The Free Agent Wing Market For The Winnipeg Jets Could Be SPICIER Than Buffalo Sauce
winnipeg is going to need some scoring help on the wings and I know just the place to start looking you’re locked on Jets your daily podcast on the Winnipeg Jets part of the Locked On Network your team every day hey friends and welcome to tonight’s episode of Locked on Winnipeg Jets part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day i’m your host Harrison Lee an avid Winn Jets fan and an online blogger you can follow me on Twitter at HL Living Loco and at L_Winn Jets thanks for making Lockdown Jets your first listen of the day every day if you like what you’re hearing be sure to like follow and subscribe on all of your favorite podcasting platforms and YouTube doing so of course is always free of charge and ensures you never miss another episode most of all though we just love and appreciate your support tonight’s episode we are going to be starting off with talking about wing depth the Jets need it the NHL has a lot of free agent wings that I think would really help Winnipeg and you know what the Jets are going to have a fair bit of cap space and if Eers does in fact leave the Jets that makes the urgency to find some legitimate squad help up and down the roster all the more urgent there’s lots of guys out there who might be willing to do the job for the Jets it’s just a matter of making that fit happen but of course the Jets might also have to do some things internally and I also want to talk about whether this is going to be the year of big bad Brad Lambert there are a lot of questions about him not really sure where his game is especially after this past Moose uh Moose season so going to be a very interesting year for our young uh potential star and then we want to close out with some interesting thoughts on on really the radio silence around the Jets right as much as I I’m going to talk about all of these players and stuff we still have yet to really hear Winnipeg put together some concrete rumors not a lot’s leaking out to the press other than the tape stuff and that leaves me wondering what the Jets plan is but let’s talk about wings right uh we all love them you like to fry them coat them in buffalo sauce and you like when they score goals for the Jets I think wing depth is a real legitimate concern this year uh last season we had a pretty good roster and it accomplished I think in a lot of ways more than you would anticipate you look at the lack of elite scorers past the top couple of lines you look at how there were inconsistencies uh later in the season and into the playoffs with some of the scoring depth and you realize that the Jets just need you know real finishing talent up and down this lineup they’ve got lots of really great for checkers and they’ve got a coach who likes to you know adapt to that system and can actually get some pretty good results out of guys that you might not normally expect but there’s only so much that Arneal and this team are capable of when a lot of players on this team just don’t really shoot the puck at an elite level and I think this is where wing depth and the free agency market really is your first place to shop i know that in the past I’ve said free agency is not where the Jets should be shopping but I really was referring specifically to centers when it comes to wingers this is a much more lucrative opportunity for Winnipeg a lot of good players are going to be hitting free agency uh this summer and I think the Jets would be wise to take a flyer on a couple of guys who might be able to offer some real scoring punch despite maybe limited minutes the first guy I’m kind of looking at and this one is is you know he’s a little on the smaller side a lot of people will say well you know size is what you need and not really i mean this is a player who’s played on the Calgary Flames for almost his entire career and was actually quite good you’re in one of the more physical squads out there and yet he was still putting up 40 plus point seasons i am of course talking about breadman Andrew Mapani mapupani had a a bit of a tougher cap season this past year uh he saw his ice time also really tank and so I feel like people are maybe overlooking that a bit uh Man Japani is one of those guys who’s been uh really a a terrific middle six scorer for almost his entire career you know the first couple of seasons there was some interesting promise and then for like the last six or so years he’s popped off pretty great middle six results he would easily be one of our top you know third or or even at times uh second line performers based on his current numbers now he’s not going to be putting up like 60 point seasons i don’t think that that’s really realistic but if you look at his past production from the last three or four years you’ve got a 55 point season in there you have two 40 plus point seasons and last year playing basically just above fourthline minutes at 13 minutes a game he was getting 28 points 14 goals 14 assists and that’s roughly consistent with what we’ve seen in terms of his production in other seasons usually he’s good for about 15 or so goals and he’ll get between 20 and 30 assists so this is a guy who I think would easily be a tertiary player uh for this Jets team I’d love to see him alongside a Lowry I think you know Majapani has really good for checking ability i think he’s very crafty he skates well and I don’t think he’d be that expensive you know he had a really down year with the Caps and I feel like the down year might not be as down of a year as you think when you look at his scoring rates and what he was doing I think he still put up pretty fair results and if you give him maybe a $3.5 million contract for a couple of seasons I wonder if he’d be be willing to come back to Canada right you move to the President’s Trophy team you get a fresh start with the Jets i could see it being a very mutually beneficial thing and on this team he’d be a great uh you know