Time for Jets GM to take next step

Cheveldayoff must navigate trade and free-agent markets

Iin Winnipeg heard not long ago that Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and I will soon be sharing a neighbourhood.

He’s building a new house just down the street, apparently.

That’s not the only reason I believe Cheveldayoff isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

He, True North chairman Mark Chipman and head coach Paul Maurice are very much a unit, probably as close an owner-GMcoach triumvirate as exists in the NHL.

So it’s going to take a significant development to split it.

Chipman and Cheveldayoff, in particular, are bound together, having taken hold of this franchise from the very start after crossing swords in the minor leagues, where both cut their teeth.

They’ve learned the big-league business on the go and have made some missteps, one the hiring of initial head coach Claude Noel.

It can also be suspected they also overestimated how long the honeymoon would last, believing the populace would continue to line the streets indefinitely with blind trust, like bouquets of flowers on a parade route.

Six years in, impatience and expectation have joined forces to make some noise from the sidewalk.

Which brings us to the most critical off-season, yet in Cheveldayoff’s as-yet unrealized attempt to build a perennial playoff team and eventual Stanley Cup contender.

It’s time for the GM to expand his tool box.

Yes, the man has shown he can more than hold his own at the draft table.

Patrik Laine may have fallen into his lap, but Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba were blue-chip picks slightly off the board.

Toss in Josh Morrissey and Nik Ehlers, and looking at the minorleague development of Kyle Connor and Jack Roslovic (we’ll leave defence prospect Logan Stanley out of the mix for now), it appears Cheveldayoff hasn’t yet misfired with a first-rounder.

And drafting, even in the first round, is not a venture that comes with guarantees.

But it’s also not supposed to be the only tool in a GM’s kit.

Cheveldayoff has yet to prove he knows how to supplement his drafting with the trade and the free-agent markets, pulling it all together in a winning team.

It wasn’t until his fourth year that he made his first real player swap, the Evander Kane earthshaker, which drew rave reviews in this space, reviews that have cooled only slightly since.

A couple more moves late that winter helped get the Jets into the playoffs for the one and only time.

Sitting mostly on his hands until those few weeks, Cheveldayoff seemed like a changed man.

Shipping out captain Andrew Ladd at last year’s deadline also proved wise, if a bit of a no-brainer, netting useful grinder Marko Dano and the first-round pick that brought Stanley, still playing junior hockey.

But last off-season was quiet and things remained that way even as the Jets discovered what a mistake it was to go with unproven Connor Hellebuyck and Michael Hutchinson in goal.

So the time has come for Cheveldayoff to turn some of his assets into instant help where his team desperately needs it.

Conventional wisdom says you Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff still has need for a legitimate No. 1 goaltender. build your hockey team from the crease out.

Yet after six years the Jets have the opposite: a talented top-six forward group, a black hole in goal and a razor-thin defence.

The crease is one place you shouldn’t rely on the draft. It’s too unpredictable and can take years before you learn your blue-chip prospect won’t develop into an NHL stalwart.

It’s time to augment this roster with some targeted trades or freeagent signings.

There will be goalies on the market. The Jets must get a good one.

A third-pairing defenceman and a forward or two who specialize in defence have to be next on Cheveldayoff’s priority list.

Those shouldn’t be impossible acquisitions.

His free-agent signing of Mathieu Perreault was a nice example of how to fill a hole.

Too much is made of the notion free agents won’t come to Winnipeg, thereby putting Cheveldayoff at a disadvantage.

Players who aren’t established stars will come for a combination of the right money and the right role.

It’s not like the GM has to find a sniper or top-pairing blueliner. The former was rolled to his doorstep via a lottery ball, the latter he’s taken care of nicely via the draft.

Like his head coach, Cheveldayoff has just one year left on his contract.

Also like Maurice, it’s a critical year for him to prove he’s the right man for the job, long-term.