Winnipeg Jets

Trouble is brewing in Winnipeg.

After spending an unexpected 108 consecutive days in a playoff spot, the Jets' 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday knocked them down to ninth place in the Western Conference. It hasn't quite been a collapse, but a 7-9-4 stretch since returning from the All-Star break has the Jets in trouble.

The Jets have missed the playoffs in their three seasons since moving to Winnipeg from Atlanta, and the franchise has made one postseason appearance since its inception in 1999.

Is there reason to panic? Of course there is—don't you watch the news? Your lunch can kill you. Your watch can kill you. Your phone can kill you.

Oh, you meant about the Jets? There might not be a reason to panic with a month to go, but there is some cause for concern. Here are the reasons why.

Calgary Has a Horseshoe Up Its...

As you may have noticed, the Flames simply won't roll over and die. Whether you want to attribute this to hard work (that somehow never appears until third periods) or luck (that somehow never appears until third periods), the Flames are winning—even without Mark Giordano. They currently hold a three-point lead on the Jets.

It's not a matter of it being either the Jets or Flames for the final spot in the West, although that would be quite the reimagining of the dance battle in West Side Story. But the final wild-card spot could come down to each team's season finale, when the Flames travel to Winnipeg on April 11.

Los Angeles Is Just Really Good

While the Flames are defying underlying numbers, the Kings are finally being rewarded for having great ones. Los Angeles is 12-3-1 in its past 16 games and is one point ahead of Winnipeg. It looks as though the alarm has gone off to awaken the Kings like it always does at this time of year.

There is no potential dramatic matchup on the docket between Winnipeg and Los Angeles the rest of the way, but the Kings play Calgary two days before the Flames-Jets matchup that ends the season. Jets fans could have a strong rooting interesting in that April 9 showdown in Calgary.

Winnipeg Needs Some Saves

The Jets' Fenwick is 52 percent, good for 10th in the league and a number that's plenty good enough to warrant a playoff spot. During this post-break swoon, however, they have been possessing the puck at an even greater rate, posting a 53.9 percent Fenwick in 17 games, according to War on Ice.

So why all the losses? Michael Hutchinson and Ondrej Pavelec have combined for an on-ice save percentage of .904 during the slump. In their previous 48 games, they were at .930, and since these past 20 games brought the Jets' PDO down to 99.9, it was a correction that was likely inevitable.

Pavelec has a .910 save percentage this season, which is four points better than his career and his best mark since 2010-11. Hutchinson, a rookie, has a .913 save percentage in 36 games and .879 since the break. If the goaltending continues on this trend, the Jets have zero shot at the playoffs.

Winnipeg Needs Some medics

Bryan Little, Dustin Byfuglien and Mathieu Perreault are among those who have been out recently and, Little excluded, won't be back soon. Byfuglien's timetable is one-to-three weeks with an upper-body injury, Perreault has been out a month and may not return this season, while Little has been skating but has missed a week.

Byfuglien's absence is clearly the killer, as he has been a force at forward and defense. If the Jets can't weather that loss, bad times are ahead.

The Rough, Rough Remaining Schedule

Twelve of the Jets' final 14 games are against teams in playoff spots, although the one saving grace is eight of them are at home. The counterpoint to that counterpoint is since going 23-13-5 in their first year in Winnipeg, the Jets are 48-38-12 at home—hardly a huge advantage.

Can the Jets Overcome?

Of course. This is hockey. The Flames have about 45 percent of on-ice unblocked shot attempts and they are in a playoff spot. Sometimes, nothing makes sense, so maybe the Jets finish 14-0-0 and open a first-round series at home. There's enough time to get it turned around, and that starts with the goaltenders.

All statistics via NHL.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com. Cap information via Spotrac.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.

It’s not very often that a star player misses a game without explanation. And yet, somehow, that’s only the start of the maelstrom surrounding Winnipeg Jets’ winger Evander Kane.

On Thursday Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston broke the news that Kane had pulled himself from a game against the Vancouver Canucks after an altercation with teammates. Trade rumours, which were already swirling, kicked into high gear.

