WHT’s faves of the week-
These Tweets caught my eye. Some were funny and some were informative and some weren’t even about hockey. Please don’t be upset if I include the odd Tweet of my own. [Read more…]
Random Thoughts On The Winnipeg Jets: Aug. 16
August 16, 2021 by
Mitch Kasprick is the “Motown Curmudgeon” aka “Motown Mitch”
Odds and Ends, Thoughts and Questions, from this past week in hockey –
Just so there’s no confusion when I’m spewing my bias, I am a fan of the Winnipeg Jets, Arizona Coyotes, Manitoba Moose, Winnipeg Ice, and all Team Canada Hockey teams.
I am NOT a fan of Gary Bettman or as I call him, Count Chocula. I am a big believer in the 7Ps. You’ve been warned.
1. WHT: Lots of boring but important covid-19 and vaccination thoughts this week. With all the news that came up this past week about vaccinations and league protocols it must mean we must be getting closer to the start of the 2021-22 season.
2. Jets: The Winnipeg Jets and Neal Pionk have agreed on a four-year contract with an average annual value of $5,875,000 per season. Now with the Pionk signing the Winnipeg Jets top five defencemen are set. I would expect to see Logan Stanley, Ville Heinola, Nate Beaulieu, Dylan Samberg, and maybe even Sami Niku get some time in the 6th spot.
3. Jets: The Winnipeg Jets and Andrew Copp avoided arbitration and agreed on a one-year contract with an average annual value of $3,640,000. Copp gets a good one-year deal with the ability to work on longer term deal after Jan.1 or he can wait and test the free agaent market on July 1st. Andrew Copp did say in his presser that he was looking for a 4-5 year deal but realized it wasn’t possible with the team’s lack of cap space.
4. Jets: No sooner had I written this and boom.
With the 2021-22 season only a few weeks away I can’t help wonder what the health orders will be for attending Winnipeg Jets games? I’m sure there are thousands of season ticket holders wondering as well. If Manitoba is only allowing fully vaccinated fans for outdoor Blue Bomber games I can’t see them allowing unvaccinated fans indoors. Stay tuned.
TNSE dropped this nugget on the sports world being the first NHL team to do so.
5. NHL: The NHL sent a memo updating vaccination requirements to its teams:
“Any person whose job, role, position or access entails or entitles them to have personal interactions (within 12 feet) with Club Hockey Operations personnel (including Players) are required to be Fully Vaccinated.”
The first thought that came to mind was why is everybody involved with the teams required to be vaccinated with the exception of the players? This makes ZERO sense to me. Then this got me wondering if I would want to know which players on my team weren’t vaccinated and how I would feel about them if I knew?
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6. Jets: Not to be overlooked, the Winnipeg Jets signed defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic to a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value in the NHL of $750,000. Kovacevic has made a nice slow rise in the organisation’s defenceman depth chart to the point he could actually see some NHL minutes in the not to distant future.
7. Jets: There are a lot of happy Jets fans after the announcement that the Heritage Blue jerseys will become the official third jersey of the Winnipeg Jets and will make their debut Nov. 9 vs. St. Louis and will be worn a total of 14 times throughout the season.
8. Jets: Anybody that spends any time on Twitter knows you will be exposed to all kinds of bad takes and that is what kind of makes it fun. I can deal with a lot of horse shit on Twitter but there was an IDIOT this past week that kept harping and droning on how awful Blake Wheeler was and for some reason this really set me off. I have been critical of the captain at times in the past but this guy took it to a completely different level. Is Wheeler on the back nine of his career? Yes. Is he a first line winger now? Probably not but Paul Maurice thinks he is. Is he now overpaid? Yes. The truth is he should be on the second line now but he is still an elite passer and can still run the top powerplay unit. He played hurt for a good portion of the season and it was very obvious. He was not very good at times but he still managed to put up 15 goals and 31 assists for 46 points in 50 games. That is a long way from being awful. This little shit stain on Twitter obviously doesn’t like Blake Wheeler and took it too far. Based on his other tweets I think you could fit his hockey knowledge into a thimble.
9. NHL: This past week NHL players were strongly encouraged by the NHL Players’ Association to get fully vaccinated and warned about potential loss of pay during the upcoming season if they do not do so. The NHLPA discussed the potential for teams to withhold paychecks should an unvaccinated player contract COVID-19 or if an unvaccinated player can’t accompany his team on road trips where local or federal authorities require vaccinations to enter.
10. Jets: Going into camp most Winnipeg Jets fans think this is the biggest talking point.
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11. IIHF: If the NHL comes to an agreement with the IOC and goes to the Olympics, Hockey Canada has announced the coaching staff that will lead Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team in Beijing, China.
Jon Cooper (Prince George, B.C./Tampa Bay, NHL) has been named head coach. He will be joined by assistant coaches Bruce Cassidy (Ottawa, Ont./Boston, NHL), Peter DeBoer (Dunnville, Ont./Vegas, NHL) and Barry Trotz (Dauphin, Man./New York Islanders, NHL).
12. Jets: Mark Chipman and the Winnipeg Jets announce tribute to Hawerchuk on 40th anniversary of first contract. Details 👉👉👉👉 here.
13. NHL: For those of you that like to partake in a little sports betting single game wagering in Canada starts on Aug 27.
14. Jets: After getting Andrew Copp, Logan Stanley, and Neal Pionk signed and squeezed in under the salary cap, Kevin Cheveldayoff has never had an approval rating as high as it is right now in his eleven years as Jets GM.
15. CFL: The Winnipeg Blue Bomber improved their record to 2-0 with a solid 20-7 win on Friday night. They have only given up one touchdown in each of their first two games.
In memory of my friend Darryl Manchulenko.
If you have any questions, please give me a shout. You can use the comment section or use the #ASKWHTPOD hashtag on Twitter.
If you like our new format, let us know in the comment section or hit me on Twitter at WpgSportsTalk or WpgHockTalk
If you are interested in writing for Winnipeg Sports Talk or if you know somebody interested, please contact us at:
We are looking for writers to cover the Winnipeg Jets, Manitoba Moose, The Winnipeg ICE, Manitoba Bisons, Winnipeg AAA, MJHL, MMJHL, KIJHL, and Winnipeg High School or any sports team in town.
If you have any thoughts on any of these comments or questions, please let me know. We would love to hear your opinions.
Thanks, Mitch
Winnipeg Jets Select Nikita Chibrikov In The 2nd Round
July 31, 2021 by
Jets nab crafty winger in round 2
The Winnipeg Jets dipped into relatively untested waters with their second round pick, visiting Russia and grabbing winger Nikita Chibrikov 50th overall. The Jets have drafted just two Russians since the team’s move to Winnipeg in 2011, spending a pair of sixth round picks in the process. Pavel Kraskovsky, whom the Jets still own the rights to, went 164th overall in 2014, and current Manitoba Moose netminder, Mikhail Berdin, went 157th overall two years later in 2016. Chibrikov becomes the team’s highest drafted Russian, and with good reason. [Read more…]
Random Thoughts On The Winnipeg Jets: Oct. 12
October 13, 2020 by
Mitch Kasprick is the “Motown Curmudgeon” aka “Motown Mitch”
Odds and Ends, Thoughts and Questions, from this past week in hockey –
Just so there’s no confusion when I’m spewing my bias, I am a fan of the Winnipeg Jets, Arizona Coyotes, Manitoba Moose, Winnipeg Ice, and all Team Canada Hockey teams.
I am NOT a fan of Gary Bettman or as I call him, Count Chocula. I am a big believer in the 7Ps. You’ve been warned.
1. Jets: The highlight for me last week was the Winnipeg Jets having Cole Perfetti fall into their lap at #10 in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Perfetti is the highly-skilled center the Jets have been seeking. He fills a real organisational need and could be ready to play in a couple of seasons. He could surprise and push for the 3C spot in camp, you never know. I compare him to Mathew Barzal.
2. NHL: For the first time ever the NHL season kind of actually finished (Sept. 28) during hockey season.
3. Jets: The next biggest news in Jetsland was Kevin Cheveldayoff acquiring Paul Stastny from the Vegas Golden Bettmans. Stastny will help fill the void at the 2C spot now that it has been confirmed that Bryan Little won’t be playing.
4. Jets: I disagree with Jets fans that say the Winnipeg Jets helped Vegas out of their cap problem by taking Paul Stastny off their hands but I think Kevin Cheveldayoff took advantage of their cap problems. In what world would you ever get Paul Stastny for Carl Dahlstrom (waiver wire pick-up) and a 4th round pick? It was a wash at worst.
5. NHL: At the start of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft on Tuesday night, Gary Bettman announced their goal was to try and start the 2020-21 season on Jan. 1. I have no idea or even have a guess what the plan is but I don’t see a bubble being feasible.
6. Jets: Looking back at last week’s happenings the Dylan DeMelo contract extension got lost a little bit after the Jets announced the Paul Stastny trade. DeMelo was a nice fit for the Jets right off the bat and he played very well with Josh Morrissey. The only problem I see is that he is not a top pairing defenceman although he might be on this team and therein lays the problem.
7. Jets: Paul Stastny didn’t have to waive his no-trade clause this time when traded to the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets were actually on his shortlist of teams he would go to. That is a little refreshing.
