The Winnipeg Jets have been one of the NHL's best teams this season, and many believe they'll go on a deep Stanley Cup playoff run this spring. But in THN's 2015 Future Watch edition, we predicted the Jets would win the Cup -- in 2019:

PLAN THE PARADE

By Ken Campbell

All right, let's get one thing out of the way. It gets cold in Winnipeg. Ten months of winter and two months of bad skating. Heh-heh. The day this piece was written in mid-February, it was forecasted to go down to minus-38. Don’t bother with the Celsius to Fahrenheit calculations. When it’s that cold, they’re pretty much the same.

There are bigger cities in the NHL (about 25 of them) that play in bigger arenas (about 29). There are other places where a star can slide right under the radar if he wants. There are places with lower taxes and places where your Bentley won’t get wrecked by road salt. There are places with a few more entertainment options.

These are the obstacles the Winnipeg Jets face when it comes to attracting free agents and getting players to waive their no-trade clauses to go there. In fact, a recent informal study found Winnipeg and Edmonton to be the two least desirable destinations in the NHL. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff talks about how well the organization treats its players and how, once they get there, players actually like it. But when your only exposure to the place is a road trip in the middle of the winter, perception sometimes becomes reality.

“It’s not shocking for me that people don’t understand what Winnipeg is all about,” Cheveldayoff said. “They haven’t been here for a long time. I do believe that once we get a player here and they see how we treat the players, they’ll want to stay. We’ve said it from Day 1, once players come here, they’re going to enjoy being here. And we know the kids we draft and the kids we develop, they’re going to know from Day 1 what it’s like to be part of the Jets family, and they’re going to embrace that.”

And there you have it. If you can’t entice players to your organization because they don’t like hockey weather or they’re too closed-minded, then you get the players who have no choice in the matter and get them to fall in love with the place. Drafting and developing has never been a more important tool in the NHL than it is in the salary cap era. And it’s even more so for places like Winnipeg, where cultivating your own talent is more practical than poaching it from other teams.

On that count, the Jets get a gold star and a direct route to the head of the class. Their group of non-NHL prospects and under-22 players on their roster is the best in the NHL, according to a panel of 13 scouts, GMs and directors of player personnel. And if their prospect group wasn’t good enough already, Cheveldayoff added two more in Joel Armia and Brendan Lemieux in the Evander Kane trade with the Buffalo Sabres. Not only that, he has another late first-round pick coming to him in that deal.

Combined with the Jets as they’re currently constituted – a good, fast, young team with a progressive coach – the future looks outstanding. Like, Stanley Cup contender outstanding. As we already have the Buffalo Sabres pencilled in for the Cup in 2020, we’re picking the Jets and their band of young stars to be parading down Portage Avenue with the silver chalice in the spring of 2019. Caveat: grain of salt required. In our 1991 Draft Preview edition, we chose the Jets to win the Stanley Cup within five years. Not only did they not win the Cup in that time, they ceased to exist five years later.

But you get the idea. The Jets have loaded up on young talent and have held onto it. And they have every position covered. In the NHL, Jacob Trouba has the makings of an outstanding two-way defenseman. Mark Scheifele has all kinds of speed and skill, and Adam Lowry is establishing himself as a big, imposing force up front. Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little, two of the team’s top forwards, are signed long-term, as are Tobias Enstrom and Tyler Myers, two of their key defensemen.

When it comes to their prospects, they have the most dangerous offensive player in the QMJHL in Nikolaj Ehlers and a host of other productive players in Lemieux, Nic Petan and Andrew Copp. They have one of Canada’s world junior goalies in Eric Comrie and also a rookie backstopping their AHL team in Connor Hellebuyck. Josh Morrissey was named to the WJC all-star team, and Armia looks ready for NHL duty.

But the Jets and Cheveldayoff have had to be among the league’s elite when it comes to drafting and developing. That’s because it took Cheveldayoff almost four full years to make an NHL player-for-NHL player trade. In that time, he didn’t move a single Jets prospect of note and gave up only one second-round pick – in what turned out to be a bad deal with the Minnesota Wild for Devin Setoguchi in 2013. Before making his blockbuster with Buffalo, Cheveldayoff had traded away more picks than he got back, though all but a handful of them were after the third round and none of them in the first.

