It had to be a rough week for Jets fans with the Canes, Caps, and Bolts all seeming to take steps forward, which will make points even harder to come by in the division. ...If they even play this season.
None of your comments are incorrect, other than that it was a rough week for Jets fans. We're still entirely euphoric, except the haters who will never be happy anyway (not you, I mean the local people).
On deeper reflection the draft was pretty good. I'm still scared that Forsberg will burn us, but after looking at a pile of stuff on Trouba, I'm pretty excited about the pick. What changed my mind the most is the following stat about the Jets:
Goals for: 12th
Goals against: 5th last. Yep, we might need to shore up the D a little.
Getting a Sutter is always nice and our third round pick is pretty nice too as some drafts had him projected late first round and this is a kid that likes to play around the net and scored the second most goals of anyone drafted yesterday behind Yakupov. That's pretty sweet. The other picks are futures with a couple of goalies as long shots, but hey, Lundquist and Rinne were drafted in the 7th and 8th round, so not bad.
Not happy to see Staal going to Carolina for sure, but whatever. Wanting to play with your bro is nice, but not really what I'd call a great hockey decision. Carolina got better for sure for the short term. Not so worried about the Caps, they should've been better last year anyway and I expect them to continue to underperform until they get the concept of chemistry. Lighting did underperform last year in a big way and I didn't think we'd be even close to them. Reality is we are the remnants of the Atlanta Thrashers that were rather mismanaged. We need to recover from that and we will, given time. I didn't really think we'd make the playoffs this year (yes, I hoped) and I really don't see it next year either, in part because of what you stated, they got better short term and we didn't really.
We're building through the draft - something the Jets management said from the get go. Good young core of players, drafting moderately well and signing our RFAs makes me happy. Signed Pavelec today, much to the dismay of delusional Leafs fans that wanted him, and while we overpaid for him, I think it sends a nice statement that yeah, Winnipeg is willing to pay for players that fit our system and earn their money. It wasn't stoopid money like DiPietro or Luongo but it's not a huge cap hit either. More important than signing Pavelec is the message it sends to potential free agents that this isn't the old Winnipeg Jets. You play, they'll pay. That's more important for us than a larger, more desirable market for many of the young kids that want to be famous. We're down at the bottom with Edmonton, Columbus, Buffalo as places maybe players don't want to go. So I'm supportive of management making decent offers without being stupid and acquiring players that don't need all the bling that you get in a bigger U.S. city.
Winnipeg is about hockey and we aren't going to make the same mistakes as a Toronto or Philadelphia make in throwing money at questionable players for short term gain.
