Quoting: Cory
I personally don't put the blame on any of these players. I think Wheeler is a great person and a good hockey player. I think his problem is that he is old school and doesn't understand the new generation of players. i think he is a tough leader who doesn't coddle the young guys. Scheifele is a good hockey player, the guy put up 40 goals this year. Not an easy thing to do in this league. I think he is misunderstood, James Patrick spoke out about him and Wheeler when as a hockey coach you should never do that. My issue with Scheifele is he pouts, but that aside he is still a damn good player. I don't believe anything when people talk about culture and these 2 guys being a "cancer" to the team. Bowness came in and strip Wheeler of the "C" which was fine he said it was because of the pressure that was put on him the past years. The team and Bowness still wanted Scheifele in a leadership role and kept him as an assistant. I believe the team doesn't have a bad culture, Wheeler and Scheifele are not the problem but the team is just not built right to compete in the central. The Central is a tough division and we need to get tougher. When we made that run to the WCF we had Buf, Chariot, Myers and Trouba on the D. These guys pounded the opponents when they came over the blue line. The following year Myers & Chariot left via free agency, Trouba was traded, and Buff for personal reasons left the game. That crippled our physicality that we had and we have just not made the right move to correct it. This team is a really good team talent wise. They just need a couple of big boys on the D with a little grit to there game to get us back into contention. Sadly, the fact is Winnipeg is not a hockey destination, so Chevy's hand are a bit tied. We can get mad at him because we all know what we need. Hell, he is probably just as frustrated. Now we are that team that needs to build through the draft. That is the tough part because of the time that will take.
I've heard from a solid source stuff about Wheeler that's just brutal, I don't give a **** how "old school" he is, its stuff that no one should ever do to a teammate.
Also if he doesn't coddle the young guys then why was he so willing to coddle Scheifele?
Not trying to be an argumentative Richard but this team clearly has a culture issue, just saying it's cause of different personalities and being based in Winnipeg after all that's gone on since the 18-19 season and probably before then (why was Hendricks signed im the first place?) is really sticking ones head in the sand.
Plenty of bigger dmen could've been acquired but Chevy sits on his hands and holds onto his draft picks and then misses on them, Oleksiak was traded for a 4th TWICE and Zadorov for a 3rd, why didn't the Jets make those trades? Neither of those guys had trade protection so that excuse doesn't hold water. They need to trade anything after the 1st round for players that can help now cause their drafting after round one is pretty abysmal and their development track record is getting worse and worse.
The culture issues start at the top with the owner.
Sorry but these excuses and narratives around the Jets need to die.