So if his scouts were doing their jobs well, and it looks as though they were, the Jets should have a healthy stable of young players preparing for the NHL. But it also requires an organizational philosophy that centers on building through the draft. And the Jets, unlike a lot of other teams, are in a market where they had a couple years to grow. The folks in Winnipeg waited a long time to get their NHL team back and were willing to give the new management team a honeymoon period of non-playoff finishes before they started getting restless.

That time, though, has come, which has led some to the opinion that it’s time to start parlaying some of those assets into roster players from other teams. After all, going back to the Atlanta days, it’s been eight years since this organization last played a playoff game, which is the second longest current drought in the NHL next to Edmonton.

“It’s been a long time, no question,” Cheveldayoff said. “But the process we started the day we took over is a slow one. It’s not one where you’re going to get instant gratification. It’s been a full, methodical process, but we’re seeing the fruits of our labor right now. We’ll look at all our options, but we’re excited with the group of young players we have, and we think some of them are going to turn the corner quickly and be contributors at the NHL level.”

And it’s interesting to note these aren’t your father’s Jets. This is a team in a new rink that sells 15,004 tickets for each game and has cost certainty on its side. Where teams now have to take advantage of their financial positions is off the ice, investing in resources and people that aren’t constrained by a salary cap. To that end, the Jets have seven pro scouts and 14 full- and part-time amateur scouts, a scouting co-ordinator, a director of fitness and a two-man player development department. That’s one of the larger staffs in the NHL devoted to something that is a make or break aspect of the game.

It helps that the Jets have a decent economy, new building and well-heeled bosses with an appreciation for the long term. “We have an ownership group that is extremely committed to doing things the right way,” Cheveldayoff said. “From Day 1, they’ve viewed drafting and developing as an investment, not as an expense. When you get into the boardroom and start dealing with budgets and things like that, the easiest thing to cut is something you don’t see. You barely see the amateur scouts because they’re on the road all the time and it’s an easy cut. But in that aspect, we’ve never been shortchanged.”

Everything is set for the Jets to have a future full of serious Stanley Cup runs. With a management team that has finally begun to address the present, while keeping an eye to the future, the Jets are on the precipice of something special.

We’re predicting a Stanley Cup in 2019. After all, when you’ve waited as long as Winnipeg has to get your team back, what’s a couple more years to bide your time for the top prize? Cheveldayoff likes the sound of that but isn’t about to pre-order his Stanley Cup stationary. “I’m focusing on being a 2015 playoff team right now,” he said.

The Philadelphia Flyers have struggled for many years of late, but one of their top draft picks -- Russian winger Matvei Michkov -- is giving Flyers fans legitimate hope that their future will be much better very soon. And in this feature story from THN's 2025 Rookie Issue, writer Ken Campbell profiled Michkov as he found his footing in his first NHL season:

THE EDUCATION OF MATVEI MICHKOV

By Ken Campbell

Yeah, sure, some guys sashay into the NHL as teenagers and immediately start skating around like they own the place. Gretzky, Ovechkin, Crosby, Lemieux, Hawerchuk, Orr, Murphy, Barrasso. Freaks, every last one of them.

For the vast majority of them, though, it’s a constant battle to continually prove they belong in The Best League in the World™. They learn pretty quickly why former-NHLer-turned-broadcaster Ray Ferraro thinks they should simply change the name of the sport to “hard.” Joe Thornton had seven points in his rookie season, eh? Jacques Martin once referred to a 19-year-old Jason Spezza as “a boy playing a man’s game.” One time during Brendan Shanahan’s rookie season, he lined up for a faceoff and the opposing winger asked the 18-year-old how things were going. “Not too good,” Shanahan replied. “I’m tied with Ron Hextall in goals.”

