2015- A summer of dissapointment and incompetence?

[JetsFan815]

Summer is over- for the past 2 season we have heard that this was it, 2015 summer was going to THE SUMMER THAT DEFINES CHEVY!! All the other summers- pffft this is the summer where Chevy would show us what he's made of. Well?

• Signed Drew Stafford for 2 years @ $4.35 million- in hindsight arguably top 3 overpayment of the summer considering what forwards went for
• Frolik walks for nothing signing very reasonable deal with the Flames
• Peluso resigned for 2 years on a 1-way contract
• Halischuck resigned
• Burmi resigned (the only positive that I see here)
• Lost competent bottom-6 players while hoping Thorburn and Peluso will fill those roles
• Tlusty signes for 400k less than what we pay Thorburn, Stempniak likely signing around the same value
• No attempt made to address LD hole
• Ladd starts training camp unsigned
• Buff starts training camp unsigned (imagine if Buff or Ladd break their arm during training camp)
• 3rd lowest cap spending team in the NHL- the only teams below us are the clearly tanking teams Arizona and NJ (ofcourse we are the only team in the NHL that has players to sign next summer we are just "saving it for next summer" )
• Chevy hails Pavs as a starter and claims he is starting to find his game at young age of 29

Chevy failed his job as a GM this summer, Chevy failed to create an atmosphere of winning. He goes out and says "playoffs not a given"- well what are gonna do about it? Apparently absolutely nothing. To an outside observer does it look like the Jets are a team who want to win? How can Chevy look Ladd in the eye and tell him that he wants to turn the Jets into a winner that Ladd wants when he didn't do anything to even give a remote impression of wanting to win.

I hate being this negative towards the team but I have lost all confidence in Chevy. I used to roll my eyes at people like arby who have been negative towards Chevy for years but the Chevy detractors were right. If the team does well this season it will be inspite of Chevy. So freaking disappointed to see that we are going to ice a much much weaker team than we did in the last game of the regular season last season.

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[surixon]

Summer is over- for the past 2 season we have heard that this was it, 2015 summer was going to THE SUMMER THAT DEFINES CHEVY!! All the other summers- pffft this is the summer where Chevy would show us what he's made of. Well?

• Signed Drew Stafford for 2 years @ $4.35 million- in hindsight arguably top 3 overpayment of the summer considering what forwards went for How is this in any way a bad contract. He's a proven 40 plus point guy that can contribute on the pp and pk. He is signed for a piddly two years and as such is easily tradable if our forward prospects leap frog him in the coming season and a half
• Frolik walks for nothing signing very reasonable deal with the Flames
  Meh, we got Burmie who brings similar elements for far cheaper, don't see this as a huge loss.
  
• Peluso resigned for 2 years on a 1-way contract No disagreements, I don't see a place for players of his ink in the NHL anymore.
• Halischuck resigned Two-way deal likely heading to the Moose unless Copp/Armia really stink it up in camp
• Burmi resigned (the only positive that I see here)
• Lost competent bottom-6 players while hoping Thorburn and Peluso will fill those roles Thorburn was previously signed and as such was already on the team so no use talking about him, Peluso is a waste, but I am reserving judgement on how the 4th line is used. If its used to develop Copp/ one of our other prospects than I am not sad to see them go[/B]
• Tlusty signes for 400k less than what we pay Thorburn, Stempniak likely signing around the same value
• No attempt made to address LD hole Morrissey is close to ready and in the interim Chevy suggested one of the big 3 RD may move over... Problem solved in house
• Ladd starts training camp unsigned
• Buff starts training camp unsigned (imagine if Buff or Ladd break their arm during training camp)
• 3rd lowest cap spending team in the NHL- the only teams below us are the clearly tanking teams Arizona and NJ (ofcourse we are the only team in the NHL that has players to sign next summer we are just "saving it for next summer" ) Run the projections, are signings next year will have us right near the cap, we need the space.
• Chevy hails Pavs as a starter and claims he is starting to find his game at young age of 29And yet the org did not hesitate to give the reigns to Hutch when played better last year. I mean its not like Pavs didn't legitimately earn the spot back last year.

