Cheveldayoff prepared for unpredictable off-season

WINNIPEG -In a season packed with uncertainty, Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has one piece of certainty going into the off-season: the salary cap number.

"Usually when I'm sitting here at this point in time at the end of the season, I'm saying 'I'm waiting for the cap number to be revealed' so I know what I'm working with," said Cheveldayoff. "There are going to be challenges with how to work with a flat cap. Not only now, but the cap moving forward as it's laid out. There's not a lot of expected growth because of the pandemic for the foreseeable future."

That number is $81.5 million, the exact same number Cheveldayoff had to work with throughout the 2019-20 campaign.

But just as this season was unlike any other - whether that be from Dustin Byfuglien retiring, to the 400-plus man games lost to injury, to the COVID-19 pandemic - this off-season prior to the December 1 start of the 2020-21 campaign will be equally as unpredictable.

"Those dates are all still in pencil until you see how everything unfolds over the next couple of rounds of the playoffs," said Cheveldayoff.

"The league is going to be ultra-cautious, ultra-conservative when it comes to the health of players and the people within this game. Any and all decisions I think regarding next season - format, games, what it looks like, testing, not testing, a lot of that, if not all of that - is going to be driven by science."

The Jets have 11 unrestricted free agents on the roster as well as four restricted free agents.

The RFAs include Mason Appleton, Jansen Harkins, Sami Niku, and Jack Roslovic. Of course, the Jets aren't the only team in the NHL that will have players to be signed, or qualifying offers to be sent to RFAs.

"Our RFA situations aren't as numerous as they were last year. We have some RFA work that does need to get done in that regard, so we'll look at that," said Cheveldayoff.

"Looking at the UFA market, I think you'll look at the trade market as well simply because maybe other teams' potential cap situations with the flat cap and see if there is anything there. You're probably going to see guys in the league not get qualified because of potential cap situations for other teams."

The UFA list includes names such as backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit, five forwards, and five defencemen. On the blue line, one of the names is Dylan DeMelo, who came over just before the NHL trade deadline in late February.

"I really appreciated what Dylan brought to the table from a play perspective and also from a person perspective. I thought he really fit in well," said Cheveldayoff.

"We'll definitely take a look at it. We haven't had any negotiations with his representatives, but there has been a constant communication with respect to the understanding that we think he's a good fit."

With the Stanley Cup Final expected to wrap up in early October (at the latest), the NHL's Free Agency period won't begin until the middle of October.

While that date - along with many critical dates - is still in pencil, Cheveldayoff and his team, along with head coach Paul Maurice, expect to have many conversations ahead of that day.

The Jets have only just begun the process of year-end meetings with the players, as the majority left to their off-season locations right from Edmonton following the Game 4 elimination by the Calgary Flames.

While Maurice feels it's too early to comment on the tone of those meetings, he does know there are some areas the Jets want to improve.

"What we do in front of our net and what we create in front of their net would be the two most glaring five-on-five areas. We got much better in how we moved the puck out of our end and how we entered the other zone," said Maurice.

"There is a drop off from last year to this year in a number of the analytics - zone times, things of that nature - that we'd like to see our group improve on."

Whether those improvements come from players maturing and improving - Maurice mentioned the growth of Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp, and Neal Pionk as examples of that - or by augmenting the roster, Cheveldayoff knows he has a solid core to work with.

"You have to look at your group, see what you have, and see realistically what's out there to fill whatever holes you think you may have," said Cheveldayoff.

"Some of the things that came at us maybe happened because of some of the competition that we have, but I like our group. I think there are opportunities to add around it."

The sting of elimination still hurts, but in the few conversations Maurice has had in the last couple of days, there is still the same belief that things are heading in the right direction.

"In the very preliminary exit meetings that we've just started to get into, there is an awareness in the leadership corps that there is a lot of right things," said Maurice. "We would be hopeful and expecting that we wouldn't suffer through the same kind of challenges we had this year, next."

The march toward next season doesn't start in training camp though. For Cheveldayoff, it starts now.

"This is where the busy time starts for us. We have the preparations for the Draft coming up, we have preparations for internal contract signings, we have preparations for free agency, and we have preparations for the unknown," said Cheveldayoff.

"There is lots of work to be done and we're ready for the task."