not only power play two option but somebody who I think could really boost the 5v5 shooting percentage if the Jets want to go a little bit more ambitious in a way you might look at an Andrew Kh Andre Kusmano another former Flame who’s been doing uh pretty good you know games and and pretty good numbers recently now I will say with Kousman Kusenco his sample size is kind of small and I feel like there is a a modicum of risk with you know just how much his scoring uh uh scoring ability is going to translate to a team like Winnipeg he rode a really hot first year with the Canucks to you know a a pretty sizable contract and then after that things were a little topsyturvy he had some injuries things didn’t quite go well and you know he’s found himself bouncing between like three or four different teams the last couple of seasons with the Kings though he popped off 17 points in 22 games he was a bonafide stud in their postseason run and I kind of feel like this is a guy that’s maybe on on the the verge of starting to really put it together and for a team like Winnipeg if you’re looking for a guy who’s a real menace uh in you know the slot area and has a great shot great passing and vision and is a pretty nice skater Koozco could be a really intriguing gamble again I think the Jets really need to be taking a look at a at a lot of options here when it comes to their middle six uh the wing scoring depth right now is just kind of you know average uh you look at the center depth and the center depth will be okay even if I don’t like it but if you get some real wing help you might be able to mask some of those bigger issues if you’re starting to take a little bit of a a bigger uh punt you might look at an Anthony Mantha mantha is a guy that I think the Jets have had a lot of time for and um you know again another player who is a flame right now i guess we have this weird desire to bring in you know wingers from Calgary but Mantha if he doesn’t get extended could be a really intriguing fit for Winnipeg he’s big he’s strong he’s got a nice shot and he’s also had a rough couple of years he’s been injured a lot you know his his uh cap seasons were kind of mid generally speaking now he still put up pretty respectable results given some of his deployments and health issues so if you are going for Mantha you’re probably doing it on a pretty cheap deal but I don’t know what his own desire is where does he want to go right will he consider the Jets a place where he might really do some damage very big question but if he is willing to come to Winnipeg I would say making a free agent offer might be a wise gamble he’s one of those players who yeah he’s got some cosmetic issues and you do worry a little bit about his availability but if he is able to stay healthy he has been a very strong play driver and a pretty good offensive creator with size that I think Arneal would like the last guy I want to talk about very briefly is a player who has been in Winnipeg before Michael uh Azamont you know has kind of bounced around a couple of teams recently the Kraken the Lightning the Sharks and he’s been a very solid fourthline guy for a lot of teams i think if he were to come to Winnipeg he would be able to help out in ways that maybe the fourth line just hasn’t had a lot of spark and energy with um now the the fourth line this past season I thought was pretty good but they still didn’t quite have a ton of finishing punch azamont I wouldn’t say is going to be like an elite scorer but maybe he can add a little bit more offense and jump to this group right and if he’s willing to come back to the Jets after you know maybe not the happiest separation earlier new regime new coaches maybe there’s a chance that he might fit in better this time I I don’t know right he’s going to have a couple of teams that I think might be interested in him but you see a lot of players like this waved pretty frequently so it’s hard to say if he would be willing to come back to the Jets but if he is on a super cheap deal I’d certainly be down to find out now the Jets might also be hoping that some of their players whether they go for a center role or out wide start to really percolate and become impact players this coming season and there’s a guy that I’ve kind of thought about for a while and where he really fits in this org it is Brad Lambert will this be the season of Big Bad Brad i want to chat about that coming right up looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious crack into a good source of protein with Wonderful Pistachios wonderful Pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts each 1oz serving has six grams of protein giving you over 10% of your daily value and they’re packed with fiber and better for you unsaturated fats to help keep you feeling fuller for longer as a Marylander I do like the uh the the sensation of cracking open the shell variety i think it’s a lot like cracking open crabs and just like a crab it’s got great protein inside but if you’re not like me and you need something really fast you want something that’s quick and easy before you drop your kids off at school or before you hit the gym they also have a no-sh variety they come in some great seasonings and flavors and of course Wonderful Pistachios are a complete protein providing all nine essential amino acids so get snacking and get cracking with a snack that packs a protein punch visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more hey friends and welcome back to this episode of Locked on Winnipeg Jets part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day every day thank you so much for rejoining us on tonight’s show as we’re chatting a little bit about whether the Jets can improve internally now I know that we all have seen the NHL lineups for the Jets we know that their combinations don’t tend to change a lot uh not a big shock when you think about how uh this team is a little rigid i’m hoping that this season maybe we start to see some