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After the draft & before Free Agency |
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After the draft & before Free Agency
The 2014 NHL Entry Draft was as uneventful as we should have known. It really didn’t matter that the main fireworks of the Canucks ‘re-tool’ happened earlier or that Dale Tallon refused to move the first overall pick. What happened was media and fans got caught up in the hopes of hype based on a ‘predicted economic scenario’, one of teams flush with caps space, strong finances, and a lot of coaching management change. It simply did not pan out that way.
Oh I’m sure we’ll all hear of the ‘behind the scenes’ efforts and last night even yours truly received word of something that may have involved Evander Kane. What is so hard to grasp for many fans is why teams simply can’t put the deals together and make them happen, just like they did 20 years ago.
One important aspect of today’s NHL is that reserve currency has changed. Before 2005 it was experienced veteran, the guy who had ‘earned’ his way to free agency and the winnings that came with it. Those days are gone and the new reserve currency of the NHL is youth. Find the right mix of youth that you can retain and you too can be the Blackhawks, the Bruins, the Kings, Penguins, Rangers and Ducks. Find those guys and get them locked into your team early. It’s this reason that GMs want a King’s ransom for the highest draft picks and youngest players on affordable contracts. It’s why Chevy asks for the moon for Evander Kane and it’s why Dale Tallon had no offers he saw as greater than ‘close’ for that first overall pick.
As the line from the Phish song Chalkdust Torture says ‘can I live while I’m young?’. GMs live and die by youth, in particular how they acquire it, relinquish it, and manage it. It’s not easy, requires some luck and in many cases some serious harship to obtain it, just ask the Oilers. They’re a team with all the spoils of youth and no plan or strategy to realize benefits other teams have enjoyed from youth.
That being said there is still time for some serious action. Players like Ehrhoff are now on the market along with Richards, Cammalleri, Stastny, Jovanovski, and many others. Good people, probably long past their prime who won’t get the money or term then want… or will they?
Florida has bought out Jovanovski and Pheonix has bought out Ribeiro and now Buffalo has bought out Ehrhoff. There is a lot of money being spent on dead weight and by team who do not have a lot of money with Florida and Phoenix. Also think about the spending spree Buffalo went on under Pegula’s new ownership, it was Snider-like and now it’s costing 40 million over 3 years for Ehrhoff. Yet not a word in Winnipeg.
This is the period that Jets fans have been cautiously waiting for, unsure whether a couple of changes will have happened or are about too happen. By now many fans had hoped they’d be talking about some sort of addition (and subtraction) to the team. Discussing the future with a sense of interest rather than an overcast blandness.
Well bland it is and with less than 36 hours to take the risk of eliminating a contract that many have labeled a mistake the only real hope for change lies in free agency. Trades can still be made but some deals may be on hold as a result of the activity around free agent signings.
Can the Jets pull off something that improves their team?
That should be the only question fans consider right now because the last three off seasons have shown no willingness to be aggressive or take meaningful risk when attempting to improve the team. Oh there have been risks, Jokinen and Setoguchi being two recent ones but just how ‘risky’ were those signings?
Draft and develop is not a complete business model for any hockey team. No team in this current modern era is entirely built that way and those that are heavy on the model have also had an incredible amount of luck. Almost as much as the Thrashers/Jets have had bad luck in the draft department.
Teams have to be able to build to a plan and if you cannot acquire players via drafting that have an impact on your team every year eventually you end up running on a treadmill. It’s a lot of work but you don’t get anywhere.
That’s the Jets to a tee. All levels of management and coaching putting in a lot of work but the team never gets anywhere. The same waiver-wire pick ups happen, the same low-level 4th line players acquired and the odd aging veteran to compliment the roster. The latter point will probably be what happens over the next week.
Chevy will have tried to do some moves, he was ‘open’ for business as the local media announced and in time we might hear just some details on what he was trying to do. But then ask this question.
If Evander Kane, or Dustin Byfuglien or Zach Bogosian is so valuable that Chevy wants the world for them why is he not putting in the same effort to improve the team around them? After all Paul Maurice said Pavelec can’t be judged until the defense and skaters in front are unified in process. If he, and apparently the GM, believe that they can make the goalie better why are they not putting that same effort into making Kane better?
After one key NHL off-season event the same questions around the Jets linger. Unfortunately though, it looks like more are coming and that is just another entry on the list of troubling factors around the Jets.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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