Chevy failed his job as a GM this summer, Chevy failed to create an atmosphere of winning. He goes out and says "playoffs not a given"- well what are gonna do about it? Apparently absolutely nothing. To an outside observer does it look like the Jets are a team who want to win? How can Chevy look Ladd in the eye and tell him that he wants to turn the Jets into a winner that Ladd wants when he didn't do anything to even give a remote impression of wanting to win.

I hate being this negative towards the team but I have lost all confidence in Chevy. I used to roll my eyes at people like arby who have been negative towards Chevy for years but the Chevy detractors were right. If the team does well this season it will be inspite of Chevy. So freaking disappointed to see that we are going to ice a much much weaker team than we did in the last game of the regular season last season.

I am sorry but I don't at all share your pessimism. The team as is will be better defensively, probably similar on forwards, possibly better or worse depending on how our young players adapt.

Goaltending is still a question mark but the org has shown they will move away from Pavs when he sucks as long as they have a better option. You can bet that they wont hesitate to bring Helle up if both struggle.

 

[Koonta]

I don't know.... my summer's been pretty good...full of margaritas and sarsaparilla.

 

[StronGeer]

Disagree entirely. This offseason was about making room for some top members of the best prospect pool in the league to make the jump.

If Chevy had gone and signed FAs for 4-5 years, they'd be clogging the place up in 2019 when we're going to win the cup

 

[meedle]

I think you have to look back to when the Jets first relocated back to Winnipeg and the mantra was draft and develop. I remember some of the first interviews after the draft and the next year after that when we had our first development camp. During that camp and meetings, it was stated, that when you are ready, we will open a spot for you, or something to the effect.

Now it's 4 years later from that camp and alot of pundits don't like the fact that some players were not signed and young guys are coming. Look down the line and another 2 years when guys like Conner will be ready, there just isn't enough roster spots open. Someone is going to get traded or not be resigned. That is just the way it is going to be. you should be happy tho that the quality of players in the Jets room has improved. Remember GST as the 3rd line or back when we had to claim people off waivers to get talent.

The rest has already been hashed, I'm pretty sure it was stated during exit meetings or somewhere there abouts that Buff would be the guy to move to LD in the top4, or at least try at the start.

I don't like Pavs starting more than anyone else but at least for the first time there are possibly other options now when he sucks.

Just remember what it looked like at the start of last year.

Adam Lowry – Mathieu Perreault – Dustin Byfuglien

T.J. Galiardi – Jim Slater – Chris Thorburn

I believe that was the starting 3rd and 4th lines last year.

 

[Jetabre]

I'm a bit disappointed he hasn't worked out Ladd and Buff yet but I'm still waiting for the final verdict of their fates. Everything else I'm fine with.

 

[Gm0ney]

Well, when you lay it out like that...jeez.

Last year at this point I was fairly optimistic that the team could make the playoffs even though there was a strong current of pessimism about Chevy not having done enough. But we were heading into camp with the deepest forward lineup we'd seen, there was hope that Hutch could play well enough to take the starting job from Pavs (though he had a poor preseason), and PoMo seemed to know what he was doing. Here was the opening night roster:

Ladd-Little-Frolik
Kane-Scheifele-Wheeler
Lowry-Perreault-Byfuglien
Galiardi-Slater-Thorburn

Enstrom-Bogosian
Stuart-Trouba
Clitsome-Postma


PoMo's still here. I think Pavelec's still on a short leash. And I think we're at least as good as last year's lineup.

Ladd-Little-Wheeler
Perreault-Scheifele-Stafford
Burmistrov-Lowry-(Ehlers? Armia? Petan?)
Thorburn-Copp-(Armia? Peluso? Halischuk?)

