The offseason, player's union, and re-tooled Jets, a sit down with Sean Croft

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA

This afternoon, I have the opportunity to sit with Winnipeg Jets General Manager Sean Croft, and address the state of the union so to speak. We talked about the offseason as a whole, as well as the upcoming season, this season's promotional schedule, and the latest in the NsHLPA Union uproar.

You've just completed your offseason with the addition of Ben Eager and the subtraction of Gabriel Bourque. Why make these moves if the team is trying to get younger?

Well Jay, very simply put, we weren't good last season. In fact, we were awful. Sam Reinhart is a fantastic consolation prize, but with that said, we expect more from our players. We had a very productive offseason, signing some big players to entry level contracts such as Malcolm Subban, Andy Andreoff, Ryan Sproul, and Calle Jarnkrok. All of these player will have a chance of making the team out of camp, although it is more likely that they end up in New Foundland. They benefit from that I think as they get to learn the game at a more competitive level, and they can get the proper amount of ice time. Still though, they are all good enough to steal a spot on the Jets roster, so this will keep some guys on their toes. The same can be said for Ben Eager. He is a veteran of this league with something still left in him. At worse, he is a top line player for the IceCaps.

The point is, I don't want to see any complacency. This is a team that is here to win, and we want the best guys possible. If you work hard, you'll play. If you don't, you won't period. As far as moving Gabby goes, he's a fine player, but at the end of the day, we added enough where frankly, he lost his job. Adding him to a press box didn't make a lot of sense to me. To be candid with you, we let a few depth players go, a few retired or went to Europe, but we didn't really send a message by moving someone who was viewed as being a mainstay here. I don't believe in keeping a team on the ice if the have the worst record in the league. Our fans expect better, and so do we. A message had to be sent. In doing so, we added a solid defensive forward in Jake Dotchin, and a third round pick in a very deep draft, so we are very happy with our return. We wish Gabby nothing but the best of luck and it wasn't anything personal, but at the end of the day, business is business and a decision had to be made.

This may seem like a stupid question, but do you believe this team is ready?

It's not a stupid question really. We swung and missed on a lot of Free Agents and a few of the prospects we expected to be here just aren't ready yet, or are still playing in Europe. It's a different look than we expected but that's not to say that we are unhappy. I'm very happy with this team. We saw some great growth from a few of our younger players. Obviously Ben (Scrivens) has grown, as has Ryan Ellis. Both of them participated in Player Development Practices, and have shown great strides, but the guy I'm really impressed with is Brock Nelson. We can't keep this kid off the ice. He has grown substantially this summer and we can't wait to see what he can do with Olli and Jaro.

What is your take on the latest involving the NsHLPA Union?

I see both sides of this argument. The Players Association wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't looking out for the best interest of the players. Guys come to a city, buy a home, get their children enrolled in school. This league, aside from fantastic financial compensation, is thankless. You are away from loved ones for months at a time, either being on the road or on the ice, you get battered, bruised, and abused, and everything you do is scrutinized by the media and the fans. With that said, thicken your skin. You're a hockey player, not a ballerina. You need to be tough mentally and physically to play in this league. And you are properly compensated, we can't lose sight of that. If you want to fly under the radar and come and go as you please, put on a suit, sit in a cubicle and make a twentieth of what you get here.

I could be fired with no notice, and no one would say or do a thing about it, my life would just have to move on. I said it before, business is business. If a guy loses their job, the team has a right to determine that it is time to move on. What is interesting to me is that certain players were moved because they wouldn't be getting ice time on their current teams, so they were moved to teams who would be getting that ice time. I'd assume that this was a good thing. You would think that guys want to play. To be honest with you, I think this is less about what happened in Calgary, and more about how there are teams who have a reputation for being revolving doors. They trade for a guy and if he doesn't score 5 goals in his first week, he gets moved. Players sign contracts and then teams decide a month later they no longer want to pay him so they put him on waivers.

I'm not speaking for everyone, just myself, but it goes back to what I said earlier about sending a message. Sometimes guys get made an example of. If it's someone with a track record, it doesn't have the same impact as someone who has more or less been flawless. It's not fair, but it is what it is. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Point is, we are still discussing this league-wide, so I guess the goal was accomplished. All I know is that I'm going to do what is best for the Winnipeg Jets, and if someone doesn't agree with it, then there's nothing I can do about it. 

The Jets have teased a few promotional nights over the last few weeks. Can you comfirm any of them?

Yeah definitely. We want to really give our fans a special season. Our first promotional night was set to be either Dale Hawerchuk night or Teemu Selanne night. We were waiting to see who we opened the season against. If it had been the Ducks, we would have had Teemu night. Any other team, and it would have been Dale. Unfortunately, we did have the tragedy this week in Ottawa, so instead we are going to have a military appreciation night for the home opener, regardless of who we are playing, and we will figure out the rest later. Each fan in attendance will receive a camouflage  long sleeve shirt. The front will have the Jets logo, and on the sleeve will be the Canadian flag. The players will also wear practice jerseys mirroring these shirts, which will be auctioned off at the end of the game. Each player will meet the person who purchases their jersey after the game and sign the jersey, take a few pictures. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Wounded Warriors.

As far as the Teemu and Dale nights go, their numbers will be retired, and each fan in attendance will receive a replica banner, but these aren't the 6 inch banners you buy online, these are like three feet long, so we think these will be big ticket events for us. We're also going to have a Christmas themed puck night, a few bobblehead nights, things like that. Those will be announced as soon as we get our schedule for the year. I'd say about half of our home games will have giveaways. Like we said, we want to give back to our fans. 

Jay Trotter
Jet Fuel