On Friday, this came:

What seems indisputable is that his latest news dramatically changes the situation, but what is less clear is exactly how it changes it.

What does this mean for the Jets as they push hard for their first playoff spot since coming to Winnipeg? Is a Kane trade before the deadline possible, or does this latest news necessitate pushing such a trade forward to the summer? Is it realistic to think that Kane could return to the team at some point?

Let’s take the latter question first: Can Kane stay with the Jets?

It’s hard—if not impossible—for any outsider to accurately assess the inner dynamics of Winnipeg’s team, so our perspective is necessarily limited. What we can say with a reasonable amount of certainty is that both the team and the player need to put a lot of effort into making a reconciliation work, and from that perspective, Kane’s decision to elect for surgery is interesting.

Here’s how Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman put it before the announcement was made:

Kane did not practice Thursday, meeting with doctors to discuss the severity of his injuries. There is some belief he is so angry over this treatment he will shut it down for the rest of the season. (Kane, like everyone else in the organization, did not respond for comment.) For his sake, hopefully someone talks him out of it. He is legitimately injured, but sitting out in this context does not help him at all.

Is Kane interested in making a return to Winnipeg work?

Since his run-in with teammates, he’s pulled himself from one game and opted for surgery to correct an injury he had previously been playing through. It may be that the difficulty of playing through pain had just become too much, but the timing suggests that he may no longer be invested in the team. If that is in fact the case, there’s simply no way to make a return work.

It’s thus a reasonable working hypothesis that a trade is inevitable, which shifts our focus to timing. Here’s what Johnston had to say about that on Friday:

A summer trade has several advantages over a midseason deal. Salary considerations are less pronounced and executives won’t be worrying about Kane’s injury, both of which widen the field of potential trading partners and presumably increases the expected return.

The big advantage of a midseason deal is that the Jets could presumably bring in immediate help.

Kane is a young forward with a long-term contract, which makes him appealing to a lot of rebuilding teams who presumably would not be averse to trading current assets for a player who can help them next year and for a long time to come.

The Jets could, for example, offer Kane one-for-one for an inferior long-term asset and ask a rebuilding team to throw in a pending free agent to take Kane’s spot in the here-and-now as a sweetener.

If Winnipeg could pull off such a trade, in the short-term they might actually be better.

Kane is an excellent player at his best, but fighting through shoulder surgery has clearly taken its toll. Kane’s been less than half as likely to pick up a point on any given five-on-five shift this season than he was a year ago. Things have gotten so bad that he’s getting outscored on a per-shift basis at evens by Chris Thorburn.

It's also worth noting that if a pending free agent were included in the trade, it would give the Jets a chance to re-sign that player. That has value from a hockey perspective and undoubtedly would make the move easier to sell to the fanbase. 

A midseason trade has to be appealing to the team. Not only would it put an end to the soap opera currently playing out, but it would improve the club’s chances of making a long overdue playoff appearance.  

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and BehindtheNet.ca.  

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.

Jets forward Evander Kane has undergone surgery on an injured right shoulder that will force him to miss the rest of the season. 

Continue for updates. 

Kane Dealt With Broken Bones in Foot, Hand Before Surgery

Thursday, Feb. 12

According to Howard Simon of WGR, Evander Kane was playing through broken bones in his hand and foot in addition to his shoulder injury before undergoing surgery. 

Kane Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

Saturday, Feb. 7

Sara Orlesky of TSN reported that Kane has succesfully undergone surgery on his injured shoulder. 

Kane Reportedly Done for Season

Friday, Feb. 7 

Winnipeg Jets forward Evander Kane will reportedly miss the rest of the 2014-15 regular season due to a shoulder injury that will require surgery. It's expected to sideline him at least four months.

