Winnipeg Jets Discussion - 2025/2026 season

[blue_gold_84]

It's a very good scoring line. The elite can play with different players and have much better defence.

There's ample proof of that already, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. Scheifele and Connor are both elite players in their own right, so 2/3 of a line being comprised of elite players makes for an elite line, IMO.

But within the next 2ish years, how to you supplement them with better players when we can't sign top tier free agents, draft picks will not be ready in time, and we're constantly stifled by no trade clauses?

I don't have the answer to that question. It's up to the organization and management to figure all that out.

[blue_or_die]

It's a very good scoring line. The elite can play with different players and have much better defence.

You're right that they can be good enough with help from the rest of the roster (not just the 2nd line).

But within the next 2ish years, how to you supplement them with better players when we can't sign top tier free agents, draft picks will not be ready in time, and we're constantly stifled by no trade clauses?

That's our choice, not reality. Not realizing that was our single greatest mistake last year.

[Jesse]

That's our choice, not reality. Not realizing that was our single greatest mistake last year.

A little column A, a little column B. Lambert would absolutely have given us more than Nyquist, obviously. But is he the next Scheif/Conner/Ehlers?

[blue_or_die]

A little column A, a little column B. Lambert would absolutely have given us more than Nyquist, obviously. But is he the next Scheif/Conner/Ehlers?

Probably not the next Connor/Scheif, but maybe the next Ehlers?

The point I'm trying to get at is, if we agree we have an "elite" top line + one of the best goalies in the world, the problem with the Jets roster is in the bottom 9 and we can make (and should HAVE made...past tense) better decisions to use prospects like Lambert/Chib/Yager there instead of the werid Chevy approach of signing the washouts.

All hindsight obvs, but imagine how much easier last season would have been to stomach if we brought up Solly, Lambert and Chib (I know he had the injury) and played them. We probably would have finished better actually, AND not making the playoffs (or getting bounced in the first round) would have been easier to stomach because we'd have seen there was a plan in place to retool and become a better playoff team going into '26/'27.

I understand the pressure Chevy was under to take a faster approach and get back there and build off winning the first round but it doesn't take an NHL GM to figure out that Nyquist, Pearson, Toews (in a top role) was a huge gamble with the odds not in our favour and it actually failed more spectacularly than we could have predicted.

That said, for bottom 9 going into '26/'27, bringing up and keeping our top Moose players in favour of signing vets, adding in a full year of Rosen, seeing what we can do in the FA market (not talking a top guy here or anything - just signing(s) that are smart), and maybe having a little luck on our side for a change, and I can see us getting back to where we are. I'd even take Toews back in a much reduced role and much reduced salary - a take it or leave it type of offer.

Coaching goals out of the bottom 9 is a different story of course so this year will also tell us where Arniel stands (I don't know enough about hockey to really even talk about that part tho)