For a lot of guys, it looks a little like this: you follow up a streak of eight points in five games with two in your next 10. But you keep grinding. You look a little tentative, almost as though you’re afraid to make a mistake. You disappear sometimes, which at least means you’re not going to be the star of the next day’s video session. But you’re really trying to be a responsible player, even if it means sacrificing offense. You get the puck on your stick in the fun zone and make some neat moves that don’t result in anything.

Then, in overtime, the puck gets rimmed along the boards and your eyes get really big – because you lead your team in overtime goals and you’re tied for the NHL record for OT-winners by a teenager. You grab the puck, rush up the ice and try a spin-and-backhand, but it’s easily stopped, and the puck gets kicked up to Auston Matthews. Seriously, it had to be him, eh? You head back to the bench and arrive just in time to see Matthews feather a pass to Morgan Rielly for the game-winner. Well, at least you didn’t eat a minus.

For Matvei Michkov, the prized rookie the Philadelphia Flyers got long before they thought they would, it’s another battle scar, another lesson in a season that has seen some wonderful highs and gut-punch lows. “It’s hard to go with ups and downs,” Michkov said through an interpreter who travels with the team specifically for him. “It would be easier if they were all ups.”

Of course it would, but that’s rarely how the hockey gods write the script. Had Michkov stayed in Russia and played in the KHL for SKA St. Petersburg for the next two seasons like everyone thought he would, perhaps he could’ve been the second coming of Kirill Kaprizov. But right now, he’s a just-turned-20-year-old playing for one of the most demanding coaches in the history of the game in one of the most unforgiving hockey markets.

And even though Michkov survived John Tortorella’s infamous rope test in training camp, that doesn’t mean the coach is going to give Michkov any more of it just because he’s a superstar in waiting. In fact, the opposite is probably true. Tortorella is likely more ardent about making Michkov a complete player because he’s so special.

It’s not enough for Tortorella to see Michkov perform magic in the offensive zone and look entirely lost inside his own blueline. It’s both a blessing and a bit of a curse that they’re getting him so early in his career, but it does give them time to teach him everything it takes to be an NHL star. The learning curve is steep, but it’s also going to be accelerated this way. Whenever Tortorella talks about the process with Michkov, he has nothing but good things to say about his receptiveness, character and compete level.

“I couldn’t be happier as far as where we’re at,” said Tortorella, who might surprise some people by being happy about anything. “I’m thrilled at where we’re at there. The biggest compliment you can give a player is when you call him ‘a hockey player.’ He’s a hockey player. He loves playing. The only maintenance we have with him is the language barrier.”

When asked to respond to that kind of praise from a coach who traditionally throws plaudits around like they’re manhole covers, Michkov answered by saying, “the coach knows best.” It seems to be his standard response early in his career to everything from being benched for a period or a healthy scratch to being praised for his elevated level of gumption. Michkov may be “a hockey player” by Tortorella’s parlance, but that doesn’t mean he’s a complete hockey player. When it comes to that part of his development, well, let’s just say there have been some moments.

“We are so cognizant of what we have in him as far as the ability that he has,” Tortorella said. “But he is going to learn what it is to be a pro. He is going to learn that. And he’s going to learn that there’s another side of the puck.”

In reality, Tortorella is doing with Michkov what a hundred other coaches have done with a hundred other offensive stars in the past. It’s not much different than when Tortorella crossed swords with Vincent Lecavalier in Tampa Bay, and we all saw how that turned out. There seems to be this perception that Tortorella is on a mission to “break” Michkov down, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Tortorella is clear in saying he and the other Flyers coaches give Michkov free rein to do whatever he wants when he has the puck in the offensive zone, because that’s where he is going to make his mark.

And the hockey world has seen in spurts how special Michkov can be around the net. And this isn’t meant to cast aspersions on his teammates, but if his fellow Flyers were able to convert more of the sublime and mind-boggling set-ups he gives them, Michkov would probably be running away with the NHL rookie scoring lead. “It would be so wrong for us not to spend the time that we’re spending with him on that part of the game,” Tortorella said. “We would not be doing our job. And the idiots out there who are saying, ‘He doesn’t understand it,’ they can kiss my ass. We are so happy that we’ve got him right now, and we’re not going to waste a moment as far as trying to help him.”

