Wheeler: "It's gotta be this year"

[Weezeric]

not according to wheeler it isn't.

Are you kidding me? You could ask wheeler about 30 different players in a row and he wouldn't say any of them aren't going to be on the roster....

 

[Ducky10]

Sorry I didn't catch the part of the interview where Wheeler said there shouldn't be any competition for the 20 man starting roster.

Exactly, my response was quoting the poster who seems to believe all 20 spots are already decided.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Lots of reading too much into Wheeler's statements. On the Hendricks statement of course he is going to say something positive about a new teammate. He could have been asked about the janitor at the iceplex and he would have responded how important clean bathrooms are. At this point Wheeler has no idea who Maurice will start on opening night other then the obvious players and his definition of team is much broader than most of ours. They are all the depth players and many of the guys on the Moose. The "its gotta be this year" is we have a team that is good enough to win enough and we will. I expect a lot more this is the year statements from a wide range of players over the coming weeks.

Yup.

I assume the players mean it too. It is true.

GJG

 

[ffh]

Sorry I didn't catch the part of the interview where Wheeler said there shouldn't be any competition for the 20 man starting roster.

19 are spoken for. 1 spot open with about 4 players fighting for it. I think wheeler knows who has the inside track.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

He should have came out and slammed the GM,Coach and especially that terrible player Hendricks....

 

[Howard Chuck]

I really like the fact that they are setting high expectations from the fans this year. This is far removed from the message of every other year.

I have to believe that ownership and management all believe that they can pull off a great year knowing how cautious they have been with their comments in the past. This is a great step forward imo.

Everyone knows the things that have to be done on the ice to improve (penalties, special teams, player utilization etc) and these are all things that can be fixed immediately for professional athletes and coaches. It looks like we have stopped evaluating and are going to start concentrating on being a successful team.

I hope!

 

[Ducky10]

19 are spoken for. 1 spot open with about 4 players fighting for it. I think wheeler knows who has the inside track.

You mentioned earlier all 20 spots were filled, with just the 2 pb spots to be decided.

Which is it?

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Yes, but like most media stories on the Jets they are a little out of touch with the team. Compliments our top 6 forwards naming each by name and includes Connor in that. Then call out the complete lack of depth beyond that ignoring the fact that they didn't mention Perreault.

Media picking the Jets to not make the playoffs is nothing new.
Most years we were predicted to finish in the bottom 2 or 3 of our conference and in some of those years we got 9th. The next year they predict us to finish at the bottom again. Oh well, playing underdog is certainly more fun (at times).

After the '15 season we were getting a lot of respect from the media, in spite of the clearly evident flaws in the team. Now, with a much stronger team, on paper - nothing.

We potentially have the best bottom 6 in the league - just a couple of coaching decisions away. Potentially. It certainly should be top 10, again - coaching dependent.

We have a top 6 that is also top 10 and possibly better.

Looking at our D corps, who is not strong in the D zone? Buff certainly can be but frequently isn't. He compensates with offense. Myers is less than great but we can look at him compared to 3rd pairing players now. He is pretty good by that yardstick and also kicks in compensating offense. The rest are solid and add offense too. Again, top 10 in the league as a group.

We have injury replacement players at both F and D who also rate well by the standard for PB players.

That leaves only goaltending and coaching as question marks. Our new starter is coming off a sub-par season but has been above avg. over the last 4. We can reasonably expect Bucky to be a solid backup.

Every team's goaltending has the potential to be a problem going into the season. You only need to look at last year's performances from Bishop and Schneider to see how unpredictable it can be. This might be Price's turn for an off year. There are 4-5 teams we would concede as most likely going to have outstanding goaltending. After those ours has as good a chance of being a strength as any of the others. I can't claim top 10 but we are probably somewhere between those top 5 and 20th.

That leaves coaching. Like the goaltending the last 6 years, we need somewhere close to league avg. I don't think there is any way to quantify that but if Maurice can just do a mediocre job we should be in.

