With the postseason down to just two teams, most squads are now well into their offseason planning. What storylines lie ahead around the league in what is shaping up to be a likely busy NHL offseason? Next up in our Offseason Keys series is a look at the Winnipeg Jets.
Expectations were high for Winnipeg after making it to the Western Conference Final in 2018. Most of the team was returning and then GM Kevin Cheveldayoff added Kevin Hayes at the trade deadline with the hopes that he’d have an impact like Paul Stastny did the year before. Unfortunately for the Jets, they didn’t fare as well in the postseason this time around as they were ousted by St. Louis in the opening round. While last summer was relatively quiet for Cheveldayoff, he’ll have plenty of heavy lifting to do this time around. Here are the key parts of his to-do list for this summer.
Re-Sign Key RFA Forwards
Heading into the season, Patrik Laine looked like he was in line for a massive payday. He was coming off a 44-goal campaign and had 80 through his first two seasons, establishing himself as one of the premier goal scorers in the league already. He looked like he was heading in that direction once again with a fantastic month of November where he scored 18 times. However, Laine struggled the rest of the season and wound up with only 50 points (30-20-50) on the entire season.
Accordingly, there are now questions about what type of contract he’ll ultimately wind up with. The chances of him getting top dollar among the high-end group of RFAs is virtually nil now as his value has taken a hit. If that’s the case, could a bridge contract wind up being the better way for Laine to go with the hopes of landing a bigger deal a year or two from now?
On top of getting a new deal done for Laine, they also have another key winger to re-sign in Kyle Connor, who very quietly out-produced his fellow RFA in 2018-19. He’s a little different than some of the other top players of this class as he really only has two full NHL seasons under his belt after spending the bulk of his rookie year at the minor league level. Even so, there’s a case to be made that his next deal should be comparable to the face value of William Nylander’s pact in Toronto – six years and $45MM.
Determine Trouba’s Future
On top of their two wingers, Winnipeg has one other key restricted free agent in defenseman Jacob Trouba. But while new deals for Laine and Connor are basically a formality at this point, Trouba’s case is nowhere near as certain.
For starters, he’s only one year away from unrestricted free agency. He already demonstrated that he’s okay with going through the salary arbitration process as he went that route last year, being awarded a $5.5MM salary which now stands as his qualifying offer. If he wants to get to UFA status as soon as possible, it’s quite likely that he’ll merely file for arbitration early next month and go through the process once again.
On top of that, Trouba is coming off a career season. He more than doubled his point output from 2017-18 and was a big factor on the power play for the first time. That is certainly going to bolster his negotiating leverage and he’s well-positioned to land another sizable raise this summer.
There have been questions about Trouba’s willingness to sign long-term in Winnipeg, even after he rescinded his trade request back in 2016. If the 25-year-old doesn’t show much of an inclination to consider a long-term extension, Cheveldayoff will need to seriously consider trading him. The two weeks leading up to free agency have been the time where impact defenders have been swapped in the past before teams more or less finalize their roster with their moves on the open market. As a result, Trouba’s case is something that will very likely be settled one way or the other over the next month or so.
Free Up Cap Room
Last summer, Winnipeg was forced to part with Joel Armia to offload the final year and $4MM of Steve Mason’s contract to Montreal. There’s a good chance they’ll need to do something like that again in the coming weeks.
The Jets currently have roughly $56.7MM in cap commitments for next season, per CapFriendly. New contracts for Laine, Connor, and Trouba will eat up most of that while they still have several depth players to re-sign or replace while Tyler Myers is a pending unrestricted free agent whose future with the team could ultimately be tied to what happens with Trouba. They’re going to be hard-pressed to get everyone re-signed while staying under the Upper Limit, even if it gets a boost as expected.
Mathieu Perreault is someone that has been speculated as a potential cap casualty dating back to last summer. He’s a capable secondary scorer that can play all three forward positions but at a $4.125MM AAV for two more years, that will be a tricky sell considering that his point-per-game rate was the lowest of his career in 2018-19. (To be fair, his ice time dipped considerably as well.) Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov ($4.33MM) has an expiring contract but doesn’t have the potential to make as much of an impact as Perreault does. While Kulikov was once a top-four defender, he has been used in more of a depth role the last couple of years and the Jets would need to provide a fair bit of incentive if they want to offload that contract. A buyout could be an option with him as well.
Whether it’s with Perreault, Kulikov, or someone else, Cheveldayoff will undoubtedly be calling around the league to see what opportunities will present themselves to alleviate some of their cap challenges. With the buyout window closing at the end of June, it’s likely that any moves they make to clear up cap room will be done by then.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
If Connor is indeed looking at Willy Ny numbers, you can probably bet on one thing: he’s far more likely to work his butt off to earn his keep than Willy Ny ever will. It looked like he was trying to push Laine with healthy in-house competition, but Laine lost the memo around mid-season and all but flat-lined. One of those guys needs a 2-year bridge, for that kind of drop-off in production.