The calendar is about to change over to 2020. It’s the start of a new year and a new decade. It’s the time when a lot of people throw around the phrase “New Year, New Me” when talking about their resolutions. Resolutions range from eating healthier and being more active to getting that promotion at work.
And in the case of the Jets, it should include improving defensively.
General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and head coach Paul Maurice have been around the league long enough to understand when a team is overachieving and producing unsustainable results. They must realize that the Jets are overachieving this season.
They took a defensive group that used to be ripe with talent and replaced most of it with inexperienced, undersized, and cheaper defenders. Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck has bailed out the team countless times this season.
The size and experience of this year’s Jets don’t resemble a team ready to make a deep playoff run. So where does the team go from here?
The first option has no short-term or long-term impact. The organization could simply decide that the 2019–2020 season is a rebuilding year, do nothing to improve, and accept the high likelihood of a first-round exit from the playoffs, if the Jets are able to make it that far.
This option seems most plausible.
A second option has high short-term impact, and minimal long-term impact. Adam Lowry has earned a reputation for shutting down other teams’ top lines. He has earned more ice-time and would benefit from moving to defence. Lowry is a big, strong man with above-average defensive awareness. He shouldn’t have an issue protecting high-danger areas in front of his net and throwing his weight around in the corners. I would suggest that the Jets could move him to defence for the remainder of the season as a test. And who knows? Maybe he would thrive in that role.
Chalk this idea up as one so crazy it just might work.
The third option, and my least favourite, has the highest impact both short-term and long-term: trading Jack Roslovic. This may make sense, given his contract situation. Roslovic is a restricted free agent at the end of the year and will be asking for a significant salary increase. Roslovic has done an excellent job playing on several different lines, in all roles on the team, and he’s demonstrated that he can be a top-six forward in this league.
Cheveldayoff needs to determine if the Jets can afford Roslovic long-term. If they cannot, Cheveldayoff should be looking to move Roslovic for an experienced top-four defender, such as Calgary Flames defenceman Travis Hamonic or Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere. Such a trade would require more than Roslovic, but he would be a good conversation-starter. Roslovic plus a prospect or draft pick should be able to get it done.
The Jets have worked hard to give their team a chance to compete for a playoff spot and the new defenders deserve a lot of the credit, but the management team will have to make some big decisions in the next couple of months. They need to decide whether they’re viewing this season as a chance to rebuild, a chance to get the new defenders some experience, or expecting a deep playoff run. Only time will tell which direction they take.
