Patrik Laine

Central Notes: Bowman, Bishop, Laine, Edmundson

November 25, 2018 at 5:57 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 1 Comment

While he may not be the most popular person in Chicago lately, Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman sat down with The Athletic’s Scott Powers (subscription required) in an in depth interview, going over the state of the franchise. While Bowman is aware of fans’ displeasure with the recent firing of coach Joel Quenneville as well as the state of the team’s salary cap over the past few years, Bowman said he must remain focused on the present.

“It definitely comes with the job,” Bowman said. “When you take this job, you understand that part of it is the fans have a passion for the team, which I wouldn’t want any other way. So, yeah, I don’t follow it in the sense that whatever people say, they’re going to say, and I need to do what I think is right because I believe in it. If I start getting into the weeds and trying to follow it, then it can just distract me from I have a job to do.”

Bowman did say that although many fans feel that he waited too long to trade the contract of Marian Hossa to Arizona this summer (the trade happened on July 12), but that was the first time that the Coyotes agreed to take on Hossa’s contract. Regardless, fans were upset that the team wasn’t able to use the extra $4.5MM in cap space created by that trade as most offseason work was already done by teams at that point. Bowman said he intends to be patient in using that cap space.

“The one thing you don’t want to do is just use it to just to get somebody who doesn’t really fit, and it’s going to preclude you from doing something else later,” Bowman said. “I’m not sitting on it to sit on it, but nothing has come along. Like there’s been potential trades, but the guy’s got two more years on his deal. Like he could help us in the short term, but we’re going to be able to do better than that. You just got to be patient. That’s the thought process.”

Mike Heika of NHL.com writes that the Dallas Stars may be close to getting back starting goaltender Ben Bishop who has been out for almost a week with a lower-body injury. Heika writes that Anton Khudobin is expected to start Tuesday in Edmonton, followed likely be Landon Bow on Wednesday in Calgary. However, the scribe writes that Bishop might be ready for the team’s game in Vancouver on Saturday. Bishop is having a impressive season with a 2.33 GAA and a .923 save percentage in 15 games.
Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun writes that while Patrik Laine knew he’d break out of his 19-game five-on-five scoreless slump earlier this season, it did weigh on him as it wore on. However, after scoring eight of his 11 goals this week on five-on-five, Laine feels more confident than ever, but credits his new linemates’ Bryan Little and Kyle Connor for much of his success. Much of Laine’s success has been with his recent chemistry with Little. The two struggled connecting for the past two years, especially last season. Those five-on-five struggles disappeared after the team added Paul Stastny at the trade deadline, but the Laine and Little finally seem to have found that connection this year.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tom Timmermann writes that St. Louis Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson has been working hard lately to avoid penalties. In his last 11 games, Edmondson has been called for a penalty in eight of those games and the 25-year-old leads the team with 29 penalty minutes. “I think I’m getting a little wild with my stick,” Edmundson said. “Sometimes the game gets the better half of me and I take out my frustrations. I’m looking to be smarter in that department. Sometimes I get worked up a bit and anger takes over. Coach (Berube) has talked to me. I just have to settle down a bit.”

Injury Notes: Kulikov, Pesce, Carrick, Arvidsson

November 12, 2018 at 1:20 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Winnipeg Jets recalled top prospect Sami Niku this weekend as a replacement for the injured Dmitry Kulikov, and he might get a longer than expected opportunity in the NHL. Kulikov has been moved to injured reserve and is out for at least four weeks according to Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun. The veteran defenseman suffered an upper-body injury, and will now have to fight his way back on the roster in a month’s time.

Kulikov had appeared in just six games this season for the Jets, averaging fewer than 11 minutes per game. That’s a far cry from the expectations placed on him when he signed a three-year $13MM deal in the summer of 2017, one that has not aged well given the rest of the big contracts Winnipeg needs to give out. The team has plenty of cap space at the moment, but will need to hand out deals to Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor, Jacob Trouba and several other restricted free agents this summer.