So, we’ll put the coach down as undecided. It was not lost on Tortorella’s boss, Flyers GM Danny Briere, that Michkov responded to being scratched for two games in November by scoring a goal and an assist, along with the winning tally in the shootout, in his first game back, en route to collecting five points in three games. One thing Briere has noticed about Michkov is that the big moments don’t seem to affect him, as evidenced by his three OT-winners and shootout-winner through the first half of the season.

Briere, who took four years to establish himself as an NHL regular after scoring more than 400 points in three years of junior hockey, knows a little something about trying to change minds. “With Matvei, he takes it, and he wants to prove that the coach was wrong,” Briere said. “And that’s why you see him come back and he sticks it to him, he shows him he made a mistake by benching him or sitting him, and that’s the part that I love about Matvei. He doesn’t accept it, and he wants to show you that you’re wrong. It’s pretty cool.”

With the way Michkov sees the game, there will likely come a day when he’ll be playing chess and everyone else will be playing checkers, but that day is not now. On a Saturday afternoon after a practice at a suburban Toronto rink, Michkov emerged from the Flyers’ dressing room looking a little worn down by a pointless drought. He got a little testy over a question about his linemates and later apologized through his interpreter. He talked about how, away from the rink, he’s essentially a homebody, preferring to be close to his mother, Maria, and brother, Prohor, who live with him.

Less than three months before Michkov went seventh overall in the 2023 draft, his father, Andrei, left the apartment they shared in Sochi to go to a convenience store. Two days later, he was found dead in a pond. It’s easy to forget that Michkov is barely 20 and is still dealing with that. “He likes to put away the phone and do the home things,” the interpreter said. “It’s not often he has time to be with the family, because there is a lot of time on the road. But he’d like to spend the time at home with the family, in the quiet.” If Michkov wants, he’ll get his quiet. He deserves it. But on the ice, the noise is just beginning.

Chicago Blackhawks star center Connor Bedard is finishing up his sophmore NHL season. And in this cover story from THN's Sept. 18, 2023 edition, editor-in-chief Ryan Kennedy covered Bedard's development in the Windy City:,

CHICAGO HOPE

By Ryan Kennedy

Connor Bedqrd is one of the most talented offensive prospects we’ve seen since Connor McDavid came on the radar one generation prior, but in the lead-up to the 2023 NHL draft in Nashville, Bedard was also playing some stifling defense. Everybody knew the Chicago Blackhawks were going to select the Regina Pats superstar first overall, and everyone had known it since the Hawks won the lottery back on May 8. This was not a Taylor Hall/Tyler Seguin or Nico Hischier/Nolan Patrick situation. This was a stone-cold lock. But Bedard was having none of it. Even the day before the draft, when Bedard held court with the media, he made it clear he would not be assuming himself as the No. 1 pick until it happened. So questions about whether he likes his Italian beef sandwiches dipped, Cubs versus White Sox, or whether or not it’s blasphemous to put ketchup on a hot dog would have to wait.

And while the Hawks themselves remained cagey in the lead-up, the jig was up as soon as they handed Bedard his first Chicago jersey on stage, emblazoned with his usual No. 98 on the arms and back instead of the No. 23 that other top picks such as Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson and Columbus’ Adam Fantilli were given that night. But Bedard had to at least have googled a couple of things about the Windy City in preparation, right?

“No, I didn’t want to jinx myself or anything,” said Bedard about 15 minutes after officially becoming a member of the Hawks organization. “So I kind of played it cool, I guess, just doing normal day-to-day stuff. Obviously, now I think that you can start looking into stuff and all that, but a lot of people have talked to me about it, and seeing the reaction from fans after everything is unbelievable.”

At the least, Bedard officially becoming a member of the Original Six franchise meant he could finally fully embrace the rabid fan base. “Yeah, it’s great, I don’t have to say no to signing anything ‘Chicago’ now,” he said. “To see the passion and just how that city gets behind all their teams, they have a lot of sports teams, and, of course, the Blackhawks are a big one. Just seeing the support so far, yeah, it’s hard to kind of describe or put into words, but it’s a great feeling.”