Enstrom-Myers
Stuart-Trouba
Chiarot-Byfuglien

I mean, that looks like it could be a better lineup. Sure Frolik's gone, but Lowry improved over the course of the season, Perreault was good on the wing, Scheifele and Trouba are still improving, Myers > Bogo and Chiarot-Buff > Clitsome-Postma. Losing Kane's arguably a big hole to fill but we're deep - Stafford can replace some of that scoring and there are some new faces that might help us forget. Also, with the Moose right down the hall, better goaltending might be literally right under our noses.

The leaves are turning, everyone thinks the sky is falling, but when I step back and look at things, I think we're in pretty good shape.

That being said, I always seem to lament that Chevy didn't do more every offseason. Buff and Ladd unsigned heading into camp leaves me feeling a little like I did when Chevy didn't get Frolik signed. But hey, I'm not lighting the torch and grabbing my pitchfork just yet...

 

[Gump Hasek]

The pessimism contained within the first post of this thread seems par for the course for HF Jets. My take is that the OP seems somehow upset that a franchise that has consistently stated that the goal is to build via in-house... is now in the process of doing just that.

"Frolik walks for nothing": an alternate view is that rather than trade him at the deadline, they used him as a rental. They didn't "lose" him, but rather simply chose not to extend him the term he wanted - essentially decided that within that period they'd soon be better off using Ehlers in the top-6 versus a player that will be 32 when his 5-year deal expires.

"Lost competent bottom-6 players": How will they ever survive the losses of Tlusty, Slater, and Stempniak? [/sarcasm] Am guessing they will do so by plugging in guys like Copp, possibly Lemieux, Raffl, Fraser, etc. If those guys don't work out, there are always teams looking to move vets out of training camp when younger players have replaced them. Why chase plugs in the off-season when it appears they are comfortable that they already have their replacements ready?

It is also convenient that the OP complains about their spending relative to cap - prior to the eventual signings of guys like Ladd, Buff, Trouba, Lowry, Scheifele. Their current expenditures on the books do not account for future expenses; that should really have been self-evident.

 

[sipowicz]

Read the title and thought it was another Blue Bomber thread!

 

[Grind]

Oddly I was far more pessimistic last year the. This year, considering Chevy did quite a bit more that off season then this one.

I can see being upset if you don't believe the talent is in house to shore us up. I do.

That and the teams stated intention of a youth movement leaves me to believe management does to (rightly or wrongly).

Its bad business to sign a good fa, give his job to a rookie on camp, and then trade him within the first two months of the season.

Also, any depth would of absolutely had to have been on a one year deal.

Would I have liked stempniak back? Absolutely.

But, as long as managements confident the young guys can fill all those spots and they'll be given a fair shake to I'm good.

If our fourth line ends up looking like

Ladd little wheeler
Perrault Scheifele Stafford
Burmi Lowry halishuck
Thorburn Cormier Fraser/peluso

for the season then yes, I'll be a fair bit more upset.


As it stands though...I'm pretty OK. As long as a couple of the high profile rookies made it I'll enjoy the season even if its a stinker just to root for their development

 

[Hank Chinaski]

Losing Frolik was a major disappointment. Getting Burmi back was a plus. LHD is still a weakness, but it seems more and more likely that a RHD (Buff?) will switch over. No further depth was acquired, which isn't that disappointing given the likelihood that one or more of Ehlers, Armia and Petan cracks the roster, not to mention the overall weakness of the 2015 UFA crop.

I'd give it a "C", I guess. The most important front office decisions this year will be the decisions made with Buff and Ladd, and how we integrate our top-end prospects into the lineup.

 

[Inflict]

C

Nothing special but nothing worth getting angry over either. If you lost confidence in Chevy this offseason, than I find it hard to believe you had any confidence in him to begin with.

I'm with Grind in which I thought that the prior offseason was a let down because the Central division got so much stronger. It seems like it's happening again this year, but teams like Chicago and St. Louis also lost a lot of talent via trade or Free Agency too. I'm not as worried this year since I was completely off the mark last year and predicted us to finish just outside of the playoffs. The loss of Frolik does sting but shouldn't change the fact that we're still a good team capable of making the playoffs.

