Last season had its ups and downs for Jets forward Cole Perfetti. The 22-year-old was briefly tested down the middle before moving back to the wing while he put together a career year offensively with 19 goals and 19 assists in 71 games. However, he also spent time as a healthy scratch late in the year, not exactly the type of ending he wanted for his platform year heading into restricted free agency for the first time.
Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press examined Winnipeg’s history with former first-round picks as restricted free agents under GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, noting that six out of the ten wound up signing bridge deals. He feels Perfetti is likely to follow the trend, suggesting that a two-year bridge pact around $3MM per season might be the right price point for him and the Jets.
More from out West:
- New Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour acknowledged in an interview on TSN 1050 (audio link) that he had talks with the Maple Leafs before eventually signing with Seattle. Toronto made multiple changes on the back end this summer with the additions of Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson while Jani Hakanpaa’s deal still has not been registered. Montour landed a seven-year, $50MM deal with the Kraken, good for the second-highest AAV on the team behind blueliner Vince Dunn.
- Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News wonders if a reunion between the Sharks and Martin Jones could make sense. GM Mike Grier acknowledged earlier this month that he still wants to add a third-string netminder, presumably one that has some NHL experience. Jones had that role in Toronto last season where he started in the minors but wound up getting into 22 games with the big club, posting a 2.87 GAA with a .902 SV%. While San Jose is still paying Jones for three more years from a 2021 buyout, that won’t preclude them from signing him if they want to.
- As the Oilers continue their GM search, David Staples of the Edmonton Journal proposes Brian Lawton as a possible dark horse candidate for the position. Lawton hasn’t worked in the NHL since 2009-10 when he was the GM of Tampa Bay but he also has several years of experience as an agent. Both perspectives certainly could be appealing to CEO Jeff Jackson, a former agent himself, who is currently serving as Edmonton’s interim GM. Jackson noted earlier this week that he’d like to have a new GM in place within the next couple of weeks.
Wasn’t super impressed by Lawton’s TB tenure, but I did like him on NHL Network.
And he’s obviously a million times better than Bowman.
Seems like Martin Jones has been perfectly serviceable the last couple years. Reliable for 20-25 games, probably north of .500 on a decent club at a low price. He let in a couple softies while with the kraken but he made some huge saves that really carried the team’s momentum in that magical 2nd year, that we played a little too conservatively in the final stretches.
He didn’t let up a “few” softies with the Kraken; he let in waves and waves of them. He had THE worst GSAA of any starter in the NHL in 2023. He had THE worst save percentage of any starter in the NHL in 2023. We’re talking a guy who let in five or more goals in FOURTEEN games that season, and if Seattle hadn’t been scoring goals in carload lots, his won-loss record would’ve been a lot more gruesome. (In seventeen of Jones’ wins, Seattle scored five or more goals.) Beyond that, Jones faced only 26 shots per sixty minutes, which is a pretty easy workload; John Gibson, the poor bast@rd, faced nearly 40 per.
With that, Jones did decently with Toronto last year. Doubt many teams would want to give him more than a sub-$1 MM contract, but it’s not as if San Jose needs to worry about their third goalie getting them into the playoffs.
He didn’t let up a “few” softies with the Kraken; he let in waves and waves of them. He had THE worst GSAA of any starter in the NHL in 2023. He had THE worst save percentage of any starter in the NHL in 2023. We’re talking a guy who let in five or more goals in FOURTEEN games that season, and if Seattle hadn’t been scoring goals in carload lots, his won-loss record would’ve been a lot more gruesome. (In seventeen of Jones’ wins, Seattle scored five or more goals.) Beyond that, Jones faced only 26 shots per sixty minutes, which is a pretty easy workload; John Gibson, the poor bast@rd, faced nearly 40 per.
With that, Jones did decently with Toronto last year. Doubt many teams would want to give him more than a sub-$1 MM contract, but it’s not as if San Jose needs to worry about their third goalie getting them into the playoffs.