That's a wrap. The 2021-22 NHL Season has come to an end, and the Winnipeg Jets summer is ready to begin.

This is going to be a very long reaction/explanation to all of the things that have happened over the past few days. I will have highlights from the players press conference's, and I wrote a full transcrption of the Kevin Cheveldayoff press release. Before we get into that, let's have a look at some of the biggest highlights we learned.

One of the biggest things in the Jets news is Kevin Cheveldayoff getting a 3-year contract extension. I will get into this a bit more when we reach that point of the Cheveldayoff press release, but while I do think I would have been in favour of a change up before the presser, his interview has been more hopeful than anything.

Another big piece of news that came out was that all of the coaching staff, except goaltending coach Wade Flaherty, will be released, but given the opportunity to re-interview for the available positions, including Interm coach Dave Lowry.

We will hold off on some of the juicy stuff that came during the Mark Scheifele interviews, and go in chronological order.

Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny Press Conference

When asked about the 4 game home-stand to close out the year, and how important it was to close out the season the right way, Blake Wheeler responded with an up and down answer.

"We have been in this sutuation before, I am proud of the fact that we have never been a team that tanked and stopped playing, it was a really tough road trip that we went on, and it was a pretty sour taste, the 4 straight losses"

Wheeler was able to see the bright spot, in that the team didn't give up, even when the playoffs were out of the picture. Paul Stastny reflected on his 800th point by starting about talking about how his teammates were trying to help him out to get that, and that that is what him, Wheeler and Ehlers do together, take care of each other.

Blake Wheeler then goes on to talk about how he was dissapointed, and so is the rest of the team. He states his belief that there is still a good hockey team in that locker room, and also reflects some love on the Ehlers-Stastny-Wheeler line.

When asked about what happened after the 9-3-3 start to the season and what flipped the script, Wheeler responded with "Nothing in perticular stands out...though stretches throughout the year we just bogged out, playing slow, in a rut" followed up by "It was a big shock...when your coach packs up and leaves halfway through the season, it leaves a shock" when asked about Paul Maurice's departure.

"Whether that derailed our season or not, I am not sure, it was a shock to the system for sure"

On whether he feels like he will be returning to the Jets or not, Paul Stastny talks about how he has everything on the table, and Kevin Cheveldayoff also expressed interest in bringing Stastny back.

"We can no longer call ourselves contenders, I think we are one of those teams that is a fringe playoff team now" said the captain. "It's up to everyone involved to look in the mirror and say, 'Why? Why did we get to where we're at?' Like I said, first and foremost, it's our responsibility as players to bring that type, that quality of play to the ice that we have a chance to contend and compete for a championship."

It is good to see Wheeler taking some ownership on the team, though I have to wonder how much he let's some things out of his control weigh down on him.

"When you don't have that, when you don't care about the teammate next to you, potentially, and you just care about what you're doing or certain individual things, that starts bleeding into the game." Stastny said after talking about accountability for the entire team.

It is clear that the Jets veterns were frustrated with the whole season. It will be interesting to see the decision that Paul Stastny makes.

Mark Scheifele and Adam Lowry Press Conference

To start things off, as a reminder, Mark Scheifele has 2 years left at $6.125m, after coming off of his 6th consecutive point-per-game or better season.

Mark Schiefele seemed very frustrated with the entire season, similar to what Wheeler and Stastny expressed.

Scheifele starts off by saying he is close to 100% healthy, after taking a big hit from Senators forward Parker Kelly. He talks about how his biggest focus as of late is to just get healthy. He mentions that he is just working to get himself into the best shape he can, though injuries do get in the way.

Scheifele is asked the same questions as Wheeler and Stastny about what the turning point is after the 9-3-3. He gives a similar response as Wheeler did, and the biggest point he made was "it is a year I would like to forget", and then brings up COVID, Olympics, and other types of adversity the team faced.

"I didn't really like my game at the beginning of the year, but I started to feel better about it after the All-Star Break" and talks about how he used that to reflect on how he can improve for next year.