The Good:
-No more Slater
-Burmi is back
-Youth movement (necessary for cap reasons and purging our older depth players)
-Did not overpay for Free Agents in a week FA class

The Bad:
-Lost Frolik
-Did not resign Stempniak or Tlusty
-Teams behind us in the standings got better (out of Chevy's control)

The somewhat Bad:
-No deal in place for Ladd/Buff before training camp
-Pavelec's job security

Overall, I expect us to be around the same this year or slightly better due to our prospects making an impact and the continuing growth of our young core.

 

[Evil Little]

Signed Drew Stafford for 2 years @ $4.35 million- in hindsight arguably top 3 overpayment of the summer considering what forwards went for

No. At two years, that's quite fair.

Frolik walks for nothing signing very reasonable deal with the Flames

Some have suggested, based on Cheveldayoff's mood and language discussing it after-the-fact, that the Jets made a better offer. **** Frolik.

Peluso resigned for 2 years on a 1-way contract

I have no interest in watching Peluso play this year. We'll see if and when he does. Judging by how much ice he was seeing at the end of last season, I'm not sure he'll be Maurice's first--or fifth--choice for the fourth line.

Halischuck resigned

Two way. I'd rather him called up than Albert.

Burmi resigned (the only positive that I see here)

Okay.

Lost competent bottom-6 players while hoping Thorburn and Peluso will fill those roles

Stempniak and Tlusty do not fill the same role as either of those two

I also notice that you're leaving Copp out of your list of incompetent chaff expected to fill a fourth line role. Considering that Slater was the possibly biggest disaster on the Jets last year, due in large part to how much he played, one of my favourite moves of the offseason was not extending him. Even if Copp is entirely unproven.

Tlusty signes for 400k less than what we pay Thorburn, Stempniak likely signing around the same value

Different market. You don't know what Stempniak will sign for. Nor what he'll be traded for at the deadline.

No attempt made to address LD hole

Lots of talk about a righty playing the left side to even out the top 4. I'm willing to bet that Byfuglien is much better even on his off side than any of the overpaid/overpriced options available, such as Sekera.

They have 6 LHD signed, by the way.

Ladd starts training camp unsigned

You wish he had signed July 1st? The market has changed a whole bunch since then.

Imagine how much less Bobby Ryan would get if he signed today.

Buff starts training camp unsigned (imagine if Buff or Ladd break their arm during training camp)

Okay. Imagine they don't. Now imagine that Ladd has lost the same step--or even half--that Slater did when he had sports hernia surgery.

I don't mind the wait, as long as they don't pull the "we don't want to negotiate during the season" nonsense. There's been no indication so far that they will.

3rd lowest cap spending team in the NHL- the only teams below us are the clearly tanking teams Arizona and NJ (ofcourse we are the only team in the NHL that has players to sign next summer we are just "saving it for next summer" )

They feel they don't need to spend beyond the ELCs to fill the vacated roster spots. As promised, they're cashing in on some thorough development of young talent.

Might they be wrong? Sure, but they haven't been wrong in their assessments yet--even when we scoffed at Heisinger's suggestion that it might be Chiarot who blocks Morrissey, even when the predominant view around here a year ago was that Lipon was a lot closer than Lowry.

Chevy hails Pavs as a starter and claims he is starting to find his game at young age of 29

Just like last year. And who lost the starting job pretty quickly last year?

Chevy failed his job as a GM this summer, Chevy failed to create an atmosphere of winning. He goes out and says "playoffs not a given"- well what are gonna do about it? Apparently absolutely nothing. To an outside observer does it look like the Jets are a team who want to win? How can Chevy look Ladd in the eye and tell him that he wants to turn the Jets into a winner that Ladd wants when he didn't do anything to even give a remote impression of wanting to win.

