Today’s NHL trade deadline came and went without anything resembling a major deal being made. Despite a ton of speculation surrounding Rick Nash in the past few weeks, the Columbus star stayed with the Blue Jackets. The only player star player who was moved was Jeff Carter, also from CBJ, several days before the deadline.
One team that didn’t make any major moves but had to feel good about what they managed to accomplish was the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff made a couple of moves that fit nicely with the direction team ownership has been taking.
Firstly they sent Johnny Oduya to the Chicago Black Hawks in exchange for a 2nd and 3rd round draft choice in 2013. As well, they picked up defenseman Grant Clitsome off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets. These were moves made with the future in mind and not a run at the playoffs this year. That’s not to say they’ve written off the playoffs for this year, just that they likely didn’t feel they had enough depth to give up what they might need to in order to get significant talent in return. Cheveldayoff had probably been pretty encouraged by what he’s seen in terms of the team’s performance recently, making him content to pretty much stay pat for the time being. Instead they dealt away a player who’ll become an unrestricted fee agent in the off season and then filled that hole with a defenseman who’ll be capable of being a 5th or 6th d-man on the NHL roster. They also managed to lower their payroll as Clitsome is making about 2.8 million a year less than Oduya.
The Jets didn’t make a splash today, but they did manage to stay the course they’ve been charting so far by making a couple of competent, responsible moves with the idea of building a contender over the next several years.
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