though, and by whom?
Now regular programming.
There you go Jets fans, that’s your mantra for the next 24 hours. There are obvious holes in this team, clear problem areas that need to be addressed before it can make a step forward and be something beyond a 8th place challenger at the best of times. The trade deadline is a time to do that as much as the off season or draft day or UFA day.
Not all players are as obtuse as Shane Doan. They know what the business side of things is and they know that teams/franchises have to make tough decisions and do what’s best for the long term. That time is here for the Jets yet anyone who has some sort of connection to the team appears that GM Kevin Cheveldayoff will stand pat, again.
I’ve already written that there are assets to move if a deal with the right return were there for Chevy, but now it seems time to deal with the quiet resignation that change is something best left for other organizations.
In the past after the deadline had passed and Mark Stuart was extended for four years and Oli Jokinen was kept because of an injury to Scheifele Chevy spoke. He talked about how there were calls for Chris Thorburn, that he gets them every year. He talked about how there were ideas that he wanted to revisit later, options for the future that never seemed to happen when the future arrived.
It’s all shaping up to be more of the same. While Thorburn and Stafford may offer the best hope for action from the traditionally static GM, does past behaviour with Jokinen, Hainsey and Thorburn suggest that it’s loyalty to the bitter end?
Sure there was that year of adding Stempniak and fellow Czech to Pavelec and Frolik, Jiri Tlusty but that was it, aside from selling the pizza man Johnny Oduya. What does that tell the team right now if yet again, no moves are made?
What do Wheeler, Byfuglien, Trouba and Schiefele think knowing that they all bought in on the process to stay here and be a part of draft and develop? What about a possible future Jet in Tucker Poolman, only six months away from total UFA freedom before playing an NHL game?
Moving out the few pieces to prepare for the future is what trade deadlines are for now when you are a team like the Jets. Sure you are close but having built one 3 game win streak all season is their reason for anyone to put faith in this group as it stands now? Draft picks are the best currency coming into a expansion draft, draft day and UFA period when there is a flat salary cap, even more so when you already have cap room.
The trade deadline represents a chance to tell the team the status quo is not good and nor do we have to accept it. Thorburn and Stafford are not the problem they are just pieces within in it but removing pieces and signalling change is important too. The Jets have to take that chance now because what is left of them to do?
In the first five seasons fans would have been fine at the deadline to be sellers, increase chances at a draft pick knowing the team was aiming directly at draft and… Now they are impatient and begging for action because what they have been provided has clearly been inadequate and too much of the same. The are tired. They are frustrated and they are not paid to be optimists like the Beyak’s and Hnidy’s. They pay to be entertained and emotionally tied to the team but that’s fading now too. In the five years where the Jets could do no wrong with the fans the GM did, well nothing at the deadline aside from two years. Now they want him to do something, anything to be invested again and it’s likely he doesn’t because opportunity has knocked and the door was not answered.
It’s gone. Down the street to another door that will in all likelihood be opened, even if for a short discussion. You dear fan, you hold hope that the GM can do some thing when the draft comes and UFA time, just like every other year. Don’t be surprised with Thorburn and Stafford sign 1 year extensions, be angry when you hear the excuse is ‘because they want to be here’.
Enjoy the deadline.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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