GM jets confident that his actions are good for the team

If they gave Stanley Cups to the franchise that accumulates the most transactions to expire, the Winnipeg Jets would hold a parade along Portage & Main now.

After all, Jets CEO Kevin Cheveldayoff has left the other leaders in his dust with a dizzying screen, like the ones we've never seen before. He had an abbreviated number in the NHL office, turning into Monty Hall for a few hours and playing Let's Make a Deal with his counterparts in the league.

You wonder if the central trade registry officials started to think they were getting stung every time the phone rang with area code 204. "Hey guys, find out who's on the front line It's Chevy, STILL! "

Six new faces have been introduced. Two familiar faces have been shipped, with at least four choices of landmarks. It's a lot of things that move and shake quickly, especially for a draft and development team that is now considered a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

It's fair to ask the following question: if things were going so well, why the extreme makeover? Just look at the Tampa Bay Lightning, which is pretty much on the grass in recent days and was absolutely silent on Monday. If it's not broken, do not fix it, right?

While doing Jets, which have been all but perfect lately. The team's play is particularly worrisome, with a 3-5-2 gap in the last 10 games, including a disappointing 4-1 defeat on Sunday night in Arizona.

Of course, they woke up again on Monday morning in first place in the Central Division, but the Nashville Predators and even the St. Louis Blues are back on track recently, and the road ahead will not be any easier, with nine consecutive games against teams. currently occupies a playoff spot, starting Tuesday night against the Minnesota Wild.

With 21 regular defeats in 62 games, Winnipeg already has one more than the 20 games in 82 games last season. You do not feel exactly like a team ready to go four laps, is not it?

This is how Cheveldayoff launched a life raft to his distressed team, allowing him to land one of Kevin Hayes' big fish. To do this, he separated from a young Brendan Lemieux player and from a first-round pick, as he had done last February to acquire another talented center at Paul Stastny.

It must have stung, at least a little.

"Precious, really valuable," Cheveldayoff said Monday to the question of the value of a candidate in the first round.

"For example, never underestimate that and never think that it's easy to sit around doing nothing.You look at how we built this organization, and we will have to build it by continuing with these project choices. As excited as you are for the immediate future, come talk to me in Vancouver (when writing 2019 in June) and see how lonely I am, but I hope the time will be up in the end of the drafting. "

This last line was a reference to the place where the Stanley Cup winner's table is set up, by the way.

"It's about taking advantage of the opportunity you have in front of you.You never say:" I'm going to swap my first round pick. "You're trying to make an agreement that works for you – and you must be comfortable with the price of acquisition.We are in both cases – very comfortable with the fit for this team and at the same time. 39 with the price of acquisition. "

It was another strong message sent about the all-in team, recognizing that the window of opportunity was open and not for eternity. Considering that the other powers of the Western Conference were equally responsible, it was also a necessary measure. The status quo would not cut it.

The Golden Knights of Vegas added Mark Stone, a player that the Jets already knew until the asking price was apparently too high. (Vegas may have given up on the NHL Blue Line's best hope, a player in his lineup and a draft pick). Nashville had Mikael Granlund and Wayne Simmonds. The San Jose Sharks brought in Gustav Nyquist.

For the record, Cheveldayoff insisted that it was not a matter of keeping pace with the Joneses or pressing a panic button about what he saw recently from his team. This plan was defined for the first time when he took the reins of the team in 2011.

"I love this band, no year will ever be the same, even if all the players are the same, you will go through your highs, you will go through your lows, you go I think that if you look at the winning teams the Stanley Cup championship at the end and you separate their seasons, it's never really smooth.This is never a straight line from start to finish, "said Chevelday.

It is important to note that the Jets have not mortgaged the future in terms of the prospects already present, unless they say goodbye to the fourth-line attackers, Brendan Lemieux and Nic Petan. They selected young Jack Roslovic, Mason Appleton, Sami Niku, Tucker Poolman, Kristian Vesalainen, Eric Comrie, Logan Stanley and Dylan Samberg, among others, who had been linked to the ongoing trade discussions.

As Cheveldayoff has said, the building continues to work for an organization in great shape, with no guarantee as to its duration.

We never say, "I will exchange my first round choice." You come in to try to make an agreement that works for you.
– Kevin Cheveldayoff

"I think that since the first day, with the organization and my mandate here, we said we would do everything we needed to do," he said.

"It's a hard day to buy because it's expensive.There are a lot of things you have to pay for." But as an organization, as a group of players, as a as a coach, they've earned me the right to try to make those changes, to try to provide depth and try to get pieces that could give us a boost. "

It remains to be seen until this thrust could lead them.

"I like what we have done today for our organization, the game is played on the ice, it is not played in the conference room, in the locker room or on the match sheet. or the sheet of statistics that is distributed at the beginning of the The movements we have made have been discussed and calculated and I feel good about it, "said Cheveldayoff.

Yes, the Jets got a quantity at the trading deadline. But time will tell if they have added the quality needed to plan any of these real fashion shows later this year.

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Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg