Ken Wiebe and Mike McIntyre of The Winnipeg Free Press write that the Winnipeg Jets are increasing their efforts to retain the services of center Sean Monahan whom they acquired ahead of the trade deadline. Monahan didn’t have a great playoff with Winnipeg tallying just a single assist in five playoff games but was solid in the regular season occupying their second-line center role and posting 13 goals and 11 assists in 34 games.
Monahan made just under $2MM last season on a one-year contract and could be in line to double that figure on a multi-year deal given that he is one of the best centers available in unrestricted free agency. The 29-year-old Monahan dressed in 83 games last season split between Winnipeg and Montreal and finished the year with 26 goals and 33 assists.
If Monahan reaches free agency the Jets may not have the cap space to replace him as they stand to have just over $13MM available at this time.
In other Winnipeg Jets notes:
- Wiebe and McIntyre write that the Jets have two remaining slots available on their coaching staff and are likely to hire a veteran associate coach to occupy one of those roles next to new head coach Scott Arniel. They speculate that former Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol could be a possibility as well as Western Hockey League head coach James Patrick who has ties to Arniel. It is expected that the Jets will decide on rounding out their coaching staff in the next few weeks.
- It’s possible that Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt may receive a buyout this summer as Winnipeg looks to clear cap space to address some of the holes in their lineup (as per Wiebe and McIntyre). Schmidt has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $5.95MM and has struggled the last two seasons. Last year, the 32-year-old tallied just two goals and 12 assists in 63 games and saw his ice time dwindle to just 16:49 per game down from over 20 minutes a night in the 2021-22 season. A buyout would save Winnipeg $3.2MM in cap space next season but would create a $1.616MM cap hit for the 2025-26 season (as per CapFriendly).
The Jets hate wasting draft picks, so a push for Monahan is in the cards. A 3 year $3.8 – 4.2 wouldn’t be out of the realm. I can’t see Winnipeg wasting money on a buy out, but if it works for something bigger? Could be interesting.