Its Time for Change in Winnipeg

Its Time for Change in Winnipeg

[Music] What’s going on everybody? Welcome back to another video. We have a lot to talk about today and it is time for change here in Winnipeg. The Jets have to change their philosophy on how they run this organization. Uh, I know that sounds crazy because, you know, the Jets have had a lot of success over the last few years, but here we are today looking at with the Winnipeg Jets who are, you know, just a shell of what they were a year ago. They’re a team that’s not committed to the defensive side of the game. They’re a team that cannot generate any type of offense. And this is a team that cannot skate, cannot keep up with most teams in the NHL. And the ones that they can, they’re hanging out with the Jets to right at the bottom of the league. This is a team that, you know, won the president’s trophy last year and they were flying high. One of the best defensive teams in the NHL, a team that could generate offense. And this year, complete opposite. The Sabres beat the absolute hell out of the Jets on Monday night, 5 to one win. And you know, it was ugly. Right from right off rip, it was ugly. They scored two goals, 15 seconds. Nobody defending, nobody playing with any type of structure. It looked like the pre- Rick bonus era when Paul Maurice was, you know, at the end of his tenure here with the Jets and it was kind of just, you know, really loosey goosey, no structure, and it looked like a team that was completely disjointed. And uh, you know, the Jets had a closed door players only meeting. They, you know, in the meeting it was said that, hey, we need to get back to committing to defense. we need to get back to committing to structure. Uh you know that alone is not going to fix what is going on this year. You know there is a big talent gap from the team that they had a year ago. Obviously missing Nikolai Eers. Uh you know a lot of people were saying that hey uh you know we don’t need that guy. Um turned out the Jets did right or a player of his caliber. It was never properly replaced in the off season and it’s been a big glaring uh hole in this lineup since puck drop of game one. And then you compound that loss by replacing it with players that are over the hill. The Jets go ahead and they sign Jonathan Taves in the off seasonason. And the story was nice and everything, but myself and a lot of people were critical at the time of saying, you know, if this doesn’t work, this is going to look really bad for the Jets because this could be disastrous. Sure enough, Jonathan Taves has not been playing like a second line center. He has not been playing like a third line center either. He’s found himself on the fourth line of parts of the, you know, recent games and, you know, he just bottom line has not been good. It’s a nice story. Winnipeger comes home, he battles back from being, you know, away from the game for 2 years. You know, nice story, nice feel-good story to get the guy back, but he should have never been put in a situation where he would be looked to as the second line center. And I said that from day one. I I get taking the gamble there. I understand that, but you have to have an insurance policy. And at the end of the day, the Jets took a gamble and it has not worked out. They signed other older players like Gustav Nyquis, Tanner Pearson, uh, you know, list goes on here. None of it really has worked for Winnipeg. And, you know, a big reason why they are where they are is because of the off season that Kevin Chevel had. Um, it it is a failure. you know, bottom line, he had a sit down with Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press and uh you know, they he was just asked like, “Are you surprised you are where you are right now?” And he is legitimately surprised like he really thought this was going to work. He thought with his whole chest this was going to work and the Jets were going to be a successful team. And I love having pride in your players. I love having belief in your players. I love that. But you you got to take a step back and just, you know, be realistic with yourself because I feel like this organization and not just Kevin Chevov, uh, but really everybody in this organization lives in La La Land sometimes. Like how do you get to the point where you really believe looking at this roster that yeah, that’s going to take you all the way. Conor Hill can do a lot of things. He can cover up a lot of mistakes. Uh, but you know, this roster in front of him is just not good. The defense core is not defending. The forwards are not scoring outside of the top line. And you know, you just have a team that is not very good. You have a team that is slow in a league that is only getting faster. And it feels like the Jets organization is two to three steps behind at least uh some of these other teams that are really excelling right now. And why is the top line not been touched? Right? I understand the line is great and you know whatever but they’ve tried literally every single lineup that is possible for their forward core but they have not touched that top line. You would kind of think that you know with them do doing so well you can maybe split them up try to get you know another line going. So maybe you have two lines that are going instead of one right like anything just try anything you can to try to get this moving. Uh but you know they just will not go away from that top