Jets' Kyle Connor Finishes 5th in Lady Byng Trophy Voting
The Winnipeg star paired 92 points with elite sportsmanship to earn top honors, capping a season defined by his first alternate captaincy and an Olympic gold medal.
Video Transcript
Not yet.
That's what I was thinking.
I think that if you look at, you know, this is a different scenario than Ottawa because if you look at Winnipeg's best players, Hellebuych, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, they're all a bit older.
They're sort of in their prime, but sort of the, I guess, the, the sort of back end of their prime.
Like, this is win now territory for the Jets.
And we know that, you know, unfortunately Winnipeg is not a destination for high-end free agents.
and they haven't been very good at developing draft talent lately, so they kinda have to go with what they have.
And luckily they do have some incredible players up top there.
So I think if you're Winnipeg, last year just seemed like a weird fluke.
You know?
Like, they're a better team than, than they ended up as.
And, you know, Hellebuych getting hurt early didn't help certainly.
But I, I would, I would run it back at least one more year and see what happens, and I, I think they should be a playoff team again.
And then after that, like, if things go south again, then I think you have to reassess and be like, "Okay, well, what are we right now?
Do we have to tear it down and start over again, or is it a matter of augmenting things?"
It's so unfortunate that Winnipeg's in the Central, right?
Because when you look at the Central next year, like, Colorado's a playoff team, Dallas is a playoff team, Minnesota is one, and now you've got Utah who could end up, you know, you know, unseating one of those three teams I just mentioned and being in the top three in the Central.
So where does that leave Winnipeg?
And I agree with you, you can't let Hellebuych go because if you let him go, then you might as well just start the rebuild right now.
Yeah.
I still think they have a couple more years where at least they can scratch and claw into the playoffs even as a wildcard team.
And, you know, maybe because you have Hellebuych, he can- Yeah lead you to, you know, a second, third, or fourth round of the playoffs.
But again, like, if we're talking about Winnipeg being in the Metro, then you're like load up.
Load up.
You've got all the pieces.
But it's like, a- again, you're in the Central.
It, it, it's like four of the best teams in hockey might come out of the Central next year.
