Doug Armstrong’s exit in St. Louis has pushed Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff into a familiar kind of spotlight: he is now the NHL’s longest-tenured general manager.
Armstrong stepped down as Blues GM on July 1, with former St. Louis forward Alexander Steen taking over that role. Armstrong will stay with the organization as president of hockey operations through 2029, but the move still changes the league’s front-office landscape and leaves Cheveldayoff at the top of the longevity list.
For Winnipeg, it’s another marker of how steady this era has been. Cheveldayoff has run the Jets since June 8, 2011, when he was hired to help guide the franchise as it moved from Atlanta to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season. Fifteen years later, he remains the only general manager the Jets 2.0 version has ever had.
That kind of continuity is rare in pro hockey, and the results have been substantial. Since Cheveldayoff took over, Winnipeg has put together a 610-438-111 regular-season record.
That’s the 11th-best mark in the NHL over that span. The Jets have also posted a 2.80 goals-against average per game, tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for 10th-best in the league, while scoring 2.96 goals per game, which ranks 13th.
The story of that success starts with the draft. Cheveldayoff has been the one behind picks such as Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry, Jacob Trouba, Connor Hellebuyck, Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey, Kyle Connor and Dylan Samberg, all of whom became important pieces of the roster.
Just as important, Winnipeg has managed to keep the biggest names in place. Scheifele, Hellebuyck, Morrissey and Connor have all signed on for the long haul, a notable achievement in a smaller Canadian market where keeping elite players is never simple.
The Jets have also reached some of the biggest milestones in franchise history under his watch. They made the Western Conference Final for the first time in 2018, then won the Presidents trophy in the 2024-25 season after a 56-win campaign. Overall, Winnipeg has made the playoffs in seven of the last nine seasons.
Now, with Armstrong out of the GM chair in St. Louis, Cheveldayoff stands alone as the league’s longest-serving general manager. It’s a reflection of both the trust True North Sports and Entertainment has placed in him and the foundation he has built in Winnipeg over more than a decade and a half.
The question hanging over all of it is the one that still hasn’t been answered: whether this run eventually ends with the Stanley Cup that has so far slipped away from both Cheveldayoff and the Jets.
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