I don't think it gives hope to Canadian teams at all, especially in the case of the Jets. Carolina has advantages that Canadian teams don't have, despite being a small market US team. Yeah, Carolina isn't your first choice if you're an American but they're a well-run franchise with an incredible owner. That goes a long way. A lot of players don't want to play in Canada - full stop, period. Even more players don't want to play in Winnipeg and quite honestly, I think it's time that the franchise took a step back and recognized that it's become an issue of not wanting to play for Chipman + Chevy just as much as it is not wanting to play in the city. Our ownership and front office is awful and I don't want to hear the excuses of "well, it's the toughest job in the NHL." Great, invest in things that will make it easier. We are a draft and develop team who sucks at drafting and sucks even worse at developing. The Jets have done an absolutely pitiful job of recognizing what players on the way up value, which leaves no doubt as to why we easily lead the league in "players asking for a trade" over the past 10 years. Is no one on the Jets waking up to WHY that is happening? I understand the challenges our franchise faces with attracting players but we make it SO much worse on ourselves. We beat the creativity out of almost every young prospect, we make them earn their way through the ranks of a system that forces them to get in line with playing OUR style of hockey while forcing their style out of them, we make them toil in the AHL ranks far too long and then give them inconsistent opportunities with the NHL club alongside low skill players that don't compliment them whatsoever. It's not the "small big city" mentality where we think we hear all the secrets that other teams don't because everyone knows everyone in Winnipeg. It's the fact that a lot of our young players are incredibly disgruntled and honestly, I think having our AHL team in Winnipeg as well is a huge detriment - imagine being a 20 year old first round draft pick, you are weighing your options on how you'd like your career path to play out and you are stuck in Winnipeg EVERY day, getting third line grinder minutes on the Moose thinking to yourself "is this how I want to spend the next 10+ years of my career?" The Jets need to take a long hard look at the way that they do business and stop trying to convince themselves that the loyalty of Morrissey, Scheifele, Lowry, etc can be instilled in every single player. Young players want to PLAY these days, they want opportunities to control their career and we don't have to like it but we have to respect it. Winnipeg itself is a big hurdle to these players but the front office and the way we treat our young players is the biggest hurdle of all at this point.