Brett Pesce’s absence at Carolina Hurricanes practice may have set off some alarm bells given the recent speculation about the team’s interest in William Nylander, but Michael Smith of NHL.com reports the defenseman is working through a minor lower-body injury. Pesce won’t play tonight for the Hurricanes, but is listed as just day-to-day for now.
Meanwhile in Dallas, Stars’ defenseman Connor Carrick will miss at least three more weeks with his lower-body injury according to broadcaster Bruce LeVine. The Stars are without John Klingberg as well, leaving a lot of the puck-moving responsibility to young defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Julius Honka. Carrick has four points in nine games for the Stars since being acquired just prior to the beginning of the season. Importantly, that trade included a condition that would change the seventh round pick to a sixth round pick for Toronto if Carrick plays in 50 games. An injury like this puts that 50 game threshold very much in doubt.
Viktor Arvidsson had just returned from a stint on injured reserve, but is headed back to the shelf after leaving the Nashville Predators recent game against Dallas. Arvidsson has been placed on injured reserve once again, meaning he’ll miss at least a week with his upper-body injury.

Central Notes: Laine, Vesalainen, Dickinson, Fortin

October 27, 2018 at 8:00 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg Leave a Comment

Despite winger Patrik Laine finding himself on the fourth line for a second straight game, Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice came to his player’s defense today. The 20-year-old Laine has just one even-strength point so far this season, prompting Maurice to swap Mathieu Perreault with Laine on Friday in their 2-1 win over Detroit. The move had few ramifications towards Laine’s numbers as he still managed to play 17:08 throughout the game. Yet the coach was quick to defend him.

“He’s 20,” Maurice said (via TSN’s Mark Masters). “He’s going to keep getting better…We need him to continue. He’s 20 & just learning the game.”

Maurice said the main goal of making the switch between Laine and Perrault was that Perrault was “buzzing” and he wanted to give the veteran a bigger role, pointing out that the power play (with Laine) was still “outstanding.”

Sticking with Jets, the Winnipeg Sun’s Ted Wyman reports that the recall of Tucker Poolman is expected to be the last roster move before the team travels to Finland for their two-game global series with the Florida Panthers. That means that 19-year-old Finn Kristian Vesalainen, the team’s 2017 first-rounder, won’t be going on the trip then as he remains with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. He has four assists in two games there, but still hasn’t been brought back to Winnipeg.
Mark Stepneski of NHL.com writes that Dallas Stars winger Jason Dickinson has seen his confidence soar in the last week and is starting to show that he can provide some of that secondary scoring the team desperately needs. The team has gotten 15 of its 19 goals this season from four players, including Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, John Klingberg and Alexander Radulov. However, Dickinson showed some impressive play last Tuesday, although all he got out of it was an assist. However, he followed that up Thursday with a two goal, three-point night, showing he can put up numbers. “I think it’s been building since training camp,” head coach Jim Montgomery said. “For a player to start to gain confidence in this league, it’s not easy. We thought he had a really good training camp and then the season started with a bit of inconsistency, but you’re starting to see it build.”
The Chicago Tribune’s Jimmy Greenfield writes that Chicago Blackhawks forward Alexandre Fortin is starting to find his place on the Blackhawks’ roster. The 21-year-old has two goals and an assist over the past four games, and while head coach Joel Quenneville keeps changing lines on him, but the coach likes Fortin’s speed a little more than his defensive deficiencies. “(Defense) is a work in progress, but it’s been a good start for him,” Quenneville said. “It’s been a positive beginning because his speed has definitely been a big factor.”

Agent Mike Liut Set To Bury The “Bridge Deal” This Off-Season

October 26, 2018 at 5:53 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 4 Comments

For some time now, the landscape of NHL contracts has been changing, trending away from short and relatively inexpensive contracts for young restricted free agents. These “bridge deals” had long been used by teams to keep promising young talent on a reasonable price tag after their entry-level contract expired. While teams have been complicit in the movement away from bridge deals, players have simply begun to produce at a much higher level far sooner than in the past and, in turn, agents have demanded more term and salary than they ever had the leverage to command previously. The bridge deal is not yet extinct, but players and their representatives are having a much easier time landing expensive, long-term deals as early as possible in recent years.

