NEWARK, N.J. — The Winnipeg Jets tried to trade for Brock Nelson. There were times when they thought they were going to acquire him. At one point, Jets head coach Scott Arniel had lines drawn up as if Nelson were part of the team.
It didn’t happen.
There is an element of mystery as to the reasoning. The simplest explanation is that Winnipeg made New York a competitive offer but Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello preferred Colorado’s package. It is also possible that Nelson declined to waive his no-trade clause — either before Colorado’s involvement or afterward. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff did not clarify the details at Prudential Center on Friday, saying only that decisions were made that were not within Winnipeg’s control.
“I’m not going to get into anything specific as far as what the different situations were,” Cheveldayoff said. “We put a real strong foot forward, and that’s where we’re at.”
Cheveldayoff succeeded in acquiring two depth players — Brandon Tanev and Luke Schenn — and the gap between their quality and that of Nelson and Mikko Rantanen created a lot of angst in Winnipeg on Friday. What if the Jets started their day as the favourites to emerge from the West and ended it as underdogs against the Avalanche or Dallas Stars? What gap existed has shrunk, with the Stars taking the top spot in The Athletic’s Stanley Cup odds.
So no, the Jets’ trade deadline was not a success. They named a target, lost that target, then watched as their rivals made major upgrades. That’s not the same thing as saying Winnipeg’s season has not been a success — or can’t be a playoff success — because the Jets are well built. It’s still a disappointing result, particularly amid an arms race in the Central Division.
Before Thursday night’s Nelson disappointment, Cheveldayoff had been on a torrid run as Jets GM, going as far back as the Andrew Copp trade in 2022, a deal that ultimately yielded Morgan Barron, Brad Lambert, Elias Salomonsson and Thomas Milic. Since that time, Cheveldayoff’s work acquiring — and retaining — Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov has cemented Winnipeg’s middle-six forward group. His Pierre-Luc Dubois trade brought back Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari. He opened his playbook to Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele, detailing his plans for the Jets to stay competitive if they stayed, then signed them to matching seven-year extensions.
Cheveldayoff’s fastidiousness is part of what got Winnipeg to the top of the NHL standings with $12 million worth of cap space to work with on Friday. (There’s a lens through which the Jets earned the opportunity to be disappointed by Friday’s missed opportunity by being the NHL’s top team in the first place.) The Jets are a great team with roster holes — holes they acknowledged by shopping for Nelson in the first place — and leaving cap space unspent probably wasn’t part of the plan when the week began.
So, what now?
Just having fun out there 😆 pic.twitter.com/qz6GuVT2Z4
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) March 8, 2025
The Jets’ players answered part of that question with a 6-1 drubbing of the New Jersey Devils on Friday night. Tanev was part of that, getting under Paul Cotter’s skin at one point as Winnipeg rallied around its new (and former) teammate.
We can do our part by acknowledging the reasons for the Jets to acquire Tanev and Schenn and by thinking critically about what played out this week. They’re both tenacious, competitive players with no cheat in their game. They both play hockey with a sense of “F— you for being here” level of abrasion toward their opponents that the Jets mostly lack. They also came at high prices — a 2026 second-round NHL Draft pick and 2027 fourth-round draft pick for Schenn and a 2027 second-round draft pick for Tanev — that underscore this year’s trade deadline as a seller’s market.
Winnipeg’s players will be glad to have them, even as Jets management set its sights higher and missed.
There are unique challenges facing management that also need to be acknowledged. Winnipeg makes frequent appearances on players’ no-trade clauses. Whereas one current Jets player recently shared a story about flying to Winnipeg with his wife for the first time and the feeling of relief it brought, many NHL players have limited perspectives on Winnipeg as a city. You saw that in our anonymous NHL players’ poll.
I asked Adam Lowry if it was all the more vindicating to win a decisive game after a week full of trade rumours and speculation that Winnipeg needed big upgrades. Lowry was candid in his response and proud of his teammates.
“The Brock Nelson deal hits, and anytime a big-name player is involved, you kind of hope he stays in the Eastern Conference or he doesn’t go within the division. And obviously, he goes to a divisional rival, a great team in Colorado. And then you hear the rumours about Rantanen going to Dallas. …
“I think what’s been so great about our group this year, regardless of the circumstances surrounding us, whether it’s back-to-back (games) or the outside stuff, we just go out there, put our heads down, put in the work, and the results seem to follow more often than not.”
The Jets could have let the trade deadline distract them from closing off their back-to-back games as effectively as they did. Lowry did his part to make sure Winnipeg’s players didn’t allow it, stealing a puck from Simon Nemec for a goal, winning nine of his 17 faceoffs, and helping the PK to a perfect night. It was a workmanlike effort that reflects Winnipeg as a city and has reflected the 2024-25 Jets for the overwhelming majority of the season.
“The way I look at how our team is made up, the way we play structurally, the way we can defend, we like our chances against any team,” Lowry said after the game. “We know it’s going to be a dogfight. If you want to win the Stanley Cup, you’ve got to beat four very good teams.”
If I were asked to set Stanley Cup odds, I would base my rankings on a team’s total quality, not just the quality of players added at the trade deadline. Hellebuyck still plays for the Jets, and his value doesn’t somehow diminish because the Jets drafted him in 2012 instead of trading for him this week. You can see this approach in the playoff probabilities, which continue to give Winnipeg the best odds of winning the Presidents’ Trophy and the fifth-best odds of winning the Stanley Cup. (Adding Nelson would improve Winnipeg to third-best Cup odds.)
Put another way: Winnipeg missed its second-line centre target but remains a top team. The Jets are still Stanley Cup contenders because of everything they got done before this week. Tanev and Schenn will bring feistiness and physicality. They won’t bring Nelson’s or Rantanen’s quality. They won’t necessarily have to, and that’s part of what makes Winnipeg a great team.
Winnipeg’s trade deadline result was, in no small part, a failure. The Jets named a need and missed out on filling it.
But Winnipeg’s playoffs don’t have to be a failure. Here’s a thought for the die-hard Manitobans: How delightfully Winnipeg would it be if these Jets — the ones who’ve chosen Winnipeg — banded together and went deep in the playoffs despite the shorter winters of Dallas and Denver?
Whether that’s a storyline you cheer for or not, the Jets’ deadline was an underwhelming chapter in an otherwise spectacular season.
(Photo of Brandon Tanev skating in his first game with the Jets against the Devils: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