I hate being this negative towards the team but I have lost all confidence in Chevy. I used to roll my eyes at people like arby who have been negative towards Chevy for years but the Chevy detractors were right. If the team does well this season it will be inspite of Chevy.

No, if they Jets do well this season it will be as a team that finally has Cheveldayoff's fingerprints all over it.

So freaking disappointed to see that we are going to ice a much much weaker team than we did in the last game of the regular season last season.

Good teams add pieces at the deadline. Thank the cap.

The pessimism contained within the first post of this thread seems par for the course for HF Jets.

No ****ing kidding. Maybe some of us should go back and read some of the 'sure-fire lottery team' threads from last summer...

 

[GJF]

The pessimism contained within the first post of this thread seems par for the course for HF Jets. My take is that the OP seems somehow upset that a franchise that has consistently stated that the goal is to build via in-house... is now in the process of doing just that.

"Frolik walks for nothing": an alternate view is that rather than trade him at the deadline, they used him as a rental. They didn't "lose" him, but rather simply chose not to extend him the term he wanted - essentially decided that within that period they'd soon be better off using Ehlers in the top-6 versus a player that will be 32 when his 5-year deal expires.

"Lost competent bottom-6 players": How will they ever survive the losses of Tlusty, Slater, and Stempniak? [/sarcasm] Am guessing they will do so by plugging in guys like Copp, possibly Lemieux, Raffl, Fraser, etc. If those guys don't work out, there are always teams looking to move vets out of training camp when younger players have replaced them. Why chase plugs in the off-season when it appears they are comfortable that they already have their replacements ready?

It is also convenient that the OP complains about their spending relative to cap - prior to the eventual signings of guys like Ladd, Buff, Trouba, Lowry, Scheifele. Their current expenditures on the books do not account for future expenses; that should really have been self-evident.

huh?

 

[mcpw]

Summer is over once our roster has 23 players. Makes absolutely zero sense to grade it before that. For all we know, we could still waive Thorburn, sign Stempniak, and offersheet Huberdeau.

 

[larmex99]

Voted B. Sometimes waiting is more important than "bold" action. Boston has been "bold". No thanks to that. I believe that this year and next will be quite challenging but that is what D&D means. The development phase is meaningful only when the draft phase has been successful. I'm pretty pumped to see the Jets shift into development. As to the future of our cap situation.....I would love to get a peek at our spread sheet going out 3 or 4 years. I'm willing to bet that we are in one of the best situations in the NHL.

 

[PhilJets]

Man, hockey is just coming back and already disappointed

Year one, it was clearly mentioned by the JETS Management that this team will be build by drafting and developing.

Besides
Schiefele
Trouba
Lowry

Which by the way are all key figures now for the team. And they will become bigger fixture in the future.

This year will be the first real wave of the drafted and developed prospects. 4-6 can make an impact on the club.

Like one or two said, Only the signing of Ladd and Buff are still urgents. But comparing to Tampa Bay and Los Angeles Kings, they got more pressing needs with their STAR players.

Also Ladd is pretty optimistic in signing as well..


GO JETS GO

LETS BE POSITIVE

 

[HannuJ]

I am sorry but I don't at all share your pessimism. The team as is will be better defensively, probably similar on forwards, possibly better or worse depending on how our young players adapt.

Goaltending is still a question mark but the org has shown they will move away from Pavs when he sucks as long as they have a better option. You can bet that they wont hesitate to bring Helle up if both struggle.

1. you summarized the summer and retorted perfectly.
2. when the OP mentions incompetence and then has a poll asking about the "summber"? the ironing is thick

 

[HannuJ]

posters also forget that our summer trades took place in the winter. Kane was supposedly untradeable until the summer. trading a top 4 D-man and a top 6 forward halfway through the season was a huge move.
i'm trying to recall a trade of equivalent significance or talent that took place during the season.
a team's growing and trying to find roster spots to insert young talent and we're complaining on the lack of action.

