Jesse Granger and Murat Ates of The Athletic,

Where the Jets go from here

Winnipeg enters the off-season with several problems to solve, all centered around the theme of What comes next? Wheeler, Scheifele, Hellebuyck, Nino Niederreiter, Dylan DeMelo, and Brenden Dillon are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents in 2024 and Pierre-Luc Dubois, whose agent has publicly discussed a desire to play in Montreal, could join them with a one-year deal. Winnipeg probably cant compete in any fashion without Hellebuyck in the fold so hes the most important domino, whether an extension can be had or a trade must be made.

But Scheifele and Dubois are Winnipegs No. 1 and No. 2 centers to lose both would leave a massive hole down the middle of Winnipegs lineup. Winnipeg must either find a way to sign their most important players long-term or make the high-impact, high-stakes trades that see a ton of talent go out the door. Kevin Cheveldayoff has had some success when painted into the corner in the past but, with so many players futures in question and ownership not interested in a rebuild, this is a test beyond everything that came before it. Is he the man for the job? I believe the Jets organization believes that he is. Ates

What theyre saying

Jets coach Rick Bowness on his thoughts on losing the series:

Overall thoughts? Im so disappointed right now and disgusted. Those are my thoughts.

As to why Bowness was disgusted:

No pushback. But its the same crap we saw in February. It was. As soon as we were challenging for first place and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback. This series, we had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours, its not even close.

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Winnepeg, Vancouver, Calgary. Let alone Montreal--Canadian teams that can't seem to get over the hump. I expect some major movement at these teams from players to possibly management this summer. Should make the next few months very interesting. Hopefully, Stevie can take advantage