 

[surixon]

I would say 70% of the roster is filled in ink, 20% with pencil and 10% up for grabs.

 

[YWGinYYZ]

I would say 70% of the roster is filled in ink, 20% with pencil and 10% up for grabs.

This is a much more reasonable take on things. There's no way that Wheels is going to bad-mouth anyone publicly, and he certainly doesn't have the last say on the roster for opening day.

 

[surixon]

This is a much more reasonable take on things. There's no way that Wheels is going to bad-mouth anyone publicly, and he certainly doesn't have the last say on the roster for opening day.

Yup. No coach purposely handcuffs themselves going into camp with an inflexible roster. They always allow for the possibility for a surprise or two or for a kid to be better than an ok vet or two.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Well the thing about a lot of the predictions from various media outlets is that they all do a similar thing - they ask the question "if the Jets make the playoffs, who falls out?" Then they decide that none of the other PO teams are going to give up their spot so therefore, we don't get in. Westwood has been doing this on 1290 for a while too. The reality is that the gulf between PO and non PO teams isn't so huge. Even with all the issues we suffered through last season, a few more wins and we'd have been in. League average goaltending probably gets us in a couple times over the past six seasons. If we win a few more games this season, we're in and one of the other "PO teams" gets to sit.

Good point. The gap between ~ the bottom 6 PO teams and the top 6 non-PO teams isn't just small, it is tiny. Sometimes it could come down to as little as a single play. In our case, the play that injured Little on his 4th shift of the first game might have been the difference maker.

Nashville is this year's media darling. They made it in by the skin of their teeth. They are expected to be better this year but they need to drop back by only a single point to make room for someone else.

 

[ffh]

Mason hellebuyck
Trouba buff Morrissey enstrom myers kulikov
Sheifele little lowry copp
ehlers laine wheeler Perreault connor mathias armia.
Who doesnt have a spot
I know some say mathias. But they are kidding themselves

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

I'd put money on Nashville not making it this year.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Great quote by Wheeler love it.

The AHL is for development, that's where Petan and Roslovic should be unless Scheif or Little goes down. Hendricks is essentially old Slater so take it for what it is. The dream of a young skilled 4th line isn't happening yet.

Matthias Hendricks Dano should be fine for 4th line and both wingers can move up without crippling the team.

Sorry Flair but I can't accept that. If Hendricks is our 4C this year someone needs to be fired. He is a year and a half older than Slater is, fcs. We would probably be better off bringing Slater back from Switzerland.

Certainly better off playing Copp at 4C if Lowry can't be bumped down to there. If the Jets really see Copp as a LW going forward that can only be if they also see Lowry as 4C, because otherwise Copp is our best candidate for 4C and just one of several LW's available for the 4th line.

 

[surixon]

Mason hellebuyck
Trouba buff Morrissey enstrom myers kulikov
Sheifele little lowry copp
ehlers laine wheeler Perreault connor mathias armia.
Who doesnt have a spot
I know some say mathias. But they are kidding themselves

I would say Mathias spot on the starting roster is in pencil. He missed most of last year and is a UFA at the end of the season. The org likely won't be afraid to give the spot to one of their prospects if they clearly win it in camp. There are also likely 2 or so spots in the bottom 6 that may change depending on chemistry and line composition. Lowry may find himself on the fourth if another line catches fore in preseason.

There is a middle 6 LW spot up for grabs and a PB spot up for grabs.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I would say Mathias spot on the starting roster is in pencil. He missed most of last year and is a UFA at the end of the season. The org likely won't be afraid to give the spot to one of their prospects if they clearly win it in camp. There are also likely 2 or so spots in the bottom 6 that may change depending on chemistry and line composition. Lowry may find himself on the fourth if another line catches fore in preseason.

There is a middle 6 LW spot up for grabs and a PB spot up for grabs.