internal changes uh I know that that’s probably asking for a lot but you never know maybe Hope Springs Eternal maybe somebody surprises us amidst all of this we’re going to have some rookies fighting for roster spots and I wonder if this is partly what the Jets are planning for if they’re not really going to be aggressive either in free agency or on the trade market now I will say I I don’t really know if I like this plan so much if it was last year before we had the President’s uh cup run I would have felt differently you know last season could have been the year that you really transitioned with some guys you start to get them up to speed but the Jets opted to go very veteran heavy this year I feel like you kind of have to go veteran heavy if you are really serious about trying to win the cup and make a deep playoff run then you really need to focus on bringing in established talent but the Jets might not really agree with that and in fact it’s a little hard to tell what they do or don’t really think about this off season uh we’ve heard them say that they’re committed to winning the cup and and really doing all that they can but we know that actions speak louder than words and amidst all this I do wonder about Brad Lambert lambert I think has probably been shopped to more teams than we know uh he might have been on the block in the Brock Nelson deal not really clear uh if he’s been included in other trade offers but Lambert has been a little bit of a frustrating gem and I think it really speaks to a how hard it is for a lot of kids to really find success at the pro levels and b also speaks to the kind of quirky prospect that he is now when I mentioned Lambert as a potential lineup option for this coming season I got a lot of push back people are like Lambert sucks and all this crap and and look I I get it right he had a bad year this past season but I think when you start really digging into what happened with him in the Moose it’s really hard to know if it was all his fault or if it was really the surrounding environment take for the you know the the context that he was third in team scoring yeah Dylan Coglin went in and probably would have outpaced pretty much everyone on that team if Coglin had actually had a full season but I also contest that Coglin is frankly too better uh too good for the AHL i’ve kind of said this a lot i think that he’s actually an NHLer and so I I don’t really find that as helpful as a as a comparison i look at Lambert against a lot of his peers and I think the biggest thing that you would have wanted to see from Lambert is offensive domination you didn’t really see that uh Lambert I think tried to do a lot on that team but you see a shooting percentage having a career low like six or seven% um you you saw him lot you know notching a fair few number of assists he was creating lots of opportunities and getting in on the action but he wasn’t really scoring many goals himself in toward you know really until the end of the season and even then I wouldn’t exactly say it was super prolific and so Lambert kind of makes you wonder what he’s going to do for the Jets and I feel like this has to be the sinker swim season uh you need to throw him in the deep end if he sinks you know it’s probably time to cut your losses and have him move to another org i think Lambert is a super talented kid i I really don’t doubt that one day he will be an NHLer but I think the Jets are really needing to find out if it’s going to be in Winnipeg colors if he can’t help you now then you need to find somebody who can and you know obviously Sherov will likely have a roster spot this year i would really not doubt that i think he’s been very good um and in the sample size that we have so far I’ve come away very impressed with him uh obviously scoring a couple of quick NHL goals already in his in his few games uh I thought had he not gotten injured he’d probably have been called up at some point for the playoff run but you know the reality was a little bit different things didn’t go according to plan and Lambert’s NHL stint for what it’s worth i thought it looked better towards the second part of his uh of his stay with the Jets but I wouldn’t say that he really blew the socks off of anyone either and so you know this coming year is kind of for me the makeorb breakak season now I do feel like if you take him out of Manitoba and put him on a team that actually has real talent I think it’s going to be a different story not to say that Manitoba has lacked you know good talent and and veteran players and leadership but the Moose were just awful they were one of the most unwashably bad teams in the whole AHL and I feel like that probably doesn’t help a kid who really thrives on confidence lambert is an effortless skater he’s a super creator and he’s also somebody that really has to be confident in what he’s seeing if he doesn’t have it if he doesn’t feel like he’s really uh in the best position to succeed I think it really does impact his game performance and I don’t even think that he was as bad as people make him out to be being third in team scoring behind a lot of established AHL veterans doesn’t really scream you suck it it seems more like given the circumstances and what was going on with the moose he actually had a pretty productive year now again I think the bigger question is can he elevate his game to another level and you know I I wouldn’t really anticipate him starting for the Jets next season unless he comes into camp and just makes it impossible to uh turn him away but my feeling is he probably should start with the Jets i know it’s a risk i know it’s a gamble but I think Winnipeg really needs to find out if this guy can be a contributor if he can’t then move him in a deal for somebody who can that’s the only thing that I think you can really do now you’ve waited long enough putting him for like another Moose season really doesn’t feel helpful for anyone and Lambert at this point’s probably looking to