WINNIPEG — It wasn’t long ago that there was a negative perception surrounding the Winnipeg Jets’ locker room.
The room had one voice and one voice only, and players weren’t pulling on the same rope. The team itself was mediocre, cemented firmly in the mushy middle — not bad enough to get a high lottery pick, not good enough to make noise in the playoffs.
Nowadays? They have a gold standard of a locker room. Their culture is their engine.
The way this team rallied around Mark Scheifele in the aftermath of his father’s passing was in line with everything we’ve seen over the last three years. Be it when Neal Pionk lost his close friend, Adam Johnson, to a tragic accident during a hockey game in England or when former coach Rick Bowness had to step away after his wife’s health scare, this is a group that’s well-versed in supporting one another through hardship.
“You can’t talk about being a family. You act like being a family,” Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff told reporters at his season-end availability on Wednesday. “And I was really proud of how all our players came together. But it’s not surprising. As a group this year, that’s what it’s been about. They’ve held each other accountable behind the scenes more so than people even know. They’ve been hard on each other, they’ve pushed each other, they’ve argued with each other. But that’s what you strive for in a team.”
They’re a group of brothers. And assembling that doesn’t happen overnight. Contrary to what most armchair GM’s believe, Winnipeg can’t build a team overnight. No-trade clauses get in the way of any chance of the Jets revamping nearly their entire roster mid-season, like the Colorado Avalanche did this year. They can’t trade two core players for a superstar, like the Florida Panthers did when they levelled up for Matthew Tkachuk.
Year after year, there hasn’t been a lot of change with this core — even when times were tough. And in the past, it’s led to many viewing the Jets’ lack of roster turnover negatively. ‘Same ol. Same ol.’
But there’s something to be said about the importance of continuity when trying to build a winner in the NHL’s smallest market.
“You want to develop a core of players that care for each other, that play for each other,” Cheveldayoff said. “I’ve always believed that you do that through drafting them and developing them and growing them and then retaining them.”
This team’s core has all been drafted and developed by the orginization. And they’ve each decided to re-sign. They’ve been here through the good and the bad and that’s why there’s such a desire to not just win, but to do it together.
Adam Lowry has become one of the best leaders in the sport.
Josh Morrissey has never shied away from demanding accountability publicly.
Scheifele and Kyle Connor have always elevated their games in the playoffs.
The next generation is blossoming, too — with Dylan Samberg and Cole Perfetti taking massive steps forward this season.
This doesn’t happen overnight. And people around the league take notice.
“We heard from so many different people outside of our organization, (about) the caring and compassion this group has for each other,” Cheveldayoff said. “You can never force a player to want to play somewhere. But I know if I were one of them, I’d want to play in a place where I matter. I matter to the fans, I matter to my teammates and I matter to the thought of trying to win a Stanley Cup. And in the future there may be guys that don’t want to. We’ll move on. We’ll find the guys that do. And we’ll do our best to make this city proud.”