I think middle 6 LW is pretty solidly MP and Connor. The only ?? is who plays on which line. The rest of the 3rd line is in pencil. The whole 4th line is up for grabs and the contenders depend on who gets inked into the 3rd line. The PB is filled from among those who don't win the 4th line jobs. Those who lose out in the 3rd/4th line battle will go to the PB, the Moose or waivers.

There is going to be a lot of competition for bottom 6 spots this year and some competition even for PB spots.

 

[KingBogo]

This is a much more reasonable take on things. There's no way that Wheels is going to bad-mouth anyone publicly, and he certainly doesn't have the last say on the roster for opening day.

Yup. No coach purposely handcuffs themselves going into camp with an inflexible roster. They always allow for the possibility for a surprise or two or for a kid to be better than an ok vet or two.

Yep and yep. The unknowns is what makes camp fun to watch and pre-season games worth attending. I do love the win now message from Wheeler and I'm hoping it is echoed by every single player in the run up to camp.

 

[DeepFrickinValue]

I would say 70% of the roster is filled in ink, 20% with pencil and 10% up for grabs.

15% contingency is needed for injuries. I am assuming 1.5 defencemen injured at any time and 2 forwards injured at any time. +/-25% up for grabs.

 

[libertarian]

After the '15 season we were getting a lot of respect from the media, in spite of the clearly evident flaws in the team. Now, with a much stronger team, on paper - nothing.

We potentially have the best bottom 6 in the league - just a couple of coaching decisions away. Potentially. It certainly should be top 10, again - coaching dependent.

We have a top 6 that is also top 10 and possibly better.

Looking at our D corps, who is not strong in the D zone? Buff certainly can be but frequently isn't. He compensates with offense. Myers is less than great but we can look at him compared to 3rd pairing players now. He is pretty good by that yardstick and also kicks in compensating offense. The rest are solid and add offense too. Again, top 10 in the league as a group.

We have injury replacement players at both F and D who also rate well by the standard for PB players.

That leaves only goaltending and coaching as question marks. Our new starter is coming off a sub-par season but has been above avg. over the last 4. We can reasonably expect Bucky to be a solid backup.

Every team's goaltending has the potential to be a problem going into the season. You only need to look at last year's performances from Bishop and Schneider to see how unpredictable it can be. This might be Price's turn for an off year. There are 4-5 teams we would concede as most likely going to have outstanding goaltending. After those ours has as good a chance of being a strength as any of the others. I can't claim top 10 but we are probably somewhere between those top 5 and 20th.

That leaves coaching. Like the goaltending the last 6 years, we need somewhere close to league avg. I don't think there is any way to quantify that but if Maurice can just do a mediocre job we should be in.

Good post.

As others have said before goaltending is Voodoo. League average goaltending and the Jets are in and probably in the top 3 in the central because I expect the Jets to score more this coming year then their top 7th in the league scoring performance last year.

 

[Royale With Cheese]

I like Wheelers desire to win and his passion on the ice.

You might say he's fueled by passion.

 

[JetsUK]

MP weighs in yet again -- non-controversially, this time:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2017/08/31/perreault-healthy-ready-to-go

 

[ffh]

MP weighs in yet again -- non-controversially, this time:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2017/08/31/perreault-healthy-ready-to-go

not you too matty. Hendricks in the room during a game. I thought for sure he was moose bound.

 

[surixon]

not you too matty. Hendricks in the room during a game. I thought for sure he was moose bound.

Yeah but he didnt mention anything about him playing :p.

Also the team is in the "room" substantially more than just during the games. The time a player spends in the games is miniscule to the time they are in the room for practice, working out, team meetings and video stuff.

 

[ffh]

Yeah but he didnt mention anything about him playing :p.

Also the team is in the "room" substantially more than just during the games. The time a player spends in the games is miniscule to the time they are in the room for practice, working out, team meetings and video stuff.

everybody knows when a hockey player says the room they are talking about the dressing room. and how many of those rooms you described would the younger players go quiet in. I'm sure younger players get quiet in games that they are losing in and not when they are working out or while watching videos.