line. I don’t know if that’s a Scott Neil thing. I don’t know if he’s not allowed to touch the top line from powers above him like Amar Chipman, Kevin Chival. I don’t know. But it is crazy that Winnipeg hasn’t tried that this year. There is not a team in the NHL that would not split up a top line at, you know, at some point here, you know, especially if it’s as bad as anemic as it is in that bottom nine forward lines, right? Like something has to give here. I I don’t get it. It’s super weird. A lot of people are talking about it now and it’s just a really strange situation. And you know, you look at the lineup and you notice right away, hey, there is not a lot of young players on this roster. And you know, I don’t blame Brad Lambert for wanting to explore a trade and maybe thinking that he can find, you know, a bigger role on an NHL team or play in the NHL right now even. Because if you take a look at the Jets track record, when was the last time they had a really young player like outside of Cole Perfetti on the roster, right? Like I I can see how he would, you know, take a look at the last few years here in Winnipeg and say, “Oh, well, you know what? I don’t think that there’s really room for me because they keep playing these veteran players.” Even just this past week, Elias Salammano was playing really good for the Jets. And you know, even playing topline minutes with Morrisy, top pairing minutes, he looked really good. didn’t look out of place at all. And then, you know, as soon as he showed any flashes, get him out of there. And he’s scratched. And then in comes Luke Shen, who’s been absolutely awful. Has done really nothing of note this season except be one of the worst defenseman I have ever seen play in the NHL. Uh to be totally honest with you. And that’s not being dramatic. He has been legitimately horrific for the Jets this year. Worst player on the team, I would say. Um but yeah, no, I get why Brad Lambert feels that way. The Jets didn’t need to go out and sign Gustaf Nyquist this off season. Jets didn’t need to go out and sign Tanner Pearson this off season. They’ve been terrible. And you could have predicted that, hey, these guys are old. These guys have seen their best days. Uh they’re long past. Maybe we move on and we integrate some of the youth here because eventually you’re going to have to turn this lineup over to them. If you don’t trust your youth, why are you like putting so much stock in these guys in the AHL? They’re not going to play there till they’re 25. This isn’t, you know, 1985 anymore. You’re not going to marinate in the miners for, you know, four or five years. This isn’t how the league runs anymore. The Jets are so far behind on this. And I don’t blame Lambert at all for wanting to say, “Hey, like, get me out of here. I can be an NHL player somewhere else.” Why would you not try to give Brad Lambert a try in the top six? Maybe even play with Mark Schiffley. Maybe play with Kyle Connor. Like, that would go crazy. I think I think he’d he’d be excelling. He’s got the speed. you you could play them on the second line, play him with Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor, you could do all sorts of things. You could do a lot of fun things and optimize this lineup if you go ahead and just split up that top line. Just tweak a few things. I think you got something here. I don’t think it’s a team that’s necessarily going to blow the doors off of everybody, but it’s a lot better than getting shellacked every single night by teams that are in the basement of the NHL. I don’t get why the Jets are running it the way they are right now. Uh seems like, you know, just based on what Chevy said, the team is willing to go forward with what they got and trust that it’s going to turn around, but it’s very very obvious uh just a little over a quarter of the way through the season that this is not working. So things got to change if Winnipeg wants to be competitive. I don’t know if I see change coming. Something has to give in Winnipeg, though. This is a very good draft, and if they continue to lose, it’s really not the worst case scenario long term. I’ve talked about this in the video that I made this last weekend about the Jets being not a very good team this year. Uh, obviously Gavin McKenna is a big-time prospect. Maybe the Jets get lucky, they win the lottery, get Gavin McKenna. There’s a lot of other great players in this draft. I love a lot of these prospects, but uh, you know, right now it kind of seems like the Jets are going to be picking top 10 unless something dramatic changes because, you know, they’re barely able to keep up with the Nashville Predators, right? It’s been a grim year, but I’ve said my piece. What do you guys think about the Winnipeg Jets? Is it disaster mode? Do you think they’ll turn it around? Let me know down below in the comments. But as always, guys, leave a like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already, and I’ll see you guys in the next one. Go Jets go. Bye-bye.

The Winnipeg Jets have been one of the worst clubs in the NHL to start the 2025-26 season. They’re coming off of a year where they won the presidents trophy, and the best year standings wise in team history. Now, they sit near the bottom of the NHL with no real changes seemingly on the way. Something needs to change for the Jets if they’re going to get out of this situation.

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