Ok reader I promise I won’t make any more cheesy Fehr jokes. After all it wouldn’t be Fehr to you the reader and in all Fehrness I’m sure you have gotten tired of it. Ok really I’ll stop now, honestly.
It’s amazing how I still hear whining about the moves made by Jets management over the last week. I know people haven’t been arm chair GM’ing in a long time but jeeze give Chevy a little time. It’s only been a little over a week and our team is better and deeper.
Let’s take a look at the Eric Fehr deal. Eric Fehr is a player by all accounts who never really reached the zenith of his potential. Talk to caps fans and they all love this guy and to a person believe he was underutilized in his time with Washington. Even so Eric managed to crack the second line at times and showed flashes of goal scoring ability. What did we give up for him again? I believe it was what amounted to a puck bag. Now I know what you’re thinking; his shoulder is messed up and he’s going to miss training camp, what if the caps are trying to pull a Tambellini on us. My answer is so what. You’re not really gambling when you have nothing to lose. Not to mention that Eric is a local guy who will most likely try and make an impression. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fehr tap into some hometown Zen and get 25 goals this year if his recovery goes as expected and he can stay healthy. That’s not bad for not giving up anything.
Speaking of home town Zen, I like the angle TNSE management is taking with aggressively going after local talent, in an almost Montreal Canadienesque type way. The Canadian prairies have always been a hockey player factory for the NHL, why not try and bring some of that Talent home? Derek Meech is another home town player who I’m expecting to overachieve if he can stay with the big club. I would really like to see what he could do as a fourth line forward, a position he sometimes played with Detroit. Again this is another guy that could grind it out for the jets, perhaps find his game on the prairies and costs next to nothing. Are you seeing a pattern here? It’s like fishing, bringing up character guys that have been cast aside buy other clubs and seeing what they can do. It costs almost nothing and the worst thing that can happen is the I-Caps get them (another benefit of owning your own farm club). While the best that can happen is you find another Alex Burrows.
With all that said I can’t help but feel there is still a piece or two missing, especially up front. Centres are a hot commodity, especially first line centres and that’s exactly what I think this club needs. No offence to Bryan Little, but the numbers from last year don’t jive with his first line position on the depth chart. I’m also not as comfortable as I would like to be with the goal tending situation. Pavelec is a great gaolie, coming up and on the rise, but that’s where it stops. If he gets hurt, the Jets are in big trouble. Here’s hoping that Chris Mason can play a fair number of games to give Pavelec a rest.
All in all I get the sense that there is one big move in the making. What it is I really don’t know, but I get the feeling that Chevy and Zinger haven’t used up all their bullets just yet. I’m not one to start rumours, but maybe, just maybe they’re on the phone to a certain someone in southern California? We could get into that speculation, but really for Jets fans that just wouldn’t be Fehr.
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