Sara Orlesky of TSN passed along the news:

Word of the impending surgery caps a wild stretch for the 23-year-old winger. His name has popped up in trade rumors, per TSN's Darren Dreger and ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun (via Chris Peters of CBSSports.com), and Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported he recently skipped a game after an incident with teammates: "Kane wore a track suit when the Jets players gathered that morning for a meeting—a violation of team policy. Following a brief workout and stretch, Byfuglien is believed to have thrown those clothes into the shower to send a message to his teammate, according to sources."

So, it's reasonable to wonder if by the time Kane is healthy, he'll be with another organization.

He scored 30 goals for the Jets during the 2011-12 season. He's failed to top 20 in any other campaign, however. The No. 4 pick in the 2009 draft had 22 points (10 goals and 12 assists) in 37 games before leaving the lineup.

Talent isn't the issue for Kane. That said, the injury combined with his apparent discontent in Winnipeg has created a serious issue. Getting a fresh start with a new team and his shoulder repaired may be the best thing that could happen to him.

Most of that is out of his control, though. He just has to focus on getting healthy.

Winnipeg Jets winger Evander Kane was a hot trade target, due to clashes with teammates and coaches and has reportedly been traded to Buffalo. 

Continue for updates. 

Jets Reportedly Trade Kane to Sabres

Wednesday, Feb. 11 

Craig Custance of ESPN and Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the Jets have traded Kane to the Sabres.

Earlier, Dreger provided a framework of a potential deal emerging from the talks:

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN reported on Kane's reaction to the trade:

Word is Evander Kane is ok with trade to Buffalo. Chance for a fresh start. Looking forward to playing major role on rebuilding Sabres.

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) February 11, 2015

Kane a Top Trade Target

Thursday, Feb. 5 

Even though the Winnipeg Jets are in the middle of a playoff chase, they are apparently looking to deal winger Evander Kane for the right right price. 

According to Darren Dreger of TSN, a rift between the Jets and Kane could serve as the impetus for a potential move before the March 2 trade deadline:

ESPN's Pierre LeBrun confirmed Dreger's report, noting that there was serious interest in the wing:

Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported that Kane could be available on the cheap:

Per Gary Lawless of The Winnipeg Free Press, Jets coach Paul Maurice held Kane out of a game on February 3 against Vancouver after violating a team rule, after wearing sweats to a team meeting instead of a suit. 

However, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet paints a decidedly different picture of the incident in question:

It was previously believed the Jets had made Kane a scratch for the game in his hometown. Following the 3-2 overtime loss on Tuesday, Paul Maurice termed it a “coach’s decision.”

However, multiple sources familiar with the situation have since indicated that Kane was not on the team’s bus to Rogers Arena and then missed a pre-game meeting. Repeated attempts to reach him were unsuccessful until approximately an hour before puck drop, when Kane answered his cellphone and said he wouldn’t be playing against the Canucks that night.

Johnston reports that Kane did wear a track suit to a team meeting, and notes that teammate Dustin Byfuglien threw the clothes into the shower. He also notes that the morning meeting was the last time Kane was seen on game day until they returned to Winnipeg. 

The Jets are currently in seventh place in the Western Conference with 61 points. Kane has been a solid performer when healthy with 22 points in 37 games. He's not essential to what the team does, as those 22 points are eighth-most, but his age and past performance suggest he could turn into something more. 

The next few weeks will be interesting to watch as Maurice and the Jets decide what their future together holds. It doesn't seem like a marriage built to last, though these things can turn on a dime with a young, talented player. 

Michael Hutchinson was so lightly regarded in the summer of 2013 that the Boston Bruins made the decision to let him walk as a restricted free agent. Today, less than two years later, Hutchinson is the NHL’s save percentage leader and appears poised to relegate Ondrej Pavelec to the No. 2 slot in the Winnipeg Jets’ goaltending rotation.

In one sense it’s surprising that a former ECHL’er who was available for the price of an NHL contract not all that long ago is playing so well. In another sense it isn’t because Hutchinson has performed well all down the line.