While the beginning of the end for affordable youth can be traced back to superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin – whose cap hits now look like bargains some years later – it is within the last few years that young players of a lesser caliber than the all-world exception have been able to land similar pacts. The architect of multiple recent deals of great length and value has been Mike Liut of Octagon Sports. A former NHLer himself, Liut is the director of Octagon’s hockey division. Forbes reports that Liut manages 22 clients and over $325MM in player salary. His efforts to eliminate the bridge deal have played no small part in that impressive total. Liut negotiated the eight-year, $60MM contract signed by the St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko back in 2015, when Tarasenko had less than 200 NHL games to his credit. He then put together the eight-year, $49MM contract of the Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele in 2016, before he became the point-per-game player he is today. However, the crown jewel of Liut’s collection has to be the massive eight-year, $68MM contract belonging to the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl. Signed last year, Draisaitl’s deal carries an $8.5MM cap hit that is among the top fifteen players in the league. Yet, Liut somehow landed Draisaitl that deal after just two and half seasons, only one of which was truly impressive.

Now, Liut has a chance at a repeat performance of the Draisaitl deal not once, not twice, not even thrice, but with four different prominent players this off-season. Liut counts Patrik Laine, Mikko Rantanen, Brock Boeser, and Jake Guentzel among his clients and each of those four is set to have their entry-level contract expire this off-season. Winnipeg’s Laine has finished in the top ten in goal scoring in each of his first two seasons and was second only to Ovechkin for the league lead last year. Colorado’s Rantanen recorded 84 points in 81 games last year and currently shares the NHL lead in points and assists. Vancouver’s Boeser finished second in Calder Trophy voting last year and led the Canucks in scoring. Pittsburgh’s Guentzel is a Stanley Cup champion and a proven clutch scorer. Liut has shown an ability to bypass the bridge deal before and has an excellent chance at landing each of these players an expensive long-term deal. Other restricted free agents like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Sebastian Aho are also certain to land similar deals. As such, in an off-season with an abnormal amount of high-profile RFA’s, each one could end up with an expensive, long-term extension. The effect, as Liut hopes, that the bridge deal dies as a result.

Snapshots: Foster, Aho, Rantanen

October 25, 2018 at 4:43 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 1 Comment

One of the legendary moments from the 2017-18 season aside from the Vegas Golden Knights setting a new standard for expansion franchises, and Alex Ovechkin finally hoisting the cup above his head (and, alternately hoisting his head above the cup), was made on an otherwise unexceptional night in Chicago. With their regular goaltenders injured, the Chicago Blackhawks started minor league netminder Collin Delia for the first time in his career. Everything was set up for a normal debut by a budding prospect, but went awry in the third period.

In came Scott Foster, emergency goaltender extraordinaire, signed to an amateur tryout deal in order to fill in. Foster entered with 14 minutes remaining in the third period and made seven stops to secure the win for the Blackhawks. The former Western Michigan University backup goaltender became an instant folk hero in his local recreational league, and now has even more to tell his friends when they gather at the pub. The Blackhawks announced that Foster will serve as the third goaltender at optional skates this season, continuing to add more pages to the brief chapter of his NHL life.

There’s not much about the Carolina Hurricanes attack that doesn’t run through Sebastian Aho, the third-year forward with 14 points in his first nine games. Aho recorded 65 last season to lead the Hurricanes, and after Jeff Skinner and Elias Lindholm were jettisoned this summer there’s little reason to think he won’t lead them for years to come. That’s what owner Tom Dundon believes, and what he told Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required). Dundon was effusive in his praise of Aho’s game, and all but guaranteed that the Finnish forward would be in Carolina for a long time: “He’s going to play here. This is where he’s going to play. We’ll figure it out.” Aho is in the final season of his entry-level contract, and will be looking for a huge raise on his next deal. Custance suggests that the 21-year old is watching the William Nylander negotiation closely, as it could be a direct comparable for his own next summer.
Speaking of big second contracts, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet notes that Mike Liut, the agent for both Mikko Rantanen and Patrik Laine, likes to wait until after his clients’ third season to sign their next big deal, instead of looking for an early extension. He’s done that with Vladimir Tarasenko, Rasmus Ristolainen and Leon Draisaitl, and Friedman implies that a similar path might be taken by Rantanen and Laine. The former is off to an incredible start in Colorado, while Laine is bound to take off at any moment.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Winnipeg Jets

October 6, 2018 at 3:58 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg Leave a Comment

Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2018-19 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Winnipeg Jets

Current Cap Hit: $74,274,122 (under the $79.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Patrik Laine (one year, $925K)
F Kyle Connor (one year, $925K)
F Kristian Vesalainen (three years, $925K)
F Jack Roslovic (two years, $894K)
F Brendan Lemieux (one year, $839K)
D Sami Niku (two years, $775K)