On Paul Maurice, he talks about how Paul was all he knew, and that it isn't something you can prepare for. He seemed indifferent on the situation, but with how much time they spent together in the organization, it is hard not to think it impacted him.

“I'd love to be in Winnipeg, but I also have to see where this is all going and what direction this team is going in and I guess we'll see this summer, I’m in the prime of my career. I still have so much to improve on too and I like where my game is at. I like the physical nature that my body is at. I’m only improving, I’m only getting better and I’m only going to be a better player next year than I was this year."

“I just have to know where this team is going and what the direction is and what the changes are going to be, if any. I have to think about my career and what’s going to be best for me. Those are going to be talks with my agents and everyone in my family and stuff like that and figure out what I really want. So, it will be a tough talk tomorrow.”, referring to his exit interview with GM Kevin Cheveldayoff.

Mark Scheifele didn't seem overly confident in what the Jets had to offer coming up, but as noted in the Cheveldayoff media release, Scheifele has not requested a trade.

Kevin Cheveldayoff Full Press Conference Transcription

Cheveldayoff was welcomed by being congratulated on the 3 year contract extension.

It’s an extension we agreed to a little while ago, some business to take care of with coaching staff before announcing. I think over the course of time here, I think we have built an organization that has tried to compete for the Stanley Cup over the last couple of years. There is obviously lots of work to do here to continue to move forward, and push this forward. Very fortunate to have the opportunity to, and the confidence from ownership to move that forward.

Players have called this season embarrassing, wasted. Your captain says you are back at square one, how much responsibility do you take for that?

When you put the roster together and you’re the person in the organization to make a great deal of decisions, it weighs on you immensely, I think we are going through a process right now in the dressing room with the players and the exit meetings are extremely important in this situation to ask those questions, I think as equally disappointed as everyone is right now, the euphoria at the start of the season was very high. This group had a lot of expectations in itself, some of the moves we made over the summer, there was a tremendous amount of excitement. That level of high when you are at where we are at right now, not competing in the playoffs is met with an equal level of low.

Kevin, what can you tell us about the state of the coaching staff now, after yesterday?

I met late in the evening after everything died down, I met with all the coaches. I informed them we will be conducting a full-scale interview process for a new head coach. I met with each of them individually, I met with with Dave (Lowry), and told him that as well. I said to him if he wants to be a part of that formal search, that he has earned that opportunity. We will grant him a formal interview process in that regard. I met with all the assistant coaches as well, and told them that we will go through this process. There is a chance they are part of that process moving forward when we finally select a head coach, but there is a chance that they might not be there.

Can you give a timeline on how quickly you would like to go through this? I don’t imagine you want to leave them twisting in the wind, right?

So I haven’t really gone through this process for a while from the coaching perspective, and again, going to get through the exit process here today, there will be some meetings with the coaches as well, about the exit meetings we are having with the players just to put closure just to some of those situation, and then we will look at the different possibilities. It is hard sometimes to put a time frame on it because some guys you might want to interview in the assistant coaches' sides in organization’s that run deep into the playoffs. We will turn our attention to that in short order, I am not sure exactly when we will begin that process. We will start compiling names and situations to deal with.

Scheifele spoke yesterday candidly about wanting to hear about a vision for the club, obviously he said he loved Winnipeg, but isn’t sure about his future here. What did you hear in that, and what is the vision for this club?

I heard a lot of passion, I heard a lot of passion from a lot of different guys, in many different situations, it wasn’t just listening to him speak. Obviously through some of the conversations you have had with players this week, I haven’t spoken to half the guys yet and heard their thoughts and their meanings. Certainly with respect to Mark (Scheifele), he is a talented player, he is in the prime of his career, he is all those things that he said he is. He is a Winnipeg Jet and he wants to win. As an Organization our vision is we’re going to have to take a little bit of a reassessment, see where some of our things are at, but our goal is that we want to win the Stanley Cup. We have been a cap team and we have been committed to that, we have signed guys long term. We wish the cap was a little more in our favour with respect to the last couple of years because we probably would have been able to keep a few guys that have become casualties of those thiings as well, but that’s the nature of the pandemic, with the cap being flat. The legacy contracts didn't allow us to foreshadow where we ran out of money to keep some other guys. That vision has not changed, from a standpoint of wanting to win the Cup, we have to come at it, and look at it with a different perspective after a setback year like this.