Originally a third-round pick of the Bruins in 2008, Hutchinson had caught the attention of scouts with a strong performance down the stretch in his draft year. Listed 18th among North American goalies in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings, he jumped all the way to fifth in that agency’s final list. At the time Central Scouting’s Al Jensen described him as a “balanced goaltender” with a range of strengths:  

He is very quick; he challenges well and has a great glove. He is a very balanced goaltender and he’s quick to move and get set. I saw him play the first game of the playoffs and I couldn’t believe his confidence and how poised he was for it being his first game of the playoffs. He looked like a veteran goaltender in there, it showed too; he played big and his athleticism and quickness came into play. In my eyes, his stock has really risen over the course of the season.

Boston agreed, drafting Hutchinson 77th overall. That may not seem significant, but at the time that third-round pick was the highest goalie selection the Bruins had made in more than half a decade.  

Hutchinson’s junior career was unexceptional; he had a bad playoff run in 2010 behind a very good London Knights team but earned an entry-level deal from the Bruins all the same.

He wasn’t very impressive as a first-year AHL’er, but as a sophomore he improved dramatically, posting a save percentage nearly 10 points better than that managed by Anton Khudobin, who even at the time was seen as ready for an NHL backup job. As 2011-12 came to an end, there was good reason for optimism.

The Bruins evidently didn’t share that feeling. There were signs during the year, such as when Boston faced a goalie shortage and chose to sign a washed-up Marty Turco rather than recall its prospect. In May the club signed Niklas Svedberg; the undrafted goaltender had just led his team to a championship in Sweden’s top league. A month later the team spent its 24th overall pick on Malcolm Subban; with only one exception (future Odessa Jackalope Evgeni Ryabchikov) that was the highest pick Boston had spent on a goalie since it drafted Ken Dryden way back in 1964.

With Svedberg brought in to compete for a job in the present and Subban obviously the goalie of the future, Hutchinson had a very brief window to impress Boston. He was entering the last year of his contract; a poor performance would put him in a very bad position.

A poor performance is what happened. Hutchinson played on consecutive nights to kick off the Providence Bruins’ season and allowed six goals on 47 shots. The next weekend his coach went to Svedberg and never looked back.

From the start of December on Hutchinson posted a 0.924 save percentage, but Svedberg (a quality prospect in his own right) was just as good. With Svedberg supplanting Hutchinson and Subban on the way the Bruins had no use for their 2008 pick; they declined to give him a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Now it looks like a classic case of a team with too many good prospects losing a valuable one.

Hutchinson, in need of a job, accepted a one-year deal from Winnipeg. The Jets already had a full AHL depth chart, so the deal meant that Hutchinson would start the year in the ECHL. He blew the doors off at that level, winning 22 of 28 starts and being named that league’s Goalie of the Month in November.

In January an opportunity opened up in the AHL, and Hutchinson excelled there too; he posted a 0.923 save percentage for the St. John’s IceCaps and even got an NHL cameo late in the year. Returned to the minors for the playoffs, he was brilliant again, backstopping the IceCaps all the way to the league final.

Once again, there was reason for optimism. This time, Hutchinson’s team shared it. The Jets took a leap of faith and penciled their minor league star in as their NHL backup. It was a massive risk, as starter Ondrej Pavelec had been shaky and Winnipeg didn’t really have a Plan B if Hutchinson struggled. The team ended up trading for Peter Budaj in October just to make sure it had a third goaltender behind its iffy No. 1 and inexperienced No. 2.

The rest of the story is pretty well-known. Pavelec started strongly but stumbled, and Hutchinson stepped in. The two goalies alternated games for a time, but Hutchinson’s strong play has resulted in him starting three of the Jets’ last four games; all three were Winnipeg wins, while Pavelec allowed four goals on 23 shots to lose his lone start.

Hutchinson is expected to start on Monday night, which will mark his third consecutive game in the crease for Winnipeg:

It’s an interesting story to watch, and it is by no means over yet. Hutchinson is, after all, only 17 games into his NHL career.

What we can say for sure is that the Jets were wise to take a chance on a goalie the Bruins didn’t have room for. The question now is exactly how big the payoff on that decision is going to be.  

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and HockeyDB.com. 