Potential Bonuses:

Laine: $2.65MM
Connor: $850K
Roslovic: $213K
Lemieux: $200K
Niku: $183K

Total: $4.1MM

The Jets were hit hard when many of their entry-level deals expired a year ago and next year won’t be too much different as the team, which is now starting to feel the strain of the salary cap, will have to find a way to hand over a lot of money to Laine, who could receive a long-term deal at an extremely high price. Of course, the 20-year-old is worth that money. The winger scored 36 goals in his rookie campaign and topped that with a 44-goal season last year. If he can reach numbers even close to that, he could be one of the highest players in the league in a year.

Connor should also cost the team a good deal of money as the 21-year-old winger posted 31 goals in his first full NHL season last year and looks to be heading in a similar direction and could also get himself a contract in the $5MM+ range in one season. The team gets another year for Roslovic, who is currently playing in the bottom-six, but don’t be surprised if the 21-year-old center might eventually move into the top-six at some point in the season.

It’s still too early to know where Vesalainen stands, but the highly-touted prospect will get time immediately in a bottom-six role and develop his skills. With three years on his entry-level deal, the team hopes it can get some cheap scoring options from him for a few years.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

D Jacob Trouba ($5.5MM, RFA)
D Tyler Myers ($5.5MM, UFA)
D Ben Chiarot ($1.4MM, UFA)
F Brandon Tanev ($1.15MM, UFA)
F Andrew Copp ($1MM, RFA)
D Joseph Morrow ($1MM, RFA)
F Nic Petan ($874K, RFA)
F Marko Dano ($800K, RFA)
G Laurent Brossoit ($650K, RFA)

While the team is deep in forwards, their defense has many long-term questions surrounding them. Two of those players have contracts that will expire at the end of the season. Trouba is the most interesting. Despite holding out several years ago and showing little interest in Winnipeg, it looked like things were improving after Winnipeg enjoyed an impressive season last year that took them to the Western Conference Finals. However, another difficult negotiations that failed to bring in a long-term deal and the team may be forced to move on from Trouba sooner than later. He can be an unrestricted free agent after the 2019-20 season.

Myers is also a candidate for the team to move on from as the veteran is on the final year of a seven-year, $38.5MM deal. While Myers is still a very productive player, the long term deals the team has already signed off on as well as potential deals with Laine and Connor could make him a cap casualty as well. The team has Niku, among others, sitting in the AHL waiting for a spot to open and some could open up at the end of the year.

Two Years Remaining

D Dmitry Kulikov ($4.33MM, UFA)
D Josh Morrissey ($3.15MM, RFA)

The team made a couple of free agent signings last offseason, including bringing in goalie Steve Mason and signing Kulikov. Mason has already been traded away after a disappointing season, while Kulikov has had trouble fitting in as well, even being held out of several playoff games last year. The 27-year-old is barely holding onto his spot as a third-line defender and could find himself fighting for time eventually if he can’t improve his game.

Morrissey is a different story. The partner to Trouba has been a solid defender and has continued to improve his game and will still be a restricted free agent in a few years, giving the team another opportunity to lock him up long-term.

Three Years Remaining

D Dustin Byfuglien ($7.6MM, UFA)
F Mathieu Perreault ($4.13MM, UFA)
F Adam Lowry ($2.92MM, UFA)

Byfuglien is locked up long-term and in many ways is the face of the franchise, who produces both physicality and offense for the team. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound blueliner did just provide eight goals last year, one of the lowest totals of his career, but the 33-year-old still managed to produce 45 points. The team needs the veteran to continue his dominant play for a few years more if the team intends to continue a long-term Western Conference run.

The team also needs Perreault to continue playing solid hockey as one of their best bottom-six forwards. The 30-year-old posted 17 goals last year, one goal shy of his career-high. The 25-year-old Lowry is another player who the team needs to step up for the franchise. He posted 15 goals in 2016-17, but managed to score just eight goals last year in 45 games. However, his passing game showed quite a bit of improvement.