For clarity sake, is Mark one of the people you have talked to?

No I have not.

In terms of the head coach, have you thought at all about what the template is for the successful candidate? What kind of coach do you think would be the best fit?

I think we will be open minded but also have different conversations with players here. These exit meetings have probably taken a lot longer this year than they have in normal years, we are probably running about an hour or an hour and a half behind, and we have only got through half the guys. As far as standing up here today proclaiming what type of coach and anything like that, I want to let the guys speak to me, and my staff speak to me and have time to reflect and take a look at who is out there.

Kevin, just to clarify on Mark, he mentioned talking to his agent and Dave Lowry said he has a decision to make. He is under contract for 2 more years, has he asked for a trade?

He has not asked for a trade. I will have a conversation and we will talk during the exit meeting and find some clarity.

A lot of the comments we have heard in the last while was that the young stars, vets, and Paul Stastny yesterday, they go beyond frustration about not winning, and some criticism about the attitudes some members of the team might have and individual success over team success, that sounds substantial to us, can you speak to that? What is your role in changing that?

Well again, I think that you know, when you go through an emotional time like these players have, the emotional commitment that they have given, that they were gearing up for, the emotional let down we have right now when we didn't achieve it, that's why you hear a lot of those words. I think you have heard it come out of guys' mouths, they are disappointed, they wanted more, they feel let down, they feel they let themselves down, they feel other players let them down. That's the raw emotion that is in there. Those are the types of emotions in a dressing room. That's why sometimes in organizations, you see guys fighting on the ice, it's because they care, some guys have different ways of expressing it. From a standpoint of a team winning, you need everyone on the same page and it's an elusive thing sometimes, and sometimes it just clicks. Those kinds of chemistry are what you try and build over the course of the seasons, and ultimately see some teams hit their stride. I had an opportunity to talk to Sanford in his exit interview, we talked about the fact he won a Stanley Cup, and had an interesting year that year, with respect to being virtually in last place at Christmas and going on to win the Cup. What was that about and what happened? He said it's hard to put into words. Things just started to fall into place. Guys who were not clicking before, as it went on, it started to click. That's part of being a team, that's why you have to play all 82 games, that's why you can't win anything on paper. It has to be done on the ice. It starts in the room.

It seems like more than just your typical frustration. Players say they are disappointed. Paul Stastny said players need to have more respect for each other in the room. It seems more than the discipline than just not making it into the playoffs.

I think when you come into seasons, everyone's goal is to make the playoffs. Paul's first question to me is always is this a playoff team, are you going to make the playoffs, you wanna put guys on record, they wanna be on record saying its a playoff team. I don't think there is one guy in the room that thought this wouldn't be a playoff team. The level of disappointment is because we didn't even get beyond that, so I think it goes back to the way I answered things earlier, there are some teams that say they will make the playoffs, and there is no shot they are going to do it. You are in that evolution in the franchise, well, I shouldn’t say no shot, everybody has a shot, it's because again, there are strange things that happen, but this group here genuinely felt there was supposed to be more. I think that's why you get the valley of the valleys of lows we have right now.

When you heard Mark (Scheifele) talk yesterday, it was a lot of individual, what is going to happen to me, he wears an A on this team. We saw over the year Blake (Wheeler), it's a burden to be the captain, and weighing on him extra, head coach leaving because his message wouldn’t get through to him, does there need to be an internal look at the leadership group in this club, and be willing to go to a different voice than the leaders you have now?