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.

It’s not every day that a 23-year-old talent who is fresh off an 80-point season is on the trading block in the NHL as early as December, but that appears to possibly be the case for Taylor Hall and the Edmonton Oilers.

Edmonton is a dreadful 7-19-6 and has no real hope of sniffing the postseason, so it comes as no surprise that it may want to shake up the roster.

However, Hall is an asset that a number of contending teams would likely love to have on the left wing.

With that in mind, here is a look at some of the latest rumors from around the NHL, including a glimpse into the Boston Bruins’ chances at landing Hall.

Taylor Hall

Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com passed along an update on Boston’s potential pursuit of Hall:

The Oilers covet both Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton from the B’s organization, according to sources with the Edmonton Oilers, and it stands to reason one of those players would have to be the tent pole for a deal involving Hall. That's going rate for a franchise player even if it's stink-inducing franchise. 

A package of multiple contributors that included at least one of Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton may seem a bit steep for some Boston fans, but Hall is a former No. 1 overall pick who would give the Bruins the offensive firepower they desperately need.

Hall has reached 27 goals twice in his career and 40 points in every one of his seasons. Considering Boston is 22nd in the league in goals scored per game entering play Thursday, it is no secret that it could use more consistent offensive firepower in the lineup.

What’s more, the Bruins had reached the three-goal plateau in only three of the last 15 games before Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild.

Lucic seemed to understand the need to at least explore roster movement in his comments, via Haggerty:

As a player in this league you learn not to read too much into those things. Rumors are said all the time. The GM is doing whatever he can to put the best team on the ice, and as a player those are things you can’t control. You trust in your GM that he’ll put the best team on the ice.

You just try to go out there and play, focus on your game and focus on helping your team win. When your teams wins, you never hear about [trade] speculation, or anything like that. If we just take care of that everything else takes care of itself.

It is important to note Haggerty mentioned that it is far likelier for Boston to acquire someone like Buffalo’s Chris Stewart than Hall, which would cost less in return.

Prior to Thursday's action, Boston sits in the Eastern Conference's second wild-card spot.

The Bruins are widely considered one of the cornerstone franchises of the NHL and a team that should be competing for favorable positioning in the Stanley Cup playoffs—not its postseason life—after losing to the Montreal Canadiens in a grueling seven-game series in the conference semifinals a season ago.

Making a drastic roster move, especially if it's to land a young and enticing talent like Hall, would certainly boost Boston’s outlook on the season. Alas, it still appears to be a long shot for now.

Winnipeg Jets 

The Winnipeg Jets are an impressive 16-10-6 on the young season and have overachieved to the point of playoff contention in the Western Conference.

However, the injury bug has hit the Jets hard—especially on the defensive end of the ice—which prompted these updates from Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press:

The Jets are missing three of their top defenders in Tobias Enstrom, Zach Bogosian and Jacob Trouba. Enstrom and Bogosian won’t be back until January, while Trouba will be out until at least February.

In a recent piece, Lawless discussed the delicate balancing act between not mortgaging the future with a drastic, reactionary swap and rewarding the players who have played so effectively through adversity with a trade that would improve the team in the face of injuries.

The problem for the Jets is that they make their living with strong defense. They are third in the NHL in goals allowed per game and eighth in penalty-kill percentage but only 23rd in goals scored and 20th in power-play percentage.

The Jets can make a push for the playoffs if they tread water until their injured defenders get back.

Given their style, though, they just might not have enough personnel in the tank to do that without some type of trade.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek

Blake Wheeler had an eventful start to the NHL season Thursday night. 

The Winnipeg Jets' right winger tallied two goals in a 15-second window against the Arizona Coyotes during the first period. He also managed to get his face thoroughly pummeled later in the game, making it a full, laugh-think-cry kind of day for the 28-year-old.

Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky spotted video of Wheeler’s goals, the first sneaking under Mike Smith’s pads and the second coming on a shot deflection soon after.

Fifteen seconds. Two scores. And Wheeler wasn’t done for the night.

