How much is Kevin Cheveldayoff to blame for Jets’ poor performance?

In Gary Bettman’s NHL, anything can happen. Parity has allowed a team like the New York Islanders to go from having the first-overall pick in the draft to competing for first place in the Metropolitan Division. As the Winnipeg Jets are discovering, however, an equal and opposite change of fortunes is also possible. The Jets won the Presidents’ Trophy last year with an 116-point season, but now find themselves last in the NHL.

Even in a fickle NHL, going from first to worst is tough to pull off. As Winnipeg continues to scuffle into the New Year (they’ve lost 10 games in a row dating back to December 15th), fingers have been pointing at who might be responsible for the mess in Manitoba. Some have even been pointing at Kevin Cheveldayoff, who has been the Jets’ general manager since they relocated from Atlanta in 2011. Among Winnipeg’s flaws this season, a lack of scoring depth or adequate backup goaltending have been apparent, both of which fall at the feet of the GM.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Winnipeg Sports Talk‘s Michael Remis and discussed the heat Cheveldayoff is under this season.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to talk a little bit about Kevin Cheveldayoff. Not being in the market, I don’t have the best read on how the fanbase feels about him, but it felt like for a while, and I’m going back years now, it was like “he’s got to do more,” and then they made some big splashes at a few trade deadlines, as in the year they got (Sean) Monahan and (Tyler) Toffoli. Then you look, and you just mentioned it, you lock up (Gabriel) Vilardi, you lock up Kyle Connor this year. He got the core all signed on and it felt like maybe the heat was taken off him a little bit. But I guess, how much responsibility does he bear for this lack of scoring?

Michael Remis: I think the heat’s gotten turned up a little bit this year. Look, he had a great run. He did the impossible. We thought Pierre-Luc Dubois, there’s no way you can get a return on that, and he pulled a rabbit out of his hat with that deal which has been very beneficial for the Jets. (Mark) Scheifele and Connor, they’re both entering their final year. How are you going the get both of those guys signed? It was Thanksgiving before the start of season, got the alert out of nowhere that they were both signed.

But you look at the last 12 months or so, and I think the trade deadline last year with the Jets in position for the Presidents’ Trophy, their additions were not the most significant in Luke Schenn and Brandon Tanev. Nice players but you gave up a second-round pick this year, a second-round pick next year, and a later pick as well on both of them. Now you’re in this postion where you look at the last 10 years, and I know they’ve traded away some picks, but they haven’t been able to develop NHLers so they’re in a real tough spot where you don’t have a prospect pipe line.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…