Indeed, the hundreds of Hawks fans who made the pilgrimage to Nashville were not disappointed when Chicago announced its first selection, and they had reason to celebrate: as the Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews era closed in Chicago, the Bedard era has officially begun.

The players who turned the Hawks into a modern-day dynasty from 2010 to 2015 are now all gone from the roster. Kane was traded to the New York Rangers at the deadline; Toews wasn’t re-signed this summer, and whether health issues will force him into retirement is very much in question. As it is, Toews has announced he will not be playing in 2023-24. Marian Hossa just had his ‘Goodbye Game’ for charity in Slovakia, while Duncan Keith retired in 2022 after finishing his career in Edmonton. Brent Seabrook technically belongs to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but in reality, the big rearguard’s career is over, not having played a game since December 2019 due to injury.

Under new GM Kyle Davidson, the Hawks headed into a full-scale rebuild, and with some lottery luck, they got their new cornerstone in Bedard. Outside expectations could not be higher for the teenager, but the fact Bedard is more than just a silky set of hands is what sets him apart from your run-of-the-mill junior star. “You realize how humble and how hungry he is,” Davidson said. “To listen to him and how hard he wants to work, and he’s already working so hard. He’s so excited to get in the weight room and get back on the ice and more, more, more. It gets you fired up. When someone wants to be great and wants to work, it’s pretty exciting.”

Though his hockey career is still in its infancy, Bedard has already proven how driven he is. One only needs to look back to the 2023 World Junior Championship in Halifax, when Canada was in tough against a determined Slovakia squad in the quarterfinal. With the score tied 3-3 late, Bedard had a golden opportunity for a goal thwarted by the stick of a Slovakian defenseman, and his anger was visible when he got back to the bench as he slammed his stick hard against the ice. But Bedard channelled that competitive rage in the best possible way, dancing through all three Slovakian skaters in overtime before putting the winner past goaltender – and future fellow Chicago pick – Adam Gajan. Even up in the press box, it was obvious that Bedard was dead-set on ending that game, and, sure enough, he did.

By all accounts, that commitment to excellence extends off the ice as well. “Good player, better person,” said Chicago’s director of amateur scouting Mike Doneghey. “He’s going to be able to drive our team once he’s acclimated and gets a little older. He’s a player you build around, not only on the ice but with the way he carries himself and the way his teammates respect him. He brings a lot of guys into the action and will make everyone around him better.”

Which is exactly the type of player Chicago needs right now. Last year’s Hawks were downright terrible by pretty much every metric: dead-last in offense, bottom five in defense and on the power play, 22nd on the penalty kill. Their leading scorer was Max Domi, with 49 points – and that was in the 60 games before he was traded to Dallas. Their second-leading scorer was Kane, before he was dealt to the Rangers. So the highest-scoring Hawks player who actually finished the season with the team was Andreas Athanasiou, who tallied 20 goals and 40 points. Nearly 200 NHLers had more points than Athanasiou.

Bedard, who has already signed an exclusive partnership with Sherwood, will undoubtedly help with Chicago’s scoring punch, but it would be folly to imagine him doing it all by himself. Which is why Davidson’s summer work was so intriguing. Among his pick-ups were much-travelled forwards Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno and Corey Perry.

In Foligno and Perry, the Hawks get two pros who have seen it all. And in Perry specifically, they get a Stanley Cup champion (with Anaheim in 2007) who has also been to the Stanley Cup final three times in the past four seasons. Both Foligno and Perry are physical players who would be obvious deterrents for any opponent who would deign to rough up Bedard on the ice. It also wouldn’t be surprising if one of them becomes Bedard’s landlord/billet dad/carpool buddy for Season 1, as Bedard will have enough on his hands as a vaunted phenom entering his rookie campaign.

In Hall, the Hawks get someone with a unique perspective and NHL history. Hall was drafted first overall himself, to the Edmonton Oilers in 2010, where a vacuum of leadership held the team back from any kind of success during his tenure there. But, in 2018, Hall won the Hart Trophy as a member of the New Jersey Devils. His linemate? Rookie and straight-from-the-draft-podium No. 1 pick Nico Hischier, who Hall credited with helping him nab those MVP honors. So, Bedard has some guys to back him up.