The Jets' alternate captain also tallied an assist in Winnipeg’s 6-2 plastering of Arizona, but his offensive potency was only matched by the beatdown he incurred at the hands of Coyotes forward Shane Doan.

Later in the first, Arizona’s 38-year-old captain dropped the gloves on Wheeler and gave the winger several judicious punches to the face. The two hit the ground in a tumble before being separated.

So...good night for Wheeler! Two scores, an assist and a (received) butt-whooping is a full day at the office. You can hang your hat on that.

Follow Dan on Twitter for more sports and pop culture news.

Follow @Dr_Carson_

The upcoming season will be the Winnipeg Jets' fourth season in Manitoba, and once again, the team will begin a campaign in which making the playoffs is the ultimate goal. Last year, the Jets finished seventh in the Central Division, they allowed more goals than they scored, and the team continued to wallow in mediocrity.

Something will have to give this year, because four consecutive years of not making the playoffs with the same core roster is flat-out unacceptable. There isn't much to talk about from the 2013-14 season, but here is a look back before looking forward to the upcoming campaign.

What We Learned in 2013-14

We learned in 2013-14 that it is OK to be mediocre in Winnipeg. The market has been starved for hockey since the original Jets left for Phoenix in 1996, and having a team that is average is better than not having hockey at all.

Despite their poor play and bad record since coming to Winnipeg, each game at the MTS Centre has featured thousands of dedicated fans taunting the opponents and their most talented player.

See Ryan Miller when the Buffalo Sabres came to town. Also, see the taunting of Alex Ovechkin when he came with the Washington Capitals.

The reason this is brought up is because it is a unique situation to have: a mediocre team supported by a fanbase. Prior to the resurgence of the Chicago Blackhawks, the United Center was rather empty. 

The support shown by the fanbase may be interpreted by ownership and management as an acceptance of the team's poor play, and that is the wrong attitude to potentially have.

Last year, the Jets finished last in their division with a record of 37-35-10 and 84 points, and it was another year in which the team underperformed.

There is no reason for the Jets to be as bad as they are given the players on their roster. When you consider the prospects on the way and the makeup of the current roster, the issue at hand should be very blatant at this juncture.

Management has failed to shape the image of this team, and the core of this team was together when the team was in Atlanta. In addition, the franchise has failed to address issues responsible for the team's demise, despite the issue being nothing new.

Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy outlined a lot of the issues with the Jets in a column, but the biggest issue he mentioned was Ondrej Pavelec:

The fact is Pavelec has cost the Jets lots of points per season every single year. {...}

His first season in Winnipeg was his best, and his .906 save percentage still cost the team 16 goals versus league average (.914), about five points in the standings. In the lockout-shortened 2013 season, his .905 cut nine goals from the team's numbers, costing them three points. Last year, his .901 cost them 22 goals, or about seven points.

In the last two seasons, those additional points would have put the Jets into the playoffs. Cheveldayoff continues to stand by Pavelec.

On paper, the Jets have a talented roster with players such as Evander Kane, Blake Wheeler and Andrew Ladd in the top six. They also have a decent defense that features Zach Bogosian, Tobias Enstrom, Jacob Trouba and Mark Stuart.

It isn't the greatest in the world, nor is it the worst. At the very least, it is average or slightly above it, and that should be good enough for the team to make a playoff appearance.

However, the lack of consistent goaltending has held the team back and prevented it from standing a chance at making the playoffs.

Until there is a shakeup in the ranks, no one will ever have to be accountable because the message has been that it is acceptable to be mediocre. Claude Noel was the sacrificial lamb last year, but Kevin Cheveldayoff's unwillingness to improve his roster is just flat-out unacceptable. 

Looking Forward to 2014-15

The Jets added a pair of bottom-six forwards this summer in left winger TJ Galiardi and center Mathieu Perreault. Perreault is the better of the two, and he is coming off a 43-point campaign with the Anaheim Ducks.