Well, I think again, you know there is going to be lots of conversations, whether it's the leadership group, whether it's the other players, there's going to be a lot of conversations internally, and just because I got an extension, there's still going to be lots of conversations between ownership and myself asking about where things went. There are lots of questions everyone wants answered. What the course of action is going to be moving forward? That’s what we need to take the time here to figure out, and make those hard decisions in that regard.

Where do discussions with Pierre-Luc Dubois sit?

Very high. We did have a chance to chat with PLD this morning already, so we had a good candid conversation. Last year was a really weird year for him. We didn't have the chance to sit down with each other until the exits last year, so it was interesting and refreshing to get his perspective on things this year after having a full year with the Jets, in a more normal setting, and again, he knows where we stand with respect with what we think about him and what we would like to accomplish. The business side of the game has to take care of itself. And this goes back to a lot of different things on the business side of hockey is in a different state in regard to the flat cap, which is probably going to increase over a period of time. Trying to have negotiations with players over short term vs long term and those types of things, there is lots that comes into play.

It was indicated it would be not a short process, was that kind of the jist of your conversation with him too, then? Take some time to figure this out?

I assume so, the process in situations like this, he is an arbitration eligible player, there are some thought process and timeline in that regard, we have a lot of work to do.

Will you be a cap ceiling team again next year?

Yeah, as we sit here right now, the projections you look at the guys we have signed, those types of situations. The ownership is fully committed from that standpoint, we don't have to deal with an LTI situation which will make the summer a much easier type of situation from a planning perspective, which we spent a lot of time last year trying to maneuver and make sure we didn't waste any cap space because of that.

Your defense core was a clear objective last year, you went from a shortage to a surplus, what kind of challenges does that have when you look at roster construction?

We will sit back and look at a lot of different things with respect to filling different holes and how we will do that moving forward, what combinations worked and what didn't, not just on defense but with respect to filling out the roster, we have some young guys and it's just so unfortunate that a guy like Cole Perfetti had to deal with an injury during a time a guy like Mark Scheifele was injured, that would've been a prime role for him to get his feet wet, but those are things that just have to deal with. Dylan Samberg came in and really showed that he's made some good development over a period of time. I thought Heinola did the same thing when he had his opportunity to come in here. We have some good pieces, some are veterans, some are young, so that's a good thing to have.

Obviously ownership isn't here speaking, but as the GM and your focus is primarily the on ice product, but is there extra pressure given that the team didn't have a sellout this year, is there maybe some anger among some of the fans, is there extra pressure from higher up to get this right and get things back on track?

Well there are lots of people that really deeply care about the fans and the city of Winnipeg, we know we have a responsibility to this organization to put its best feet forward. COVID was a tough situation for the business side to have to deal with, the vaccinations side of things clearly put a divide line on several people. The organization had to make a tough decision right from the get-go and potentially alienate 1000 people, from that standpoint. They care, and the business side is certainly something I care about, and I care about the fans there is not a day that goes by that you don't feel that responsibility to the city of Winnipeg and the great fans that we have, and they make a difference, no having them in the building, you talk to a lot of the players, it's not the same. When we would go on the road and there would be fans and then some home and have 0 capacity or 50%, it weighed on those guys mentally, it's a tough transition

Not a lot of GMs stay with the same team as long as you have without deep championship runs or titles. How do you view why you have this opportunity?

Well I think we have built a strong core that was a core that everyone felt could compete. We had to make changes, we had Dustin Byfuglien retire, we had the different situations where we had to move on from guys because of the cap, we have also had situations where we have had guys like Adam Lowry that could've went to free agency but wanted to be a part of this, and like Pionk that could have guided his way to free agnecy but chose to sign a contract that we could fit in the cap, there is lots of good things that we have been able to accomplish and we have been a team that has pushed and unfortunately we have hit a roadblock right now. We will have to find a different way to overcome that.

What are some of the challenges as a GM when you have so many personal bests, or career highs, some toll was not greater, you weren't as good as the sum of your parts. What do you need to do for roster construction?

