Darren Dreger recently reported that the Winnipeg Jets would be doing a full audit of their organization this summer. They will look at every position in managemenn and coaching staff, as well as players. The Jets are an organization that has to sell tickets to stay afloat. We’ve seen a drop in attendance already and they’re doing a huge push for season tickets. Something they’ve never really had to do. In fact they had let go of almost all of their ticket sales staff as it was never an issue. With these attendance drops, change will come as the team needs to sell the product to the fans. I see some big changes coming for the first time in a long time.
First order of business IMO is locking up PLD. He’s the perfect fit for Kyle Connor and there’s no reason to not want to keep those guys together long term. I feel like Dubois gets around what couturier got, but wouldn’t be surprised if he got 8x8.
Second, and nearly as important as the first step, the jets have to address the elephant in the room which is Mark Scheifele. Not only has he struggled defensively this year, he’s abandoned lowrys systems and has just played his own way. An awful example to set as an assistant captain and “face” of the franchise. It’s time to move on from scheifele. I feel like a draft day trade may be in the books. I feel like the teams that will be in the mix are BOS, CAR, FLA, NYR, NYI, CBJ. Mainly eastern conference teams as they’re going to realize they need to solidify themselves to compete in that conference. Florida is unlikely as they already have so much star power and not much cap space or assets. I decided to go with the islanders, again could be unrealistic due to their cap constraints. I feel like the main targets for Winnipeg likely are Dobson/Pulock. Which likely leads to an instant no, but I tried to build a package that might be of interest to the islanders. Jets fans likely won’t like the deal but to get a player like Dobson would be amazing. Islanders fans, I know you’ll hate it as well because Dobson is very good and I get that so don’t feel bad if you rip on me. I just thought with an aging islanders team and a closing window they may consider this. Also trotz is the perfect coach for Scheifele. Let me know what you think, I’m sure jets fans will think I’m overpaying/overvaluing Dobson, and islanders fans will likely say no and it makes sense. Let me know what it would take, I’m assuming Ehlers or Connor would be the request for Dobson.
I think a conversation has to be had with jets management and hellebuyck. I think it’s crucial to know what the situation is heading into next year in regards to him wanting to be in Winnipeg or not. There have been some reports that he doesn’t want to stay here, which can’t be confirmed so who knows what’s going on. He’s one of the few guys who actually showed heart and belief down the stretch.
I thought about signing trochek but it likely would take around 7 million to get him to go to Winnipeg. I just decided I’d use the 1 year stop gap in stastny so he can mentor Perfetti to take over that 2C role. Plus Ehlers and stastny have great chemistry.
No idea what they’ll do for coaching. My preference would be Pascal Vincent as he’s familiar with the team and players after coaching the Moose for a while. I’d imagine they’d interview Carlyle and Boudreau if Vancouver let’s him go. Bottom line with coaching is that they need to make wholesale changes. This team is in a very odd spot, they aren’t making the playoffs with this roster so they’d need to retool or make some big changes.
You might get a 4th or 5th for Schmidt. Not a 3rd.
That’s okay, I’ve seen plenty of wings fan okay with this deal. Schmidt hasn’t been awful, actually done quite well on both special teams and he’s been solid all year. Fans just jump on him as he can lose his defensive positioning from time to time. Would be an awesome mentor for some of detroits younger players.