A Team About Nothing

If there was one thing that the TV sitcom Seinfeld made clear, it's that it was a show about nothing. You might be forgiven if you never watched Seinfeld in how anyone could like a show that's about nothing, but it literally was about the daily minutiae that happened in the four protagonists' lives and was enough to keep people laughing and keep them within the pop culture world for years after the show's initial run ended. If it's not clear yet, Seinfeld was hardly a show about nothing when it clearly made people for nine seasons on television and many more in syndication.

You might be asking how this has anything to do with hockey, and you'd be justified in asking that based on the initial paragraph. However, there is a similarity in the "about nothing", though, when talking about Seinfeld and the Winnipeg Jets because the daily effort by general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff in trying to improve the talent level on the Jets' roster has been minimal if anything, and the improvements to the team's culture - cited by a number of players last season as a major problem - has yet to be addressed in any way.

In perhaps the latest "We'll do nothing!" moment in Chevy's illustrious management career, Pierre-Luc Dubois' agent, Pat Brisson, was asked by TVA Sports in Quebec on whether his client, the aforementioned Dubois, about whether or not Montreal would be a place that Dubois would like to play. Brisson has played this game before having been a player's agent for a long time, and his response may have been nothing more than a tactic to get Cheveldayoff back to the negotiating table when he stated, "I can't talk about it because right now he hasn't signed a contract, he's a restricted free agent. Montreal is a city where he would like to play."

At face value, one could srug those comments off if Cheveldayoff and Brisson had been engaged in some contentious negotiations regarding Brisson's client, but the little clues that there's still something very off within the walls of Canada Life Centre once again loom large. Dubois's camp has been very clear since the season ended that Winnipeg is not a long-term solution for them, so one would think that Chevy would do whatever he could to keep Dubois happy and content in Winnipeg - sign his friends, bring in some talent, make some deals to improve the situation.

Instead, he let linemate and friend Evgeny Svechnikov walk, and made it clear that the Jets wouldn't be able to afford Svechnikov's arbitration amount if the two sides were to go to arbitration. Astoundingly, though, the duo of Kyle Connor and Pierre-Luc Dubois was only made better by Svechnikov's presence on their wing, so it's hard to understand where the thought process is for the Jets on this one. Clearly, the analytics showed that Svechnikov's best performances last season were with Connor and Dubois, so what is the ultimate goal here?

Beyond that revelation, the Jets reportedly aren't willing to retain money on Blake Wheeler's contract if he were to be traded, and that's going to significantly reduce the field of potential trade partners significantly. Wheeler's contract was already seen as a mistake by the Jets based on the annual dollar value and his age, but to double-down and refuse to retain money on a bad contract is just another sign of bad management. If nothing else, the Jets should be willing to eat a portion just to open up more cap space to be able to sign younger talent. In the NHL, if a team makes a mistake by giving out a bad contract, it's almost guaranteed that the team will have to pay for it in some way.

At the end of the day, the attitudes and culture within the locker room hasn't changed one iota since Paul Stastny spoke out about players playing for themselves at the end of the season, there's been no attempt to change the dynamics within the locker room with a significant signing, and there have been zero trades on which the team can claim its making improvements or, at the very least, can claim that it's changing direction.

Outside of a handful of AHL signings and bringing in a goaltender who has proven he can't play as a backup due to lack of playing time, this might be shaping up to be the biggest "nothing" summer in Jets history thanks to a general manager who simply either can't or won't recognize that this problem starts and ends with him. Ownership may also be part of this problem, but it's ultimately up to the GM to decide his team's direction, and it would appear that the Jets are headed in one direction: down in the standings.

If you're Kevin Cheveldayoff, perhaps there's a larger picture that fans aren't seeing. I suppose one could imagine this as a "Tank for Bedard" scenario, but the Jets almost seemed destined to draft as a lottery team again this season. How and why that's acceptable within the walls of Canadsa Life Centre is anyone's guess.

If we're running with the Seinfeld themes, though, I guess this season is all about "Serenity NOW!" as a Jets fan because at the end of the season, it seems very likely there will be "No Soup For You".

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!