It goes back to some of the combinations I was talking about and seeing, do you need to construct things differently, bring in different types of players, who are some of the young guys we have, do they fill this void or not? Those are the types of things that, you know, you are trying to create a team, and there are personal bests, no doubt. But you need guys competing. And you a guy like Kyle Connor, it is just an exciting time for him, and someone I hope truly gets rewarded with a Lady Byng for the type of player he plays and exemplifies on and off the ice. There are positives, those are things that from an organization you want to make sure you take note of, and there is growth. Some of the guys who did get personal best, there has been growth year after year. That is what you are looking for as well, who is the next guy in the organization that can potentially grow and play into a role, like Morgan Barron is a player we were excited to see come in and compete and show different glimpses on what he will bring, does that bring a different element than maybe we didn't have now, so those are things we are going to assess going forward here as a part of the whole evaluation process.

If a rival GM calls you, Kevin, would it be reasonable to suggest there is a list of names that are non-conversation starters from your position?

Sure, there's always guys that are going to be extremely hard for you to ever talk about moving when a GM calls, but GMs call all the time, and I call all the time. You're not doing your job if you don't ask the crazy question. You never know.

We heard everything from Paul Maurice quit on this team, we heard Paul Maurice quit before he was going to get fired, can you clarify the circumstances on his departure? Were you in the process of replacing him before he decided to leave?

No. He resigned at the time, for his personal reasons, and he spoke to you guys, there is not much else after that. I haven't had a lot of conversations or dialogue with him or anything, we have exchanged texts a few times, outside of that, it's a personal thing with him.

The followup, now that the season’s over, what tangible impact that a coaching change itself, and the way that played out, how did that impact this group?

I don’t know if you can measure it, because again, it's hard to measure those kinds of things when they kind of happen so suddenly, but I do think it had an effect, some players more than others, some players it didn't bother at all. Some of the exit meetings we have had I asked those kinds of questions, one player frankly said “it didn't matter to me one bit, I just go about doing my business and and be prepared to play, and I play” where I am sure we will have some other guys when it comes up they will say it deeply affected them.

So for clarification, have any of your coaches been retained?

So I had a conversation with Wade Flaherty looking at negotiations with him, he is in the last year of his deal, I can't say I have a deal signed with him, but I did have a conversation that I would be offering him something. I haven't fired anybody either. We have had conversations with them, they know we will go through a full search and what that could mean either way.

You look at Carolina, they are a great defensive team, puck possession, and you look at Tampa, high powered offense, also defensive, and they plucked certain players that they needed to fit a certain mould for their team. What do you want your team to look like on the ice? You have offensive players, defense has been a clear issue for just defending. What does this need to look like to be a championship team?

I think this team needs to understand that they have to play a certain way, and it's not just this team. Every team, you need talent to win in this league, and you need that talent to be elite, whether it is from the net, on defense, at forward, it has to be elite. You need that talent and those groups of guys to understand you need to play a certain way, sometimes it is not fun, and some nights are more fun than others. More often than not you will be on the successful side of it. We do need to find a way to play better defensively, whether it is systemic, whether it is mindset, cause if you look at our most successful periods of time, whether it was last year beating Edmonton, obviously Connor Hellbuyck played fantastic, but our group of guys found a way to check properly, to do all those things, to play those taught games, and when we went to the conference final same thing. I think that's why playoff hockey is so fun for these guys, and hockey players in general, they relish to play playoff hockey. They know they have to be dialed in, they know that level of focus. They know there is that end result, over an 82 game season, there is flows, travel, schedule, sickness, all those things that creep in, and when you get into the playoffs, that is why it is the funnest time of the year, you are dialed in, focused, you know that the goal is to win 4 games, and then the next 4, and the next 4, I think that's what drives them, and goes back to that's what is so disappointed right now.

You need a certain culture to be successful, some players have been questioning that culture, how did that happen? Because if you want to fix it, you need to know how it got here.

