Healthy Scratch Reax: The fallout

The first thing is Evander has been a healthy scratch before. And Paul Maurice doesn’t pick his spots and he doesn’t worry about the consequences – they’re not coloured by the situation, meaning, they’ve lost four in a row, and they needed to win last night, but he doesn’t worry about that, that’s not part of the thought process for him.

There was an infraction, a rule was broken, and he just sort of says ‘okay, you’re not playing tonight’. There’s no thought in it. And to me that’s the benefit to having a guy who has coached 1000 games in the National Hockey League, and a guy who lives by his code and backs it up. So obviously this is a media storm today, it happened in Evander Kane’s hometown, I’m sure Evander was not happy when he got the news. So what?

You want to play on this team? You want to play 20 minutes a night, like you do? You want to get paid the way you get paid? You live under my rules as long as I’m the head coach and a lot of people are talking about this today… I think Paul Maurice probably endeared himself even more so in the city of Winnipeg today.”

This is what I know: I phoned a lot of people this morning, talked to a lot of people. I’ve been told it was discipline with a small d. It was an issue, but nothing sinister…

The circumstances are eerily similar. High-profile game? Check. Surprise scratch? Check. Tight-lipped coach not giving away much? Check. For the second time in less than a calendar year, Paul Maurice wasn’t offering many clues about a decision to bench Evander Kane. The first occasion was last April on a Saturday Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, the second was Tuesday in Vancouver, Kane’s hometown. Kane’s been hurt, but if this is injury-related, Maurice would say so. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff better charge his Mophie for Wednesday. He’s going to get 29 calls asking what’s happening.

The only difference is in the immediate aftermath. Last spring, Maurice was asked what it would take for the forward to get back into the lineup. He replied, “Probably just show up at the rink.” This time, the coach was non-committal.

Maybe Kane, duly chastised, will be back in the lineup on Friday with all forgiven. Or maybe Maurice has had enough and the team has decided that it’s time to cash in a depreciating asset. If Winnipeg decides to put Kane on the trading block, he’d become the top player available ahead of the March 2 deadline. The return for the Jets would be significant.

Dealing Kane would also send a message to the rest of the players. This is Maurice’s team. Buy in or pack your bags.

With Winnipeg traveling today we’re not expecting to get any updates from the team until Thursday. Should be an interesting 24 hours.

Evander Kane likes Vancouver. Check that. He loves Vancouver. You see him out and about in the offseason and you didn’t need a translator when the speedy winger was asked about his NHL career status. “Well, I think I’m a Winnipeg Jet right now,” the former Vancouver Giants standout told TSN 1040 in July. “We’ll see what happens.”

Fast forward to a stunning Tuesday development and you can’t help but feel that Kane played his trade-me trump card. On a day when the Jets desperately needed Kane to make a difference to end a four-game losing streak and cling to a wild-card playoff position, he held court with the media in the morning and was then a late healthy scratch for disciplinary reasons. It was for what occurred during the day — not very late the previous night – and with the winger’s family and friends in attendance at Rogers Arena, coach Paul Maurice did what he had to do to get to Kane. He scratched him.

All of this presumably brings us closer to the end of Evander Kane’s tenure in Winnipeg, something long overdue. He’s signed at $5.25 million through 2018. He’s the kind of young talent that other teams covet. The Jets can get back multiple pieces for him.

Oh, right, that would require Kevin Cheveldayoff to make a trade involving NHL players. Forget it…

Not getting full value for a player for off-ice reasoning means that a player who is perceived to be of poor character is more valuable to their current team than they will ever be on the trade market. The hockey world is a small, insular community and word travels fast. Unless the player is disturbing the team so badly that the team can simply no longer manage with the player in their midst, the team in question is almost always better off holding onto the player and letting them grow up or leave in free agency. Being forced into a move is the worst possible end to any concerns about a player.

The right time doesn’t always present itself to make a point. Paul Maurice wanted to make a point and he’s not going to compromise the way he thinks his team should behave, act, execute his kind of gameplan because of the timing.
I give him credit, because it took coura ge. It took a lot of courage to make that decision, but ultimately, it might be the wrong move short-term, but long-term, he gained a lot of credit among the players in that dressing room.