2:50pm: The extension is done and it will keep Lowry in Winnipeg for quite some time. The big center has signed a five-year deal that will carry an average annual value of $3.25MM. Lowry is now signed through the 2025-26 season, matching Kyle Connor for most remaining years among Jets forwards. Pierre LeBrun has the yearly breakdown, noting the deal includes no signing bonuses but does include a modified no-trade clause:
- 2021-22: $2.5MM
- 2022-23: $3.25MM
- 2023-24: $4.5MM
- 2024-25: $3.5MM
- 2025-26: $2.5MM
12:30pm: The Winnipeg Jets have several prominent names scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, perhaps none more important than checking center Adam Lowry. The 28-year-old is coming to the end of a three-year, $8.75MM deal he signed with the Jets in 2018 and would likely draw quite a crowd if he hit the open market. That’s exactly what the Jets are hoping doesn’t happen, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that progress is being made on an extension and things currently look “optimistic.”
Lowry, 28, certainly isn’t the flashiest of players but occupies a key role in the middle of the Jets’ lineup. The 6’5″ center takes the most faceoffs on the team, provides a huge amount of physicality–he leads the team with 132 hits through 44 games–and is a key forward on the team’s 11th-ranked penalty kill. Add in the fact that Lowry is having arguably the best offensive season of his career, with eight goals and 20 points through 44 games, and you get a player that no team would want to lose.
The good thing for the Jets, who already have nearly $57MM committed to the 2021-22 season, is that many of those things don’t end up carrying a ton of weight in contract negotiations, despite being valuable to the team. Lowry isn’t anywhere near the biggest name on the Winnipeg roster and will never lead the team in any scoring category, meaning his cap hit should stay reasonable on a multi-year extension.
Lowry isn’t the only player on the Jets roster heading for unrestricted free agency though. Paul Stastny, Matthieu Perreault, Nate Thompson, Trevor Lewis, Derek Forbort, Tucker Poolman, Laurent Brossoit, and the newly-acquired Jordie Benn are all on expiring deals, meaning this won’t be the last extension decision the team needs to make in the coming months. Add in the looming expansion draft that makes any re-signs even more complicated—the Jets have probably six forwards who will demand protecting if Andrew Copp’s strong play has put him in that group, not leaving much flexibility between names like Lowry and Mason Appleton—and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has a lot of work to do, even if the trade deadline has now passed.
5/20 seems reasonable for your top PK/3C. You can’t teach 6’5” 210.
5 seems a little long. do you really want to pay someone who really is just your best defensive forward into their age 34 season?
I think it’s a bit rich to be honest…reminds me a bit of the ‘nucks with beagle..though I’d take Lowry over Beagle.
3.5million will seem cheap four or five years from now. No worries on this contract.
$3.25MM won’t really seem cheap, no thanks to a “forecast” cap that most believe will be flat(-ish) for anywhere from two to five years. BUT, as @theloop stated, you can’t teach 6’5″, 210 lbs. While Lowry’s FO% is a little down this year, he is generally reliable on the dots and is ridiculously consistent with more takeaways than giveaways every year. Couple that with the fact he wants to stay in the ‘Peg, must factor in to his deal (a little bit, at least). We’ve seen guys want to get out of there for varying reasons, so they need to do things like this to keep their guys in the fold. It’s not a terrible overpay, and will only look bad if he suddenly gets attacked by injury bugs over the next couple of years.
Good to see a hard worker like Lowry get rewarded. Another product out of the hockey hot bed of Missouri!
Too many years but at least it’s not breaking the bank