Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice reacts after a replay overturns an awarded goal against the San Jose Sharks in the third period at SAP Center at San Jose.John Hefti/The Associated Press
In October, on the eve of the NHL's 2015-16 regular season, Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice made a point about his team's prospects that turned out to be wholly prophetic.
"I think you can make forward strides in the Central Division and not know about it," Maurice said – and on some levels, he was right. For the last handful of years, the Central has served as the National Hockey League's gold standard. Two years ago, every team accumulated 90 points or more, so for the Jets to make the playoffs then was an extraordinary accomplishment.
This year, they went with a younger team that may get younger still next year and ultimately paid the price, managing just 78 points to finish last in the division.
In the bottom-line world of professional sport, a 21-point slide is unquestionably a setback. But the Jets have never sacrificed development to expediency, or the siren call of trying to fast track a rebuild.
NHL general managers rarely say this when they dissect a lost season, but every draft-and-develop organization that's doing it right eventually gets to a point where a championship window opens. At that point, you have to amend the slow-but-steady approach and do what you can to give your team a chance to win big.
The Jets are not there yet; and they probably won't be for a couple of years, either.
Their window will open when goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has established himself as an NHL starter, when Jacob Trouba has evolved into a top-two defenceman and when Mark Scheifele becomes an elite No. 1 centre.
Scheifele showed flashes of that down the stretch – he was actually the NHL's scoring leader from Feb. 18 until the end of the season, scoring 34 points in 26 games. Among the more established players, Blake Wheeler turned into a star – he finished the year on an 11-game point-scoring streak and ended up tied for sixth in NHL scoring.
The decision to move captain Andrew Ladd for prospect Marko Dano and a first-round pick hurt them short term, but will ultimately pay off down the road.
The loss to injury of centre Bryan Little was a setback, but over all, the Jets were mostly done in by erratic goaltending, suspect special teams, a lack of discipline and perhaps the year-long distraction provided by the uncertainty over Ladd's and Dustin Byfuglien's uncertain contract status.
The Jets started the year with three rookies up front and a fourth player – Alex Burmistrov – was just back from Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.
They were pivoting from a big physical team that was hard to play against to a smaller, quicker group, featuring the likes of Nikolaj Ehlers, who showed great promise but lacked the consistency that so many young players do.
Kyle Connor, their top pick in last year's NHL entry draft, is a high-end scoring talent. Connor signed a professional contract Monday, and will get a chance to crack the lineup next year.
When Maurice joined the Jets back in January, 2014, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff laid out the organizational blueprint for him – they would identify a core and then slip younger players coming through the developmental pipeline into the lineup when they were ready.
"I want to continue along with that," Maurice said Monday during the end-of-season news conference. "I think that's the direction we're taking. That's where we're at.
"But I'm not going to come here and sell you pain for five more years. At the end of the day, I don't care who is in that lineup, we're going to figure out a way to win with that group. We're going to put that expectation in our room. Instead of saying, 'Just come out and try hard fellas, and in five years, we're there.' Blake Wheeler doesn't want to hear that. He doesn't want to play like that. Our expectations have to be higher. The players have to be under that pressure – because I think they develop faster."
Youth, in other words, will be served again next year in Winnipeg, but not blindly or without consequences.