Daily Faceoff Live: Should the Winnipeg Jets be aggressive at the trade deadline?

The Winnipeg Jets cannot be stopped at the moment, as they’ve now won eight of their last nine games, and they have taken the top spot in the Central Division as a result.

Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli talked about their recent success and how that will impact their trade deadline plans on Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: “They’ve sort of been one of the models of consistency this season in the NHL, we haven’t talked about the Jets going through any sort of swoon. And I think what’s most impressive when you watch the Jets season is that they’ve been able to accumulate this number of points to be in a clear No. 1 spot in the Central and the West because of the fact that they’ve been able to weather so many injuries.

You think back to a Friday night 10 days ago, they’re looking at getting Nikolaj Ehlers and a quarter of their lineup back in, and that’s what happened. And so now, you take this team that was kind of treading water and playing really well consistently throughout the season, that now that they’re maybe able to get to that next gear and begin to take off.

That’s what I think we’re starting to see from the Winnipeg Jets as they’re separating themselves a little bit from the rest of the pack, and they are now in a spot where you wonder how much damage can they do, and how aggressive will they be at this NHL’s trade deadline. That’s what sticks out to me because you look at a team that’s for the most part been pretty conservative when it comes to deadlines. Well, I think now, given where they’re at in their cycle, given where they’re at with some contracts that expire in one year’s time, that they’re probably in a really strong position to add and certainly help with some secondary scoring for this team.”

Tyler Yaremchuk: “So secondary scoring, a potential area of need. Kevin Cheveldayoff does have his first round pick for each of the next three drafts as well. Do you think they’ll get that aggressive, could you see the first round pick being in play?”

Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, I mean why not? You’ve got a team right now that under Rick Bowness has proven that they’re in that upper echelon of teams in the NHL. The Western Conference I think as a whole is generally wide open. And so, they’re in a spot where they can potentially move some of those futures in order to help this team right in the here and now, because that’s what they’ve been building for the last number of years.

It didn’t work out last year for whatever reason from start to finish, last season was a lost cause. So now you take the team that you previously believed in, you give them another shot, which takes a supreme article of confidence in order to do that from the beginning, that now they’re paying you off for that belief.”

You can watch the full episode here…