Four Or More Years Remaining

G Connor Hellebuyck ($6.19MM through 2023-24)
F Mark Scheifele ($6.13MM through 2023-24)
F Nikolaj Ehlers ($6MM through 2024-25)
F Blake Wheeler ($5.6MM in 2018-19; $8.25MM through 2023-24)
F Bryan Little ($5.29MM through 2023-24)

The franchise has quite a few blue-chip players already locked up long-term with the most important position, goaltending, looking to be in good shape after the team signed Hellebuyck to a six-year, $37MM deal. The 25-year-old posted an impressive breakout season that saw him post a 2.37 GAA and a .924 save percentage and should be a major positive for the team over the next six years.

The team signed Wheeler, their captain, to a long-term extension this offseason. He will finish out his previous deal at $5.6MM, but will start on a four-year extension at $8.25MM. Wheeler posted 20 goals for the fifth-straight season, but also saw his points total surge as the 32-year-old put up a career-high 91 points last year, way better than his previous career-high of 78 points.

Ehlers signed a seven-year extension at this time last season and the 22-year-old posted a career-high 29 goals last season playing on the other side of Laine and producing one of the team’s most dangerous lines. The team also has Little working as a second-line center, although many believe that he’d be better off with a bottom-six role down the road, which would make him an expensive long-term cost at $5.29MM.

Buyouts

F Mark Stuart ($583K in 2018-19)

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Still To Sign

None

Best Value: Scheifele
Worst Value: Kulikov

(Excluding entry-level contracts)

Looking Ahead

The Winnipeg Jets have done an incredible job so far drafting and developing high-end talent and so far have done an excellent job keeping them in the fold for what the team hopes to be a solid five year run for a Stanley Cup. The team has already locked up many of their top players and while they still have a few more to go, they look well on their way to doing that. The only real question is how general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff handles his defense as he has a pair of major decisions to make within the next year when it comes to dealing with Trouba and Myers.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Central Notes: Trouba, Kunin, Josi

September 15, 2018 at 8:35 am CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The Jets and Jacob Trouba weren’t able to work out an agreement on a contract and wound up going through salary arbitration with him being awarded $5.5MM. The defenseman told Postmedia’s Ken Wiebe that he’s hopeful to avoid going that route next offseason and indicated that he remains open to signing a long-term pact with the team, acknowledging that there were long-term deals discussed over the summer. Winnipeg has several players in the final year of their contract including fellow blueliner Tyler Myers plus wingers Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor and already has nearly $52.5MM committed to just 11 players for 2019-20. While Winnipeg may certainly be interested in giving Trouba a long-term contract, they may not be able to afford to do so without clearing out someone else to create the cap space.

Snapshots: Laine, Rangers, Tyszka

September 9, 2018 at 7:56 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Heading into the offseason, many expected that the top picks from 2016 in Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine would get early extensions done with their respective teams. It has already been established that it’s doubtful that Matthews will get a deal done and Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff indicated to Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre that there’s no particular rush to get Laine locked up either:

We’re open to everything. Again, Laine is a huge part of our organization and will be for many, many years to come. If (a contract) happens tomorrow, that’s great. If it happens a year from tomorrow, great.

Laine has quickly established himself as one of the top scoring threats in the league and with that in mind, it stands to reason that they might be able to sign him for less now than it would cost if he has another highly-productive season. However, if Laine believes he can be among the top scorers again, he may prefer to wait. At either rate, it doesn’t seem like the Jets are worried that their young star hasn’t signed just yet.

Elsewhere around the league:

The Rangers aren’t expected to bring in any veterans on training camp tryouts, reports Larry Brooks of the New York Post. New York is in the midst of a youth movement and is expected to have several key prospects contend for a roster spot so it appears they don’t want to clutter things up by having a tryout or two pushing to play as well. Among the youngsters pushing for spots are 2017 first round centers Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil. Even though there is fairly strong depth down the middle already, GM Jeff Gorton told Brooks that they don’t envision shifting them to the wing which could affect their push to make the team.
Canadiens defensive prospect Jarret Tyszka has been diagnosed with a concussion following a hit that resulted in him being stretchered off the ice this afternoon in a rookie tournament game against Toronto, notes Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. It’s the second straight game that a Montreal prospect was concussed and stretchered off the ice as Jake Evans suffered the same fate on Friday. Tyszka, a fifth-round pick of the Canadiens back in 2017, is expected to return to Seattle of the WHL for the upcoming season.

