Grading the Kevin Cheveldayoff at the trade deadline

Be sure to check Betway to check out the latest Jets game day odds and bet on the NHL! I originally tried to write this after the Winnipeg Jets were embarrassed by the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night but between the high emotions running and the heavy eyes I figured I should save this for Saturday morning. This is going to be based purely on the trade deadline and not on the game between the Oilers and the Jets. Come together friends as I look at what Jets General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff did and did not do at the trade deadline.

I really like this trade I’ll even give it an “A”. The Jets needed a top-six forward for the playoff push. With Cole Perfetti out with an injury again. The price is right with a price tag of just four million dollars for next season. Already the 6’2 forward has a point with the Jets and has been working his tail every shift and has been a menace on the ice. The fact the Jets managed to get Niederreiter for only a second-round pick in 2024 is a massive reason why Cheveldayoff gets such high praise from me here.

Think about how deep the Jets’ wings will be when Perfetti gets back into the line-up, assuming they are still playing at that time. Getting Nino for the group was great he was cheap, he is a veteran, he brings grit to the line-up and has another year of term on his contract. This was a solid trade made by Cheveldayoff.

This was a solid add by the Jets GM for the bottom six. He does bring a more defensive game and moves one of the Jets’ bottom sixers out of the line-up. This is just a rental for the end of the season but only paying a fourth-round pick in 2025 and only costing the Jets a cool 1.25 million dollars in cap space isn’t a price worth complaining about. This add also hopefully signifies a playoff push. It’s not a sexy or overpriced addition like James Van Riemsdyk. It does make the Jets wingers that much better and comes in significantly cheaper.

Adding a legit veteran who has already played for Rick Bowness twice is phenomenal being part of nine different clubs since 2018 is less than ideal. I do like that we got another veteran hopefully it helps this team find another solid voice in the room overall this one gets a B- from it didn’t need to happen but it does help and again if Perfetti comes back the Jets’ wings will be very deep.

Cheveldayoff got things done that will make the Jets forward group better this season and next. But one of the things that I think Jets fans were left feeling disappointed by was the fact that he didn’t go and get another defenceman. A top-four defenceman would have put the Jets over in the West.  Cheveldayoff also talked about the fact the core of the Jets is a group he believes in. That’s fine and all but we’ve seen this core do the same thing over and over since 2019. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again.

The way the Jets have been getting shelled lately should have screamed to Cheveldayoff there needs to be a solid defender added to the Jets’ back end to give Hellebuyck support. The Jets also could have used another right shot forward as well and they didn’t get one.  Maybe because there was so much noise around this deadline and mixed in with the fact it feels like the Jets window is this year and maybe next year fans feel a little deflated by this deadline.

We didn’t get the big shiny toy we wanted but there were some additions and they will help the Jets over the last 20 games of the season and hopefully well into the playoffs. Maybe I’ll come back to this trade deadline in the summer and have totally different thoughts.

Long and short the Jets’ GM got some good things done and probably could have been a little more aggressive and maybe could have overpaid for one more player but to make the money shake out would have been more difficult than we know.