The NHL Trade Deadline is nearly here and when the clock strikes 2 PM CST on Friday afternoon what, if any, changes might have taken place in Jetsland?
So far Winnipeg has stayed out of the madness (with the exception of the Nino Niederreiter acquisition from the Preds five days ago) that has become NHL Trade Deadline Week. CapFriendly tweeted out today at approximately 3 PM that “41 trades in the two weeks leading up to tomorrows deadline have now been made. Over the past 10 years, the previous max was only 20.”. There have been a few more since that tweet to add to that total.
So what might the Jets do? What is this organization looking for?
Elliotte Friedman on the Hockey Central broadcast when asked if the Jets are still trying to do more indicated:
“I think they’re trying to. I think they would like to add a bit more scoring. I think that’s one of the things I’ve heard with them. They’ve been very careful.”
Darren Dreger on Insider Trading was asked if the Jets might do more:
“They’re hoping to do more. There’s been some internal debate I think around the organization as to whether or not they should be trying to add. They’d like to add a scoring winger or a forward I should say generally, “
He went on to say that the slide Winnipeg has been on is leading to further internal discussion. Dreger added the Jets don’t have a lot of draft picks stocked up. He went on to say general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is not eager to move out any more draft picks but they do have cap space. Reiterated they are “definitely in the market for a scoring forward”.
Lastly, Chris Johnston was on the Insider Trading panel alongside Dreger and he discussed pending UFA James van Riemsdyk of the Flyers and his availability. He was talking about him with respect to Vegas but then said:
“I wonder too about the other team you talked about Dregs, the Winnipeg Jets. There’s been some intel to connect those two as well. So maybe those two teams bidding on him.”
Sounds a lot like Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz could fit the bill of what Friedman/Dreger are saying as he has term (three more seasons at $5,850,000) and can put the puck in the back of the net (18 goals this season).
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