This western conference team faces a harsh reality if they don't find success this year

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Joshua Deeds
October 12, 2022 (4:33 PM)

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The Winnipeg Jets have changed course after hiring Rick Bowness in the off-season and right away, Bowness changed the locker-room leadership.

"It is the determination of the coaching staff that we will enter the 2022-23 season without a specific captain, but rather a group of assistants still to be determined," Bowness said in a statement. "It is our goal to expand the leadership base between our hockey team. We have high expectations for our core players and we want to provide them with the opportunity to step into those greater leadership roles as a group."

As the new regime keeps moving forward in Winnipeg without locker-room consensus, it looks as if the Jets fail to move forward into playoff contention this season, there may be big moves ahead.

After Wheeler was stripped of his captaincy, it galvanized support in the locker room for the former captain.

What will happen if the Jets decide to blow it up?

The aging core of the current Jets could be traded as they contemplate a rebuild.

Wheeler, Scheifle, and Hellebuyck all have one year remaining on their contracts, and Dan Rosen suggested they could be moved ahead of their contracts expiring.

However, if the Jets do have a good run this season and Dubois decides to stay, the option to extend the veterans is a possibility.

Given all the talk in the past year and with Bowness' record in Dallas, it doesn't look promising.

Everything points to the new core leading the way, with Kyle Connor, Pierre Luc-Dubois, and Nikolaj Ehlers taking over.