JN Roundtable – Reactions To The Extensions

When the news of extensions were being given by the Winnipeg Jets to both Paul Maurice and Kevin Cheveldayoff, reaction on social media was swift and varied. The same can be said for our backstage Slack channel where JetsNation staff including your’s truly, Tony D (@Tony_MBHKY on the Twitter), Cassie Moiser (@CassieMoiser on Twitter, Robert Dalton (@RougeDalts on Twitter) and WPG Chief (No Twitter, but be sure to check out his other work here)

Art M: Chevy extended… Maurice extended.. I’m not sure if I am ok with this or not. It feels like handing out the rewards before the actual results come in.

Tony D: A GM in a make it or break it year has one bullet if the team starts off poorly and that’s firing the coach. That bullet is gone. I can’t see any GM willingly doing that unless his hand is forced from higher up.

Art M: One thought I have.. Is this (TNSE Chairman, Mark) Chipman’s way of making sure Maurice is taken care of one way or another? If the Jets struggle early and are under .500 – which to me seems highly doubtful, but.. – even with the extension would they still fire PoMo? Maybe the extension just covers him money wise?

Tony D: I’m hearing they are both longer term 3+ years. That’s a big chuck of change I don’t see TNSE eating.

 

Art M: No I suppose not. One or two years I’d argue they’d eat.. but not three or anything more. This extension looks questionable now.. it’s going to look so awful if this team gets off to a bad start.

Robert D: After 6 years, I would prefer consistency in the right direction first prior to any long term (or short term) extensions.

Cassie M: I don’t know if they’ve deserved the extensions. It’s surprising for sure

Art M: The funny thing is the Jets gave Claude Noel a one year extension June 2013 before firing him In January the following year.. so it wouldn’t be unheard of for the team to do this but that was obviously a one year deal. I’d love to know what “multi” is or means.. That could be two years.. it could be three or more… I’m kinda reserving all my judgement until I find out how many years it is. Even if it’s just two it would be one of those “oh, you guys could fire him this season if it all good horribly wrong, but he and his family are still taken care of” type deals.

Tony D: A month ago I heard 4 years for both. Not sure if that true now.

Cassie M: Eww. 4 years is not good.

WPGChief: I get it, I understand it, but I can’t help but feel we are still stuck in neutral. It’s the same thing every year – couple of good signings, followed by a couple of bad signings; couple of good roster rumors, followed by news that Hendricks is probably going to be a regular on the team. These contracts feel more like “thanks for liking Winnipeg so much” instead of actually rewarding them for success in the past few years, but whatever. People keep pouring money into TNSE, so it’s not like they’re sweating over another possible lackluster season. Stability seems to be the motto here – until we let all our good vets go because they don’t want to stick around anymore. They can’t trust that loyalty will keep everyone around.

Chevy should have only been extended when he signs Trouba. Maurice should have only been extended when the team has a record above .500.

Art M: I also hate that they give no specifics beyond “multi-year” .. Feels so secretive.

Tony D: I get giving both 1 yr deals. Lame duck is gone. I keep hearing 4 yrs for Maurice but nothing on Chevy. Did Chevy get less term? You can bet you wouldn’t want that getting out. Something is up with the length of the contracts Chipman just said they won’t be released.

WPGChief: I thought Chevy + Maurice would be in it together at this point. If a coach ends up getting a longer contract than a GM when they both expire at the same time, I have serious questions about Hockey Operations and interference from ownership. Can’t wait for Chevy to be fired only for Zinger (Jets assistant GM Craig Heisinger) to take over as GM…

Art M: This team is starting to have the same “old boys club” feel that the Edmonton Oilers have had for more than a decade.

WPGChief: I’m so envious of the Leafs when it comes to their front office. They’ve hired so many good people lately, getting smart people working together to bring new ideas in. Yeah the Jets don’t have the same income MLSE does, but instead of spending $600k on a “glue guy”, they could really get smart people into the business.