Jets Follow Age Old Script: Do Nothing as Free Agency Opens

On Wednesday, it was the same tune played out in a different key for Winnipeg Jets fans as free agency officially opened up across the National Hockey League.

Or for those not musically inclined, ‘another year, another disappointing start to the Winnipeg Jets’ free agent season’.

The biggest names in connection to the Jets were Andrew Copp and Ben Chiarot. However, neither of those players remains on the roster. Copp, who was shopped on deadline day, signed a big-time deal with his hometown Detroit Red Wings, while Chiarot also went to Motor City on a four-year term at nearly $5 million annually.

Of the nearly $1 billion dollars handed out over the first 12 hours of NHL free agency, Winnipeg’s spending accounted for roughly 0.001 percent of the money locked up in future assets.

Sure, sometimes things don’t work out, but in those situations, one could typically look back upon a big contract years down the road and laugh – or cry – about the financial burdens the rash spending may have caused… right?

July 1st, 2016:

Milan Lucic: 7 years, $42M
Kyle Okposo: 7 years, $42M
Andrew Ladd: 7 years, $38.5M
Loui Eriksson: 6 years, $36M
Frans Nielsen: 6 years, $31.5M
David Backes: 5 years, $30M
Darren Helm: 5 years, $19.25M
Troy Brouwer: 4 years, $18M
James Reimer: 5 years, $17M

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) November 14, 2019

Well, maybe not. But at least these general managers actually got out there and shopped for some big money contracts on players whom they felt would lead their respective teams to Canaan, the land floweth of milk and honey.

“It’s funny, you go back, we started off the day this morning looking at some of the signings six and seven years ago and most of those guys are being bought out or not in the league and still kind of making some money,” Jets’ GM Kevin Cheveldayoff told media in downtown Winnipeg. “It’s an interesting day, free agency for some teams, they spend big money and can regret it in a few years. For others, I know their approach is kind of keep it internal and go from there.”

But this sort of behaviour from the Jets’ front office on Day 1 was totally expected. At least, that is, if you’ve paid any attention to the team’s past free agent signing periods.

Winnipeg is not exactly a desirable climate to willingly select in a league that offers destinations such as Florida, San Jose, New York, Chicago, Colorado… quite literally any other club. To sign with the Jets, one would have to A.) enjoy the -50 degree celsius wintertimes, or B.) have a belief in the room, the coaching staff and management as to the direction of the team for years to come.

We truly aren’t sure which of those two options would be more difficult to deal with at the present… and it was a cold, cold winter last year.

When Cheveldayoff let backup goaltender Eric Comrie walk to the Buffalo Sabres on a two-year deal featuring a $1.8 million cap hit, fans reacted strongly. But Chevy had an explanation, after all.

“His arbitration case would probably have been a little too rich for what we would have been able to spend,” he said. “You look at the cap situation right now and sure it looks like you’ve got a lot of cap space, but once you factor into getting (restricted free agent Pierre-Luc Dubois) done and Mason Appleton and (Jansen Harkins) have arbitration, all those guys have arbitration rights, so you kind of put the money in the boxes and guess a little bit when it comes to what you think that’s going to be at. Once you get all those the money does go pretty quickly.”

For Comrie, it wasn’t just any old prospect finding a new home, but rather the Manitoba Moose’s all-time games-played, wins and shutouts leader, a player who had spent the past 10 years with the team and finally had a chance to prove himself as a reliable option in net that had come up for a contract renewal. But the pocket-pinching GM opted to go a different direction.

He chose that of 29-year-old David Rittich.

Sure, he has 152 NHL games to his name, but only suited up in 17 appearances, winning six total games. His 2019-20 all-star season is a thing of the past and his anger issues will certainly pair well with Connor Hellebuyck’s stick snapping tendencies.

Things will certainly be interesting in goal next season.

“We’re happy with the acquisition,” Cheveldayoff said of Rittich. “It’s a veteran backup netminder who’s had some experience in a bigger role and is hungry to push and to prove. But he also understands he’s there to support as well and to work. Good veteran player.”

But Chevy wasn’t done there. After seeing players such as Claude Giroux, Vinny Trocheck, and even former draft picks like Andrew Copp ink big-money deals elsewhere, he couldn’t help but pull the trigger on a guy who apparently had piqued his interest years back: centreman Kevin Stenlund.

“He’s someone that has always been scratching on the door, he made some good strides there, he got into I believe it was the playoff bubble for Columbus,” Cheveldayoff said. “He’s a big body, a two-way type of centre that can be intriguing. He’s got lots of skill.”

Around Full Press Hockey

NHL: Colorado Avalanche Long Journey Back To The Stanley Cup

NHL Rumors: NHL Rumors: Washington Capitals, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers

NHL: 2022 NHL Draft: Player Rankings, Risers, and Fallers V 3.0

NFL: Best Bets For 2022 NFL Defensive Rookie Of The Year

Full Press Bets: Odds Favor The Avalanche To Repeat As Stanley Cup Champions

PODCAST: Full Press Hockey Weekly: Ep 33: Stanley Cup Final Preview

Of course, the 6-foot-4, 211-pound forward has size and may be able to fill the fourth-line centre role, but that sort of signing isn’t what many would come to hope for on the busiest day of the year. Quite frankly, it’s the kind of contract that most fans would never like to see.

The big Swede has played in parts of four NHL seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets, putting up a total of 11 goals and 20 points in 71 games.

Speaking of ’71’, Chevy and Co. also opted not to send a qualifying offer to last season’s bubble top-six forward Evgeny Svechnikov, allowing the Russian winger to find a new home this offseason. Local product Adam Brooks was also shown his walking papers. This, paired with Kristian Vesalainen’s decision to sign in Sweden means there will be some competition for spots throughout the roster, but most notably in the bottom-six.

“For us, with respect to some change, I think you’re going to see a much-expanded role for a guy like Cole Perfetti,” Cheveldayoff added. “From our defence standpoint, there are three good, young defencemen (Dylan Samberg, Ville Heinola and Logan Stanley) there that are going to challenge each other to get better. I do think the changes that are made on the coaching side (with Rick Bowness as head coach), you’re going to see a different style of play. Sometimes you got to be careful about thinking about what you don’t have as opposed to what you have and go from there.”

Sure, that all sounds fine and dandy, but when training camp rolls around and Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, Nate Schmidt, Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo are holding the top-five spots on a crowded blueline, at least two of those “three good, young defencemen” will be seated in the press box, while the other one will likely be riding the pine.

But for Chevy, the issue isn’t actually having too many defenceman, but rather surprisingly not having enough.

“The bigger issue is when you don’t have enough defencemen and I think when you don’t have the opportunity for competition, that’s the bigger challenge,” said Cheveldayoff. “As an organization here, there’s going to be lots of competition. What you see on paper now, a month into the season you just don’t know. So, I think that’s a really good thing.”

He also continually hinted that his management team was not yet done, despite telling reporters he was very comfortable with the group making up his 2022-23 roster.

“You look at a lot of different things,” said Cheveldayoff. “Obviously we’re still working on a few things on the free agent side of things. Hopefully some of those things come to fruition. It’s one of those things where sometimes things happen fast, sometimes things happen slow on free agent day.”

The moves were certainly not plentiful on Wednesday, but they definitely generated a lot of conversation.