Yeah, culture is a very broad word that is used a lot, I think that a culture isn't something that you just say “aha! That's what I want!”, a culture comes with having a core set of beliefs, and believing in them. Seeing the results that you feel you want from doing those little things, so culture just doesn't happen overnight. A culture is a series of foundational pieces that everyone uniformly believes in, and can grow from and see tangible results. That's what we need to get to, we need to get back to that foundational route, we, as an organization we have lots of those in place, and we just need to continue to find a way to do them and find those results to reinforce them

11 years, shouldn't that be firmly in place by now?

Well I think every year is different. It's not the same players every year. There are foundational things in place, but again, not one team wins the cup every single year, two weeks from now there will be eight more teams standing here very disappointed that they should've gone further than the first round, and then four more than feel profoundly more because they got that close. Then there will be one that will be really really really upset because they got that close. It doesn't mean their culture is wrong, it doesn't mean all the work they put in over the course of the year, it's a tough game to win in, and it's a tough league to win in. Half the teams now, don't even make the playoffs, half the teams are standing here the day after the season ends answering the tough questions.

All those teams will be disappointed, but there is only one where their star players are talking about folks playing individually, the scale of this certainly seems different, when you talk about culture needing to be built up over several years, it decays over several years as well. There have been lots of disappointments over the past several years, you mention core pieces in place as well. Just to go back to that, what would you say to the fact that this is the only team saying things to folks like us, very publicly, that there are too many people playing individually?

It's refreshing that players are saying things to you. I think that is something that all too often in these exit meetings that we go through, it comes to what are your summer plans, are you healthy and those kind of things, but the fact that players are saying that shows that they care and had a level of expectation, I think thats the first point that if you're going to be afraid to say it, it's not going to help trying to change that. If that's what they truly believe, it is also incumbent upon them if they are back, especially if they are free agents. And certainly again, we had a conversation with Stastny, we would love to have Stastny back, we will see how that plays out with his body and wanting to playing and those kind of things, but the fact that those guys are open to have those kinds of conversations is refreshing

When the Jenner & Block report came out , you mentioned your commitment to the survivors and wanted to move forward. I know the organization has done those things, I am just wondering, it's been 6 months, what kind of progress have you personally made.

We are very proud, we are the only organization that has gone through the respect in the workplace training, from the top to bottom, whether it is the business side, and throughout the Jets and the Moose organizations, when you go through those kind of programs and take it to heart and talk to some people who have gone through the programs with you, you start to learn and understand. There is a level of understanding that can only come from going through those kinds of processes and talking. I know as an organization there is a commitment level to want to bring awareness to this. They have talked about adding different components and talked to Sheldon and talked to the group about adding different components of that program into the Project 11 and getting it into the schools, and understanding an awareness, I know a player like Adam Lowry is lending his voice and his stature to the ‘Toba Center, I think through tragic situations the only way you can grow is to learn, talk, and to discuss, and to have those difficult things, and offer your assistance.

Now, there is a lot to unpack here, so I won't spend too much time on individual things.

What really sticks out the most for me, is that the Jets media members did a fantastic job asking tough questions. Many markets lack that, and so it only gives the GM an opportunity to say what they want. In this situation, there is pressure on Cheveldayoff to give thoughtful answers.

The big parts of this, start with the entire coaching staff, except Wade Flaherty will not be returning, but may still interview for positions. Flaherty, along with Hellebuyck and Comrie have worked very well together, and I think this is a great decision by the Jets. Moving on from the likes of Dave Lowry, Charlie Huddy and others is also a great decision. It was not working anymore, and things need to change.

As for Mark Scheifele, Kevin Cheveldayoff seemed pretty level headed about what was said. He didn't seem to disagree with any of it. Though Mark has not had his official exit interview yet, there has been no trade request from the Jets star. Everything the Jets GM had to say about Scheifele was positive, and it seems like if the Jets decide to do a re-tool, that Kevin knows that Mark deserves more than that.

There will be a lot more discussion on these media releases, and I will be chatting in the comments about the rest of the pieces, so thank you for taking (a lot) of time to read, I hope you are all having a great day, and I am looking forward to see what comes this offseason.

Jacob

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