“This year, to me, is different,” Arniel said Saturday morning. “Because there are so many teams that are still in the hunt, specifically in the East. There are way more teams that are, ‘Are we in, or are we going to be out?’ You’re watching the league and seeing that maybe there are some healthy scratches all of a sudden happening.
“But I think it will happen, starting today and moving into the rest of the week, that things will start to shift.”
Sure enough, not long after Arniel spoke to reporters, division rival Colorado, in a wildcard playoff spot, swung a deal with the New York Rangers, the Avalanche acquiring defenceman Ryan Lindgren and forward Jimmy Vesey.
Another division rival, albeit one out of the playoff picture, Nashville, planned to scratch Gustav Nyquist from their Saturday lineup as they tried to work out a deal involving the veteran forward.
Arniel predicted his team would be in the hunt for help right up until next Friday afternoon’s deadline.
“The one thing about Chevy, they do their homework,” Arniel said of Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and his scouts. “We’re going to take this right to, what is it, 3:00 in the east? To see what’s available. Because if you have a chance to make yourself a little bit better then you need to do that.”
Cheveldayoff’s history suggests he’ll do something to try to make his team better, even if it’s already one of the best in the NHL.
Some players pay more attention to all the trade chatter than others, some approaching it as fans.
Once they hear they’re getting a new teammate or two for what they hope will be a long playoff run, they’re all-in.
“When moves are made… then there’s the excitement,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said. “We try and put ourselves in the best position possible to make the organization feel like we have a chance to go on a run and potentially win the Stanley Cup. And if they feel like to push us over the top we need to add, then so be it.”
Winger Morgan Barron says he tries not to pay too much attention to all the noise at this time of year.
“There’s a lot of mindless stuff going around, or things that don’t necessarily have a lot of validity to it,” he said. “And, obviously, I’ve been traded at the deadline before, so that’s always interesting. You never know what happens.”
Barron had no idea he was going to be sent to Winnipeg as part of the Andrew Copp trade in March of 2022.
“I found out probably an hour after the deadline had closed,” he said. “So that definitely caught me off guard, too. Looking back on it, it was obviously a great new opportunity for me. And obviously now to be here and playing for the top team in NHL at the moment is a blessing. So, yeah, it was a great day looking back on it.”
A team riding as high as the Jets isn’t likely to swing a big deal.
“Usually when you do have a good team, you’re probably looking for depth, you’re not looking for the blockbuster,” is how Arniel put it.
There’s an argument to be made for the Jets standing pat, too, an option the coach didn’t discount.
The captain also sees both sides of that argument.
“Sometimes you add and the adds don’t necessarily gel,” Lowry said. “You look at the teams that have gone on long runs and stuff and the laundry list of injuries that come out at the end of playoffs, depth is always important. It’s always important that you have pieces that can step up and fill roles.”
“Obviously things have worked well here,” Barron added. “But playoffs are a different animal. We’ve seen that the last few years.”
Despite making moves, the Jets have suffered first-round playoff knockouts each of the last two seasons.
