32 Thoughts: Elliotte Friedman on Trotz, Winnipeg Jets coaching vacancy, Wheeler, Scheifele & Dubois

Another morning with a fresh 32 Thoughts Podcast to break down all that is happening with the Winnipeg Jets courtesy of a chat between Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.

The Jets portion begins with Marek asking Friedman about Trotz’s decision. Friedman shared this:

“I’m not surprised that was his decision right now. I was talking to another coach today and he said to me, ‘you know if your hearts in it or not’. Bruce Cassidy got in the neighbourhood of 20 million from Vegas, John Tortorella got around 16 to 18 million from Philadelphia. Those were the two teams that were really in on Trotz. I don’t think money was going to be an issue in Winnipeg either. I think they were quite prepared to do very well by Barry Trotz. And I think he could have I’ve done even better than those cases but if you’re being tempted with that kind of money and you can’t say yes by June 23rd or whatever day this is, you’re not in the right frame of mind to coach. And there’s nothing wrong with that, especially helps when you’re going to be paid this year by the Islanders but he made the right decision for himself and his family which is number one on the list but he also did the right thing by the Jets. It’s like when you drive are you speeding or are you not?  You’re not half speeding or kind of speeding. You’re either in the game or you’re not and Barry Trotz was clearly not in the game and one coach said to me today that among his peers as every day went by they were more convinced he wasn’t going to coach this year. If you can’t say yes by now with all of these teams chasing you, you’re not in it. You’re not in it.”

Marek and Friedman then spoke about the idea of Trotz switching to management.

Marek then asked who is next choice after Trotz? Friedman’s answer:

“I heard a lot of very interesting things today. I think the Jets have done a lot work on Plan B as in if Plan A doesn’t work, what’s Plan B? I think Arniel has a legit chance, I think Pascal Vincent is in there, I’ve heard Tocchet’s name too and I’ve heard Montgomery’s. I’ve heard the four of them. Now I believe they interviewed Kirk Muller as well but I don’t know if he’ll be in their next round of interviews. Tocchet is the only one there that doesn’t have the Winnipeg connection. Arniel does, Vincent does, Montgomery does. I’ve had a lot of conversations, we talked on the pod I don’t even remember which one it was about why Winnipeg thinks a connection to them is so important. I was having some big debates today from people who are like it’s time to break the mold and I don’t know I still think Winnipeg feels you have to understand the city you’re in and I think those guys with history, the Arniel’s of the world, that’s gonna be big for them.

Marek also asked if anything can be read into what the Winnipeg Jets plan to do this summer by way of player personnel based on who they hire as a coach? Friedman had an interesting response:

“No. I think that is potentially happening anyway. This is purely my opinion based on some of the stuff I’ve been hearing and it is that they felt that they felt Scheifele, Wheeler, Dubois we’re not all coming back. Now Winnipeg would have control in a lot of those situations because those players have contracts or are restricted free agents like Dubois but my sense was that all three of those guys were not coming back and I don’t think that’s changed based on who is or isn’t going to be the coach. As we’ve talked last pod, I think there have been conversations about Wheeler, between him and the team about, it’s time. I think they always thought it was important cause it is so far hard to find centres, Copp is gone, one of Scheifele and Dubois if not both of them were going to be staying and now we know that Dubois is kind of in a bit of no mans land, although the Jets have control message ration. I heard after Scheifele‘s media conference the Jets worked really hard to to sell him on the fact we can make this work and Scheifele did not make a trade request. I just look at it and say if you’re the Jets we can’t go from having Scheifele and Dubois to not having either of them. I don’t think that has anything to do with coaching I think that just makes sense from a teambuilding point of view.”

It is setting up for an interesting lead up to the NHL Draft on July 7th.

Listen (starts around 19:30 mark):