In Winnipeg, he will have the chance to add some offense to the bottom six, but it is unlikely he will reach the heights he did in Anaheim. Galiardi, on the other hand, was signed for his defensive prowess, and he will become a top penalty-killer for the Jets once he's healthy.

The forward took a stick to the eye during a preseason contest against the Edmonton Oilers, but that shouldn't stop him from producing this season.

Last season, the Jets killed off 83.2 percent of penalties taken, and the addition of Galiardi should help them maintain or improve upon their ranking of being ninth best. 

In addition to these additions, there is another player fans should be excited to see in 2014-15. Last season, Mark Scheifele tallied 34 points in 63 games, and the 21-year-old should take another step in 2014-15.

He has a solid frame at 6'2" and 195 pounds, and he showed with the Barrie Colts in the OHL that he could be a force to be reckoned with. His game will get better with experience, and he's a forward that fans should be excited about.

With that in mind, here is a complete look at the Jets' potential forward contingent for 2014-15.

Ultimately, the Jets failed to make any significant additions this summer, and that should result in another season of hitting the golf courses in April and drafting very early.

Winnipeg is a prime candidate to finish with one of the worst records in its division, and if Pavelec continues to regress, Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel could be Winnipeg-bound in 2015-16. That wouldn't be the worst thing for the future of the franchise, but a fourth consecutive season of missing the playoffs could lead to a roster shakeup and a front-office change.

That the Winnipeg Jets have, on paper, the worst goaltending in the NHL is pretty much beyond dispute. Ondrej Pavelec has had three bad years since the franchise relocated to Manitoba; his .915 even-strength save percentage in that span ranks 47th of the 55 goalies to play at least 2,000 minutes over that time frame. His presumptive backup, Michael Hutchinson, split time between the ECHL and AHL in 2013-14 (caveat: He was good in both) and has just three NHL games on his resume.

Hypothetically, Pavelec could rebound to his 2010-11 form, when he posted a .914 save percentage. Alternatively, in the space of a little over a year, Hutchinson could go from not getting a qualifying offer from Boston to the ECHL to the AHL to an NHL starting job. Realistically, though, neither scenario is terribly likely.

How did Winnipeg find itself in this mess?

Much of the problem goes back to June 2012, when the Jets awarded Pavelec a five-year contract at $3.9 million per season. The term on that deal sealed a long-term marriage between player and team, while the money made it extremely difficult to relegate him to a No. 2 role if his performance dictated it. But even then, Pavelec was coming off a mediocre season (29-28-9, .906 save percentage), so why was the team willing to make that deal?

Some of it, without question, involved projection. Pavelec was 24 years old when he signed the contract; goalies may not generally improve a lot after age 24, but consensus wisdom is that they can and often do (in this, as in other instances, consensus wisdom and reality don’t necessarily have a strong correlation). Pavelec’s pedigree made such a projection easy; he was an early draft pick and had excelled in high-profile tournaments both at the U-18 and the senior level.

Beyond that, Pavelec’s NHL experience permitted multiple interpretations. An optimist—and as we’ve established, it was easy to be optimistic about Pavelec—would have called 2011-12 a down season. Pavelec had two full NHL campaigns before it and had improved from a .906 save percentage to .914 number; if the latter was his true talent level and 2011-12 an aberration, the Jets had a chance to lock in a solid goalie at a reasonable price. It was easy to look at a positive trend (an improving goalie with one down year) rather than to weigh the evidence on the whole (over his three full seasons, Pavelec ranked 33rd in even-strength save percentage).  

The Jets were also under significant pressure. Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman had previously reported that Pavelec received a significant KHL offer, and TSN’s Darren Dreger put a number to that offer on Winnipeg’s Illegal Curve radio show:  

I think that you have to look at the likely scenarios, you cannot exclude playing in the KHL as a likely scenario. He’s been offered a big chunk of change. Speculation puts it as upwards of five, or five and a half million dollars for one season. That’s a boatload of money, particularly when you are looking at an interrupted season because of the CBA.

Pavelec had a big-money offer and the guarantee of a full season in his back pocket, which gave him leverage in negotiations with a Jets team facing a potential NHL lockout.