really make his mark at this level if he continues to stay down in the AHL I can only imagine that that’s going to wrinkle his chains especially if he’s on a team that frankly is kind of a dead end squad uh unless the Moose have a big overhaul this coming uh summer I just don’t really see them having a particularly great season next year so this is the time to figure out if Big Brad big bad Brad can finally be a major NHLer i still have a flame for him and I think he’s one of those players who if he does leave the Jets he’s going to kill it somewhere i just feel that he has a lot of untapped potential and I think the right team and the smart coach will bring it out of him if that’s the Jets that would really be the most ideal situation we are potentially losing Eers and Lambert’s the only guy internally who has the kind of skill set that Eers has he’s got very similar transition skating ability he’s kind of that big puck frier and I think he could be a really creative option even if his offensive production isn’t going to be on the same level i still think that there is a real chance that Lambert becomes a great Jets forward but the time is running out for him to do that and if the Jets can’t make it happen then they’re going to have to make somebody else happen and I’m hopeful that they don’t wait around to find out until it’s too late they’ve sometimes done this with prospects in the past we know that this team drafts they kind of develop and then they don’t actually bring them up to the NHL so it’s time to change that narrative it’s time to make Lambert or maybe some other player like Chipperov part of a really successful class of draft picks none of those picks really help you if they aren’t able to make the league or get traded for other assets and so I’m really hopeful that this is the year that we finally see Lambert grab life by the horns and seize his NHL role but curious to know if you think he’ll do it this year do you really not have confidence in him let me know what you’re thinking about Big Bad Brad and whether you think this is the Lambo season that we’ve all been waiting for or if you expect him to be gone by the trade deadline we also want to chat a little bit about you know the the radio silence around Winnipeg right i have been talking about a lot of other teams making moves but we haven’t really heard the Jets linked to much of anything and any speculation or rumors have generally been pretty quiet are the Jets actually planning to do much this off season or do they really think the Taves move was it we’ll chat about that in a moment hey friends and welcome back to this episode of Locked On Winnipeg Jets part of the Locked on Podcast Network your team every day every day thank you so much for joining us as we are just closing out with some thoughts on you know the Jets kind of being in radio silence mode now we’ve seen some hints that stuff is happening on the back end samberg and Connor are likely to be announced as extensions coming up in the next few weeks but beyond that not really hearing that the Jets are super active there’s no trade rumors we haven’t seen them linked to really any UFAS uh we’ve seen maybe like Mike McIntyre speculate a little bit about a Cody Glass signing which Cody Glass if he does come to the dress I’d be fine with i think he makes sense as you know another Manitoba guy and also a pretty decent middle six option somebody who does actually have a little bit of upside defensively pretty responsible offensively I think that’s where Glass really has struggled to find his game but maybe in Winnipeg Arnneal can whisper some sweet nothings and get him to start finding that extra gear glass was supposed to have a decent shot and pretty good passing instincts years ago maybe there’s still something there that the Jets can tease out but aside from that right we haven’t really seen anything else the Luke Evangelista rumor uh which might have been just a fan making it up appears to have evaporated we’re not really seeing the Jets link two big free agents no one’s expecting us to sign MNER but I think we’d like to see somebody brought in other than just Taves winnipeg I think would be making a very big mistake if their primary move is Taves and right now they seem to be signaling at least on the surface that this is what’s happening but if it’s not then you know obviously we’re in for a big surprise but I know Mark and a few others have speculated um on previous comment sections that the Jets just really aren’t that committed to winning and as much as I would love to really disagree it’s it’s hard to when you see how the Jets run their Oregon what they really value winnipeg’s a business first and I think that that continues to be a big deal for this team i like successful businesses and I think that that’s a great way to ensure that you’ve got stability but I also would like the Jets to start winning some stuff beyond regular season awards they’ve already conquered the the mountain for regular season performances they’ve gotten pretty much every single trophy that you can for having an amazing team through 82 games it’s now time to figure out how you turn that into real playoff success and that’s where I sort of wonder what their plan for the summer is we saw Chipman send out the letter you know a couple months ago that they will do everything that they can to win but I don’t know man do we really feel like that’s going to happen i’ve kind of had my doubts you know I really wanted this to be the summer of Chevy but based on how the Taves signing has gone what we’re hearing about you know the Taves uh uh contract being a lure for Nikolai Eers and how likely that feels to be a real winning proposition I just don’t think the Jets really see it the same way uh I think Winnipeg really doesn’t feel a lot of urgency i think they probably look at the president’s trophy season as a huge success which it absolutely is no one will ever take that away and question it but I think