On today’s 32 Thoughts Podcast the conversation between Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman touched on the big win for Winnipeg over Los Angeles to conclude the four-game road trip, Gabriel Vilardi’s four-point night and the significance of it happening in the first game without Kyle Connor.
Friedman then moved the conversation to the Jets backend and had this to say:
“I think Winnipeg’s a really interesting team too because you know, right now, the Jets are kinda playing some of their young D to find out exactly what they’ve got. It’s pretty interesting there. They’re going really well. What it seems to me is that Kevin Cheveldayoff and that team are trying to figure out their future defence on the fly. They’ve got a good team, they’re giving it a good run in their division, I really like their forward depth, fortunately* Connor Hellebuyck’s playing great and you know they’ve got two defenceman in Dillon and DeMelo who are up after this year. They’ve got some young kids who want the opportunities, they’ve got Schmidt out of the lineup** although I think he’s gonna play again. I just find it really interesting, they’re going well and they bought themselves some time, I think they’re trying to figure out what their longer term defence is gonna be. So it’s it’s kind of one of those things where you’re you’re trying to win and you’re trying to figure some things out for the future, all at the same time.”
*He said unfortunately but clearly meant fortunately
**Schmidt returned to the lineup two games ago.
And amazingly this is all without Ville Heinola who is getting closer and closer to returning. So yes the future is very much a question mark for this Jets club on the backend but so is the present as they could have to make a decision fairly soon about what they plan on doing regarding Heinola, Chisholm, Stanley and Schmidt.
Listen (Jets talk starts at 27:30):
