Offseason Review: An Improved Blue Line Has The Winnipeg Jets Ready To Soar
Reaching the Western Conference Final in 2018 was supposed to be the start of something big in Winnipeg.
Since then, though, the Jets have toiled around in mediocrity. They finished each of the next three seasons around the middle of the league’s standings, showing flashes of greatness but an inability to put it all together for an extended period of time.
It looks like that could change this season. The Jets addressed their biggest weakness, their blue line, over the summer and are going into 2021-22 with their best group on paper since that aforementioned 2017-18 season.
What happened in 2021?
The Jets came into 2021 as a wild-card in the All-Canadian Division.
The projection was that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers would wind up competing for the top spots in Canada while the Ottawa Senators would wind up in the basement. In the middle of that sandwich, the Jets, along with the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, and Calgary Flames would battle for two playoff spots.
Winnipeg put up a ho-hum regular season, going 30-23-3, which matched the .536 points percentage it posted in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign. Their longest winning streak of the year was four games and a seven-game losing skid in April derailed their pursuit of having home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
That didn’t matter.
Winnipeg finished third in Canada and went into a series against the favored Oilers and swept them in four games. Though the Jets were outshot in three of those four games, their scorers were able to capitalize on their chances while Connor Hellebuyck was nearly unbeatable.
The Jets then went on to the second round where they would wind up getting swept by the Montreal Canadiens, who featured a goalie even hotter than Hellebuyck.
What did they do in the offseason?
Notable Additions: Nate Schmidt, Brenden Dillon, Riley Nash, Evgeny Svechnikov, Eric Comrie.
Notable Subtractions: Mason Appleton, Mathieu Perreault, Trevor Lewis, Tucker Poolman, Jordie Benn, Derek Forbort, Sami Niku, Laurent Brossoit.
The Jets let go of a handful of depth players over the summer. Mason Appleton went to Seattle in the Expansion Draft and the team allowed Mathieu Perreault, Trevor Lewis, Tucker Poolman, Jordie Benn, Derek Forbort, and Laurent Brossoit to walk in free agency. The team also bought out the contract of former top prospect Sami Niku, as he was seeking a change of scenery.
Winnipeg then put their focus on fixing up the team’s shaky blueline by acquiring players from teams who were in tough with the salary cap. The Jets got Nate Schmidt from the Canucks and Brenden Dillon from the Washington Capitals and all it took was a pair of second-round picks and a third-round pick.
That isn’t a bad price to build 50 percent of a top-four on the blueline.
What to expect in 2021-22?
The Jets’ blue line has gone from a weakness to a strength in a matter of a few months.
Since losing all of Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers in the course of one summer, the Jets have relied on a strong offense and elite goaltending to compensate for their thin defense. That won’t be an issue this season, as Winnipeg has strength in all three categories.
Going from Poolman and Forbort, a pair of defenders who couldn’t move the puck, to Schmidt and Dillon, is a massive improvement. Schmidt is a good two-way defender who can hold his own defensively while also being very effective at moving the puck up the ice. Dillon is a true defensive rock who is very difficult to face in the defensive zone.
The improvement on the blue line will make the team’s two strengths, a good top-six up front and an elite goaltender, even better. Better puck-movers on the blue line means an easier time for forwards to get things going offensively. Better defenders in the defensive zone means less of a workload for Hellebuyck.
The Central Division is very deep but the Jets appear poised to compete for home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Once they get there, they have a big advantage with Hellebuyck in net.
One bold prediction…
The Jets are ready to soar. They get into the playoffs as the Central’s second-place team and go the furthest of any Canadian team.
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