Jets Nation Mailbag: Jets Surprises, Jakob Chychrun, and the best goalie of the early 2020’s

Be sure to check Betway to check out the latest Jets game day odds and bet on the NHL! Let’s take a dive into the mail and see, what has been the biggest surprise this season with the Jets? Would a Jakob Chychrun trade add anything to the team’s back end? Who is the greatest goalie of this generation?

My surprise is negative, sorry, but it is the Jets’ special teams. The penalty kill soared so high last season at 83 percent to end the season. They had seven shorthanded goals last season; it was a great penalty kill. The power play, like always, lacked last season but was 19 percent which is two percent better than where it is currently. The Jets this season will go games without a power play goal, and it’s shocking that it took so long to start to change things up with the extra man.

Both special teams are looking like they are going to get going soon. Nate Schmidt on the second unit has been a welcome little surprise. I hope things click for him there; he becomes a power play merchant and scores 20 assists and a handful of goals in the back half of the season.

Jakob Chychrun is a left-shot offensive defenseman. The pain that we have already gone through with Schmidt learning how to be more defensive would have to be done again, and the transformation from the offense-first mindset to the defense-first mindset would need to be completed before the playoffs, and that doesn’t sit right with me.

Also, Chychrun is a nepo baby within hockey who had scored double-digit goals twice in his career and has been a minus defenseman more seasons than not. He wouldn’t make the Jets any better, and I think whoever trades for him will ultimately overpay for his services.

Kevin Cheveldayoff is better off going out to get a mean defensive guy like Chris Tanev from the Calgary Flames or Adam Larsson from the Seattle Kraken. That’s if he makes a trade for the back end at all. The chemistry is there with the core six, and having Ville Heinola and Kyle Capobianco ready will be fabulous for the playoffs.

I’m framing this as who would I pick for a one-game, all-out best vs. best. As the GM of one of these fake teams, I am picking Connor Hellebuyck. Hearing how Chuck Hellebuyck talks about his son and the observations he was making as a 10-year-old child is mind-blowing.

Connor Hellebuyck isn’t the best athlete when compared to other goalies, still in better shape than I will ever imagine to be in, but Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy is the better athlete. But then you compare the hockey IQs of those two goalies. It’s Helle by a mile. When it comes to goalies, I want the guy who is working smarter, not harder.