 

[CorgisPer60]

I voted a D because:

- Chevy let Frolik walk for 1 year and 500k difference allegedly, but that gets mitigated by having Burmi back

- Seemingly gifting a space in the top 9 for a prospect or two despite having quality, proven NHLers available for relative peanuts. I get the argument about not blocking prospects if they're ready, but the prospects will tell you when they're ready, and it will be at the cost of taking someone's job. Better hope that one of them is ready.

- Not having Ladd signed already.

- Not even holding discussions with Buff's camp regarding contracts. I get this, as I'm a proponent of trading him before he becomes a detriment, but he'd better not walk for nothing in July.

- Our D prospect pool is still really weak. Outside of Morrissey and Kostalek, we have no real good depth there, and especially on the LHD side. Enstrom isn't getting younger, and Buff carried the **** out of Chiarot's ass. I hope one of our RHD finds the transition to LHD easy. >_>

 

[Aavco Cup]

I'm neither sad or disappointed.

 

[kyle o connor]

The only reason Chevy gets a D instead of a F is because of a solid draft. The pessimism is warranted imo.

 

[KingBogo]

Overall a B. Chevy had another killer draft. I see at least 2 middle 6 or better forwards and a couple other potential players. He kept to the draft and develop plan and keeps setting the stage for the future. Very excited to see guys with rea nice upside get their opportunity (Ehlers, Petan, Armia, Copp). Potentially a difference maker or 2 in that group.

Not getting Ladd and Buff signed yet is a bit disappointing, but better to grind out a more favorable deal for the organization then to cave to players initial demands.

Frolik walking was going to happen after last summers 1 year deal, so that is in the past.

Getting Burmi back for a song is nice.

The rest is minor noise around the edges and really has little to no impact on the future.

 

[Jetfaninflorida]

I wanted to give a C- or a D+ but it is not an option so I gave a C. Some of the criticisms are valid and should be discussed. The post is not about the draft so extra credit shouldn't be attributed to a solid draft by the Jets imo - edit - well I guess it's about the summer so I guess a solid draft should count. Takes it from a D+ or C- to a C.

The Fro situation was mishandled badly going back to last year. I disagree that it was a win because it was a rental situation. He was an asset that should have been signed or leveraged. It's not like he went for pricing way over market value. Fro = depth. The kind of thing you see on playoff teams.

Stafford is a moderate over payment. Chevy felt he had to do it otherwise his trade with Buffalo looks like a bust (at least until a prospect from the deal blossoms in a few years).

Peluso and Halischuk - these guys don't matter one way or another. A lot of time is spent talking about them like they matter. As players they don't. The contracts, however, you overpay Peluso a couple hundred grand and then dicker with Fro for the same amount and let him walk.

Burmi - meh.

I don't really like Tlusty, but for the money wow. I do think Stemp will take a 1 year deal from someone and it should have been us. Out of Stemp and Tlusty we should have worked a deal with Stemp. If we want to make the playoffs and win a series or two we need better depth. I'd rather have Stemp or Tlusty over Peluso any day. We have enough size and toughness already. EDIT - I just saw Stemp signed a PTO with the Devils

Ladd - they telegraphed an imminent deal a few months ago. Hasn't happened but I think it will.

Buff - they should have moved him. Looks like it is being managed like Frolik and the next thing you know we have no Buff and no assets in return. Trade him. If you're not going to sign him, trade him. If you're not going to trade him, sign him. Stop worrying about the cap - we aren't even close and we won't be two years from now either.

I am really on the fence with Chevy. I was a big critic last year. The Buffalo trade looks good and were strong down the stretch and made the playoffs - awesome. So Chevy is getting a ton of credit. But I am still conflicted here. For the first time we had league average goaltending. Why did it take so long to be 'average' and will it happen again this year? If not, does Chevy deserve blame? Well, if he gets credit for making the playoffs then yes he needs to share the blame if we don't.

 

[Zhamnov10]

The only thing I think Chevy should have done was acquire a high end 4th line left winger who would make Copp's adjustment easier.Halischuk shouldn't be anywhere near the NHL.