8. NHL: I’m not a fan of no-trade and no-movement clauses. Players shouldn’t be able to have it all, big money and term and then piling on with no-movement clauses. In my opinion NTCs and NMCs actually create an unfair playing field within the NHL and it hampers the ability for GMs to make trades. The NHL has enough imbalance with teams in certain states having no taxes and warmer climates. This makes it tougher on a lot of markets and especially Canadian teams. I would propose some sort of grandfathering out of NMC and NTCs. It would be for the good of the game and level the playing field a little bit although I don’t see the NHLPA ever agreeing to that and unfortunately, I don’t see the owners picking that as a hill they want to die on during collective bargaining If I were an owner in a Canadian market I would be pushing for it. By the way, when was the last time a Canadian team was in the Stanley Cup Final? Hmmm. (see #7)
9. Jets: There were lots of rumours over the weekend that the Jets were in on talks to acquire Nate Schmidt from Vegas and were involved in other talks to acquire a top-4 defenceman. The good news is Patrik Laine or Nikolaj “don’t call me Nik” Ehlers names weren’t involved. It looks like the Winnipeg Jets are dangling Jack Roslovic as their trade-bait and I’m okay with that as long as it is a good hockey trade.
10. Jets: Disclaimer alert: This is coming from the ex-scout in me. My annual rant to give the scouts a little love.
The Jets had a decent draft and mostly because of getting Cole Perfetti but GMs get too much credit for drafting good players. The GM may stand at the podium and make the pick but the scouts do all the work. The GM is responsible for the day-to-day roster and the scouts are responsible for the draft prospects although the GM does get the final say but remember the scouts do all the leg-work. Now I feel better.
11. NHL: It was funny to hear an analytics guy like Kyle Dubas talk about being harder to play against, adding some grit, and adding character to the room. I know you can’t paint all analytics guys with the same brush but some of them actually get snooty if you mention intangibles.
12. Jets: Based on their lack of an impact signing or trade to bolster their top-4 defencemen the Jets are telling me two things – they had no luck in trying to lure UFAs to Winnipeg or they’re not having any luck trading for one. I can’t help but wonder if they are putting too much hope on Dylan Samberg and/or Ville Heinola filling the void this season. The good news is Heinola is playing hockey in Finland. The bad news is Samberg hasn’t played any meaningful hockey since March. Now in saying this there is a lot of time between now and when the season starts so stay tuned.
13. Jets: Defenceman Derek Forbort was a decent signing as long as he is slotted in the right spot. Forbort was Drew Doughty’s regular partner when he was playing for the LA Kings. Forbort will add some much-needed size and experience to the Jets blueline but he is not the big fish Winnipeg Jets fans are looking for. Sorry, Derek, there is no Doughty’s on this blueline.
14. UFAs: I was hoping players like Erik Haula as a 3rd line center or Nick Cousins as a 4th line center and players like defencemen TJ Brodie, MacKenzie Weegar, or Travis Hamonic were on Chevy’s radar as acquisitions via free agency or trade. So far …. NO.
15. NHL: Important date:
Oct. 18 – Sunday … RFA Qualifying offers expire.
16. Jets: Headcount as of this weekend. Lots of new toys but some are broken.
In: Paul Stastny … Nate Thompson … Derek Forbort … Dominic Toninato
Returning: Dylan DeMelo … Nathan Beaulieu … Luca Sbisa … Laurent Brossoit
Out: Carl Dahlstrom … Anthony Bitetto … Logan Shaw
The good: Cole Perfetti, Paul Stastny, Derek Forbort.
The bad: Nate Thompson
The ugly: Luca Sbisa
The meh: Nathan Beaulieu, Dominic Toninato
17. Jets: Maybe it’s time for Chevy to contact his old team and see if he can bring home a disgruntled Jonathon Toews. That $10, 500,000 for 3 more years would be a problem though. What if the Hawks retained half?
18. RIP Eddie Van Halen … gone too soon.
In memory of my friend Darryl Manchulenko.
If you have any questions, please give me a shout. You can use the comment section or use the #ASKWHTPOD hashtag on Twitter.
If you like our new format, let us know in the comment section or hit me on twitter at WpgSportsTalk or WpgHockTalk
If you are interested in writing for Winnipeg Sports Talk or if you know somebody interested, please contact us at:
We are looking for writers to cover the Winnipeg Jets, Manitoba Moose, The Winnipeg ICE, Manitoba Bisons, Winnipeg AAA, MJHL, MMJHL, KIJHL, and Winnipeg High School or any sports team in town.
If you have any thoughts on any of these comments or questions, please let me know. We would love to hear your opinions.
Thanks, Mitch
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Winnipeg Jets Draft Daniel Torgersson With Pick 40
October 7, 2020 by
Jets add to their prospect pool –
The Winnipeg Jets added Daniel Torgersson to their prospect pool with the 40th pick on day two of the 2020 NHL Draft. [Read more…]
