Last night Elliotte Friedman dropped a pretty big bomb saying Pierre-Luc Dubois had informed the Jets of his plan to “test unrestricted free agency”.
During the 32 Thoughts Podcast released this morning Jeff Marek asked Friedman to expand on that as well the overall state of the Jets. Friedman expanded:
“I have a buddy who is a big fan of the Jets. He sent me a note about what a tough day it was because there were reports today, Frank Seravalli reporting that Blake Wheeler is also on the trade block, and I believe that’s true. I think the Wheeler thing though might be more of a mutual thing. I just wonder if both Wheeler and the Jets kinda think its time and they’re willing to work together should that be necessary to find something there. I think that’s possible. You know Wheeler was the captain, he was a huge part of the team, he was very popular player in the market. As this person said to me for a long time Wheeler was a veteran who stayed in Winnipeg and how meaningful that was to them. Byfuglien stayed in Winnipeg and how meaningful that was to them. And now the possibility that Wheeler could be gone and the thing with Dubois, he’s got two years to unrestricted free agency, I believe he plans to test it and that’s what he informed them, in two years. I think the Jets are still hopeful that they can change his mind and that is their plan. I don’t want to put a handicap on it, one way or the other, because one thing I’ve learned is two years is a long time and to predict what s going to happen in two years is foolish. The other thing I know is this. Is that Kevin Cheveldayoff hung on to Jacob Trouba when there were a lot of rumours about what Trouba wanted to do and he hung on to him until he absolutely had to trade him. I don’t believe there’s a trade request from Dubois. I don’t think he did that. I think he just said he is going to leave it open for a couple of years but it will be interesting to see if Cheveldayoff tries to show that there’s reason to stay or he decides to make a move. He’s been really patient and like I said the reaction I got which is that the Jets hope Dubois will be a Jet for a long time. That says to me that at least they’re considering the possibility of can we make this work in a way that makes him happy.”
Marek went on to talk about how Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke about the next wave (Perfetti, Heinola) at the Combine and how the organization plans on moving in some younger players.
Friedman then discussed how hard a year it was in Manitoba (aside from the on ice losing).
You can listen here (starts at 22:50 and runs for about five minutes):
