Things are looking bleak for the Jets as we head into the home stretch of the season. It’s been a disappointing season, but there is always hope… hope that next year will be better. With the playoffs out of the picture, it’s time to start thinking about their draft position and the possibilities of selecting a top young talent.
With every loss, the Jets increase their chances of getting a top three pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. For the first time ever, each non-playoff team will have a chance to secure the first, second, or third pick. In past years, only the first pick was up for grabs during the draft lottery. Each team will have different odds of winning a top spot. The team with the worst record will have a 20 percent chance of winning the draft while the best non-playoff team will have only a one percent chance. The team with the worst record will finish with a pick no worse than fourth overall.
Getting a top three pick in this year’s draft could be a huge boost to the Jets as they try to reconfigure a roster that made the playoffs last year. At the time of this writing, they have the third worst record in the league, giving them an 11.5 percent chance of winning the lottery.
There is no Connor McDavid in this year’s draft, but the top prospects are very talented. In fact, two of the top prospects have an interesting connection to the original Winnipeg Jets that left us so long ago. The number one ranked prospect, Auston Matthews, in a dynamic forward who is originally from Arizona. Here’s a kid who may only be interested in hockey because our old Jets moved into his neck of the woods. Imagine the irony of the Jets 2.0 franchise player coming from Arizona. Another top prospect with ties to Winnipeg is a kid by the name of Matthew Tkachuk. Yep, the son of former Jets 1.0 star Keith Tkachuk. It would be surreal to see another Tkachuk put on a Winnipeg Jets jersey.
Winnipeg currently has seven picks in the upcoming seven-round draft. They traded away their third round pick in a trade deadline deal last year to acquire Jiri Tlusty from Carolina. They do have two first round picks, though, since they acquired Chicago’s pick in the recent Andrew Ladd trade. That pick will most likely be a late-round pick, but it’s never a bad thing to stockpile early round picks. With Dustin Byfuglien recently resigned to a five-year extension, Ladd was the most desired Jets player among playoff contenders.
As tough as it is to watch your favourite team lose on a regular basis, it might be the best way to turn things around relatively quickly. Adding a player like Auston Matthews could make a huge difference.
And who knows? If Andrew Ladd likes Winnipeg as much as he says, maybe he'll sign back with Winnipeg in the offseason. Stranger things have happened. (I certainly wouldn’t bet on it, though.)