if you look at how they lost in the postseason it wasn’t really an accident what happened yeah there was some puck luck and things that could have gone a little bit better against the Stars but even if the Jets advanced to the Western Conference final I don’t really have great feelings about what would have happened against the Oilers edmonton only had one particular weakness against the Stars and it was kind of a net and even then it really wasn’t enough to sink them uh you know the Stars frankly just got out overlapped by the the Oilers it was like it wasn’t even competitive for much of the series and so I wonder you know a Jets team that struggled against the Blues and had some real tough games against the Stars would Winnipeg really have fared much better maybe but I think they legitimately need to look at how they lost and come to terms with the fact that they need to improve this roster you’ve got a lot of guys who don’t really bring enough offense you’ve got a lot of really good for checkers you’ve got a pretty strong team structure all around you know the 5v5 game is pretty solid your power play is great your PK has improved to roughly league average you’re likely to get good goalending again next season uh yet you really need to find a way to add more goalcoring punch which is funny for a team that you’d look on paper and you see plenty of goal scoring from last season but it was a lot from the power play and it’s just not something that I think the Jets should lean on as much the best teams that make it far in the playoffs are your best 5v5 scoring chance creators and Winnipeg was not one of those teams they were a lot closer to the middle of the pack than the rest of the competition and so I think it’s really important for the Jets to really give us something to go on right go for some big names if you swing and it doesn’t work that’s fine with me right you don’t have to come away with every single acquisition but you do need to make something legitimately helpful happen it can’t be another season uh or or window where you end up with like a Brandon Tanv and a Luke Shen those guys are nice we appreciate their services we also know that they’re not really the players who really take you over the top into cup contender status especially when the Jets are are far behind other teams you know we’re not built like a Panthers squad we don’t have the elite crazy crazy forward talent of an Edmonton uh we don’t even quite have the same level of depth that the Stars team has had the past couple of seasons and so I think the Jets really need to you know be proactive get aggressive i I say it every off season um and in previous years I think the Jets were a lot more active that’s why the radio silence this year is is a little bit just disconcerting right i know that we don’t have to know that the you know the the exact plan or the outline of what’s going to happen but it would be nice to know that the Jets are in on something uh you know obviously taking care of your internal business that’s very important get it done first great but also make sure that you’re doing some investigation and bringing in some other talent the Jets can’t do this alone they’ve got a good foundation to build on but it’s it’s some it’s a foundation right you’ve got to add to it you can’t kind of go this middle of the road approach where you you take a chance on a 37y old center and maybe one or two additional players that are kind of in the margins but not really anyone who can help you move the needle the wings I mentioned before kind of necessitate bringing in somebody else to help them as well right you can’t just bring in a couple of guys and hope for um an elite squad to pop out i think each of those guys are underrated in some capacity and can really help you know the depth scoring but if the Jets are really serious they got to take a bigger swing somewhere you know you’ve got all the assets to do it you have all of your trade stuff the trade deadline really didn’t go that well so make the most of it over the summer and set yourself up for a much better playoff run next season it’s a far way away I know but the Jets really need to be uh working to try and and improve the squad if the Jets really don’t do a lot this summer I do wonder what the mood in the room is going to be because Chely we’ve seen before when his body language wasn’t great we know that he has feelings about how this team’s direction has been and I wonder if he’ll be okay if the Jets really don’t add again you know and I think Arneal has even expressed a level of disappointment with what happened at the trade deadline so hopefully summer of Chevy we see something special but give me your predictions for the off season and if it’s really grim uh yeah I mean you’re entitled to that i’m hoping you’re wrong i’m hoping I’m wrong about my own skepticism but you know it is what it is right life goes on so do the Winnipeg Jets and our episode tomorrow will probably go into more signings and rumors and hopefully give us some kind of Jets extension news it’s it’s what we’re waiting for we need to hear it and uh hopefully we get something later this week but for tonight’s show that’s all the time that we have i thank you so much for listening and making Lockdown Jets your first listen of the day every day see you back here tomorrow so as always have a great night and go Jets go
The Winnipeg Jets are likely going to need to call on some outside help for the wing scoring depth. Could free agency provide some much needed finishing talent to the middle-6? What skaters might be willing to take a chance with the Jets next season? Could we see Brad Lambert finally take the long-awaited next step and stick the landing with the big club? What would a Lambert breakout do for this Winnipeg team? Why are we hearing relative radio silence regarding Jets trades and signings? Is Winnipeg content to make Toews the marquee move?
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