Jets captain Adam Lowry won’t be available at the start of the 2025-26 season after undergoing successful hip surgery on Tuesday, per a club announcement. The procedure carries a five-to-six-month rehabilitation timeline, meaning he’ll likely make his season debut sometime in November.
While it could be a tough start to Winnipeg’s season without their top matchup and penalty-killing center, a roughly month-long absence shouldn’t impact the Jets’ offseason planning too much outside of adding a depth piece down the middle to give them additional insurance through the first few weeks of the campaign. A potential late October return doesn’t guarantee Lowry will miss enough time to qualify for a long-term injured reserve placement at the beginning of the season. Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff must presume Lowry counts against the salary cap to start the year.
The Jets’ center core of Lowry, Mark Scheifele, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Morgan Barron are all signed or under team control for next season, so there likely weren’t going to be many moving parts down the middle for Winnipeg this summer anyway outside of finding a potential upgrade on Namestnikov for the second line. However, Lowry’s absence for the first few weeks will likely allow the Jets to evaluate the readiness of their potential internal long-term replacements for Namestnikov in a top-six role. There’s 2023 first-rounder Brayden Yager, who’s primed to land an opening-night roster spot after scoring 25 goals and 82 points in 54 games with WHL Moose Jaw and Lethbridge this year. 2022 first-round Brad Lambert has gotten a couple of NHL reps over the last two years and might be a candidate as well, although he’s coming off a highly disappointing season with AHL Manitoba (7-28–35, -30 rating in 61 GP).
For Lowry, the hip rehab will mark an inauspicious start to the final season of the five-year, $16.25MM extension he signed in 2021. With Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti also eligible to sign extensions on July 1, it’s unclear how quickly Cheveldayoff intends to start those talks with his captain. However, it should be expected that they’ll do everything in their power to keep the 11-year veteran in the only NHL city he’s ever known.
If they do opt to engage in extension discussions this summer, AFP Analytics projects the 32-year-old to receive a two-year deal in the $4MM range per season. He’s coming off his third straight 30-point campaign and has averaged at least 15 minutes per game for five straight seasons.
Lowry’s injury also puts a small dent in his climb up the Jets franchise’s all-time leaderboard. His 775 games played are fourth in Winnipeg/Atlanta franchise history, and he needs 69 games to leapfrog Bryan Little for third – that’s still doable next year if he returns at the early end of his timeline and stays healthy the rest of the way. His 121 goals are 10th all-time for the Jets, his 152 assists and 273 points rank ninth, while his +50 rating ranks fourth.
He’s tough as nails. He’ll come back strong.