The Jets have inked another of their restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of winger J.C. Lipon to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay him the league minimum of $650K at the NHL level while Postmedia’s Ken Wiebe adds (Twitter link) that he will receive $150K at the minor league level. The contract contains a total guarantee of $210K.
The 25-year-old spent all of last season with Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate in Manitoba and posted his best numbers since his rookie professional season. In 68 games with the Moose, he collected 17 goals and 21 assists which ranked him tied for eighth on the team in points.
Lipon has just nine games of NHL experience under his belt in his five-year professional career. Those contests came in 2015-16 where he picked up a single assist in that time. Since then, he has been an important cog for their farm team and spent the past two seasons as an alternate captain, a role he is likely to reprise in 2018-19 assuming he clears waivers as expected.
The Jets still have work to do heading into training camp as they still have two of the 13 remaining RFAs around the league in defenseman Josh Morrissey and goalie Eric Comrie. While Comrie will likely sign a short-term deal, Morrissey’s case is much more prominent. While there haven’t been reports as to whether he’s working on a bridge contract or a long-term pact, he did express optimism last week that a deal would be reached in time for training camp.