Earlier this season, the Jets took care of their top prominent pending unrestricted free agent when they signed Kyle Connor to an eight-year extension. Next on their priority list appears to be their captain Adam Lowry, who just made his season debut on Tuesday after missing the first four weeks of the season while recovering from hip surgery.
While an agreement in a new deal isn’t in place yet, it appears they’re making progress on that front. TSN’s Darren Dreger recently reported in a TSN Insider Trading segment that the Jets view getting the center signed to a long-term deal and it’s getting closer to being completed.
The 32-year-old is in the final season of his five-year, $16.25MM deal signed back in 2021. While Lowry isn’t a significant offensive producer (his career high in points in 36), he’s a strong defensive player who typically is a little above average on faceoffs and can play a shutdown role when needed or hold his own in the top six. As a result, it’s fair to say that Winnipeg has gotten a strong return on that contract.
Those types of versatile players tend to have a sizable list of suitors in free agency and the fact he’s a center will only make that list grow larger. It’s not implausible to think that Lowry will be in a good position to surpass $4MM per season on his next contract and receive a long-term deal. He presently has a six-team no-trade clause and should be in a position to improve upon that as well.
Even with Connor locked up to a team-record $96MM contract beginning next season, the Jets have more than ample cap flexibility. Per PuckPedia, they project to have around $27.5MM in cap room for 2026-27 and only around six players needed to sign with that money. That would leave plenty of room for a new deal for Lowry and a long-term agreement for RFA Cole Perfetti, while still having wiggle room to reshape the roster.
In past weeks, we’ve seen a flurry of potential unrestricted free agents eschew testing the open market next July and opt to re-sign with their current teams. It seems likely that Lowry, a veteran of a dozen seasons in Winnipeg, will be joining that list soon enough.