Whew!
Winnipeg Jets General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff signed young goaltender Ondrej Pavelec to a five-year contract worth $19.5 million.
In Pavelec's own words he never wanted to leave Winnipeg even though he was offered "really good money" to play in the KHL in Russia.
“Everybody knows I had an offer from the KHL, it’s not a secret, but I always wanted to stay in Winnipeg,” Pavelec said in a conference call from the Czech Republic. “It’s a process and another side of the business, it’s never easy to make a deal but this is a really good feeling. It was easy to sign a five-year deal. You always want to stay as long as you can in a city you like. As long as I can stay in Winnipeg, it’s better for me.”
If the Jets had let Pavy go (and it seems as more is revealed about the negotiations with him, that never was a reality) they would have been screwed. Although they do have Gustavsson (who had pretty much the same numbers as Pavelec last year-although in 20 less games played) who does have his rights owned by the Jets since Saturday and may have had to battle with Chris Mason for the starter spot since the Jets have no other NHL calibre goalies going. They do have Peter Mannino but he may be a few years beore he's a regular in the show. However I'm sure Mannino would have had a crack at the big time to battle against Monster and Mase for the number one spot.
Now the spotlight turns on trying to ink 30-goal scorer Evander Kane as he and up and comer Spencer Machacek were offered qualifying contracts to ensure the Jets could retain their rights and be able to match any offer from other teams.
In other (sort of) news, although the Jets didn't offer Eric Fehr a qulifying contract due to his very poor year last season which makes him a unrestricted free agent on July 1, they may still have use for him, but at a much lesser price.