“It’s really special,” Bedard said. “Those guys have been through everything in the NHL. For me to get to learn from them, and obviously they’re unbelievable players, just having those guys to ask questions to, it’s awesome.”

As for the veterans, they’ve liked what they’ve seen of Bedard already. “You can tell just from watching him talk to the media, he’s pretty well-mannered,” Hall said. “He knows what to expect. He has high expectations for himself, and for guys like ‘Fliggy’ (Foligno) and I, it’s about letting him play and bringing the best out of him. Try to eliminate distractions, give him advice and mentor him as best as possible. It’s exciting.”

Even with Bedard and the influx of old pros up front, the Hawks will surely struggle again this season, but again: at least the moves Davidson has been making line up. A rebuild takes a long time, and even going back to the last Chicago demolition, it really began three years before the Hawks landed Toews and Kane in consecutive drafts (Toews going third overall in 2006, Kane first overall one year later).

Right now, Chicago has 2020 first-rounder Lukas Reichel, who looks ready to become a full-time contributor, plus a bunch of intriguing blueliners in the pipeline, led by Kevin Korchinski, Ethan Del Mastro and Sam Rinzel. There’s a lot of work to do, but at least there’s a base now. “There’s an excitement to joining a team at the ground level,” Hall said. “Being there every step of the way at the very beginning, there’s something to that that’s exciting for us.”

It’s also exciting to do so in Chicago, a town that loves its Hawks. Even with the team cratering in the standings, Chicago drew more than 17,000 fans per game, and it’s hard not to see a Bedard bump coming to the United Center. For a kid who knows the recent history of the team and how Toews and Kane brought glory to a previously lovelorn franchise, getting to represent that franchise means something. “Yeah, it’s incredible,” Bedard said. “I can’t put it into words. Growing up, obviously that was when they were going on their runs and winning the Cups. You see a lot of them, with the United Center going crazy and all of Chicago getting behind them, the Original Six and so much history here. I’m so happy to be part of the Blackhawks organization.”

So now the moment approaches. Bedard in the NHL, something we’ve been thinking about for years already. How will he stack up against all the great players who came before him? Luckily, the NHL schedule-makers know a good storyline when they see one, and Chicago opens the season in Pittsburgh, home of Sidney Crosby.

“I was trying not to look at the schedule,” Bedard said. “Some people were telling me, I didn’t want to look too hard into it. But man, like I said, if I’m able to make the squad come October, (Crosby was my) childhood idol, ever since I can remember. That would be unbelievable. It’s a little bit of time away. I think I’ll kind of dream about it now, but hopefully that comes.”

Hopefully? Geez, kid, help us out a bit here. But there’s that humility once again, and it’s hard to knock when it’s obviously helped keep Bedard on the right path so far. But clearly the NHL assumes Bedard will be an instant sensation out of camp, because Chicago also plays Auston Matthews and Toronto plus Nathan MacKinnon and Colorado in Games 4 and 5 on the schedule. Also in October? Two games against the defending Cup champions from Vegas.

Soon, the “ifs” and “hopefullys” will be gone and we’ll be watching Bedard on the ice, driving defenses crazy and using that wicked shot of his that has been NHL-caliber since he was 14. In the meantime, we’ll accept Bedard is a young man who takes nothing for granted, even if expectations for him are sky-high.

As for his own rookie expectations? “It’s hard to say,” he said. “I’ve never played a game there or anything. For me, it’s having a good rest of the summer and trying to prepare myself as best I can to try to make the team. It’s really hard to say what I have to do to play well there because it’s different and I’ve never experienced that. Obviously, as the best league in the world, it won’t be easy, but I’m going to do whatever I can this summer and moving forward to try to have an impact in the league.”

We’re sure Bedard is going to make the Blackhawks, but his attitude isn’t weird; McDavid was the same at that age, as was Wayne Gretzky. And it all worked out pretty well for those guys.