There was also the issue of playing hockey in Winnipeg. The Jets were playing in one of the NHL’s most northern outposts, one featuring cold weather, a tough travel schedule and comparatively few amenities. Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff implicitly acknowledged those realities in his comments to The Canadian Press (via TSN.com) following the signing:

Certainly the signing shows commitment from the Winnipeg Jets organization, but it also shows commitment from the player that they want to be a part of what's transpiring here in Winnipeg and in their careers. A player only has X amount of years to play. It's short relative to the rest of their life and when a player makes a commitment like this and a team makes a commitment like this, it's very significant.

Another complicating factor was the attitude of the media covering the team. In March, the Winnipeg Free Press’ Ed Tait wrote a piece titled “It all starts with Pavelec” that pegged the goalie as the team’s clear MVP despite his thoroughly mediocre numbers. In discussing the KHL rumours, the same writer led his piece with the words “He's a cornerstone to their franchise...” and reemphasized that he was arguably the team’s most valuable player.  

These, however, are excuses. It’s the job of a team’s management to be able to put a realistic price tag on the contributions of any player, irrespective of KHL offers and media love. Instead, the team took an optimistic view—Cheveldayoff called him “one of the best young goaltenders in the game right now”—and hitched their wagon to the player despite the clear warning signs.

That stubborn insistence that Pavelec is a legitimate No. 1 has continued, even as the evidence against the goalie becomes more insurmountable. The team had two windows to use a compliance buyout (if they Jets had taken the first one, they would only have needed to pay a third of the dollars left on his deal) and blew through both without any action.

Even more damning, the Jets have routinely refused to bring in legitimate challengers in the backup role. Hutchinson is a great example, as was his predecessor, Al Montoya, who parlayed a .893 save-percentage performance with the Islanders into a one-year deal and then a .899 save-percentage season into another one-year deal. He was actually good on that latter contract, and naturally, the Jets opted not to keep him when his price tag hit seven figures.

The organization’s talk matches its inaction. Head coach Paul Maurice was asked during a press conference Thursday about comments he’d made previously in which he’d stated that Pavelec couldn’t really be judged until he’d played behind a better defensive system; he reiterated that belief and added the following:

We need to play a game in front of him that he understands. Then we can assess his abilities to stop the puck in front of that game. Two years ago, he was the most valuable player as voted in the room; I remember him in the net, going, ‘We’re not beating that guy tonight.’ The talent is there, we’ve seen it. We put a structure in front of him that gives him the best chance; he needs to do the work to give himself the best chance to be a No. 1, to be a great No. 1. That’s what our goal is for him.

It’s possible to make excuses for the Jets, but the reality is that organizational blindness is the root cause of their goaltending problems. The goaltending market is a little like a game of musical chairs in that there are always more bodies than roster spots; the Jets have had alternatives and haven’t taken them. Further, the compliance-buyout windows opened by the new CBA represented an opportunity to correct a mistake, and the team didn’t take it.

Nearly 300 games into his NHL career, Ondrej Pavelec is a known factor. Arguably, his poor play has twice cost the team a playoff spot. Instead of taking action, the Jets talk about the need to improve their defensive play and bring in whomever they can get to take a near league-minimum contract to play backup minutes.

Oddly enough, this isn’t a situation unique to Winnipeg, though no team suffers as acutely as the Jets. Management and media alike easily seem to fall into a convenient narrative about goaltenders in obvious defiance of reality. It’s why Marc-Andre Fleury has been ensconced in Pittsburgh despite being outplayed by his backups, why Martin Brodeur keeps getting projected into the lineup of teams with two or even three superior goalies, why Jonas Gustavsson keeps getting NHL contracts.

The specifics of each situation are different, but the general theme is the same: a willingness to turn a blind eye to performance in favour of some other argument. It’s baffling, but at this point it’s not surprising.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work. Stats courtesy of Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com or EliteProspects.com unless otherwise noted; salary information courtesy of CapGeek.com.