Snapshots: Stastny, Hextall, Klefbom

September 2, 2018 at 3:56 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 1 Comment

The Vegas Golden Knights may have lost a pair of high-end forwards in James Neal and David Perron, but the team did bring in an important free agent this offseason when they signed center Paul Stastny to a three-year deal. The 32-year-old center showed off his impressive skills after he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets from St. Louis at the trade deadline. Stastny was given the role of anchoring a line with their star youngsters’ Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers and that line was a key part of the team’s deep playoff run, before being eliminated by Vegas.

Now ironically in Vegas and expected to center the team’s second line, Stastny said he spends a lot of his offseason training much differently considering that he’s entering that portion of a players’ career where a decline begins. Stastny told The Athletic’s Ryan Clark (subscription required) that he spends a lot of time focusing on off-ice things, especially his diet.

“Trying to keep up with your diet, trying to stay lean, trying to stay quick because as you get older, you might lose that step,” Stastny said. “The game’s changed from my first year where it was a lot heavier, stronger, touch and grabbing to know where it’s just not as much physical. A lot more skating and you gotta keep with that endurance as much as you can.”

Stastny, who posted 16 goals and 53 points between St. Louis and Winnipeg, expects to join the team’s second line between Alex Tuch and either Erik Haula or Tomas Tatar.

David Isaac of the Courier Post interviewed Philadelphia Flyers head coach Ron Hextall, who said in the Q&A that the team looked into upgrading their bottom-six this year in hopes of improving their penalty kill, which struggled last year, but felt they were unable to do that. The special teams’ unit played better over the final 25 games, according to Hextall, but he would still like to add a penalty killing forward, if possible. “I’m open to it, but it would probably be more of a lateral move on the market rather than a free agent,” Hextall said. “It would be a forward. We’d like to add a penalty-killing forward but to this point there’s been nothing there that’s made enough sense for us to move.”
The Edmonton Journal’s Kurt Leavins wonders if this is the year that defenseman Oscar Klefbom puts it all together, especially now that reports are coming in that say he’s 100 percent already with just a couple of weeks before training camp. The 25-year-old had a breakout season in 2016-17 when he tallied 12 goals and 38 points, but struggled through an injury-plagued 2017-18. Now healthy, the scribe believes this is the year he takes that next step.

Plenty Of Work Still Left To Do In Winnipeg

August 22, 2018 at 9:20 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Winnipeg Jets are one of the strongest and deepest teams in the NHL. They reached the Western Conference Finals last season on the back of a strong goaltender in Connor Hellebuyck, a never-ending offensive attack, and a diverse and talented blue line. This summer they had quite a bit of work to do to keep that group together, and have already dealt with several issues.

Hellebuyck was signed to a six-year contract, guaranteeing he’ll be in Winnipeg through his prime years, while Adam Lowry and Tucker Poolman signed multi-year deals to maintain their roles as depth players in the NHL. Jacob Trouba reached a one-year deal through the arbitration process, and crept one year closer to unrestricted free agency, and several other fringe pieces re-upped for one-year deals. Just yesterday, Nicolas Kerdiles inked his two-way deal yesterday, but unfortunately, that doesn’t cover nearly all the work the team still has to do.

First on the to-do list has to be a new deal for Josh Morrissey, who has established himself as a key left-handed counterpart to the big names on the right side for the Jets defense corps. With Toby Enstrom leaving for greener pastures, Morrissey will be asked to take on even more responsibility going forward and could demand a long-term deal. The Jets have Poolman, Dustin Byfuglien and Dmitry Kulikov signed past 2018-19, and need to get some more certainty on the blue line as they continue their negotiations with Trouba and fellow 2019 UFA Tyler Myers. For his part, Morrissey believes that a contract will get done before the start of the season. He told Jason Bell of the Winnipeg Free Press as much in a recent interview:

Everyone’s going to have their own opinions and that’s fine, but from my standpoint as a player, my agent and from our conversations with the team, everything’s been going great. Everyone’s confident it will be handled and done, definitely in time for the season.

It’s in Myers, Trouba and captain Blake Wheeler that the next group of big decisions lie. All three are scheduled for unrestricted free agency next summer, and though an extension can’t be signed with Trouba until January, the other two are potential extension candidates at any point. The team certainly doesn’t want to watch two of their most valuable players walk out the door in less than a year, especially as they just start their competitive window.

Then, there is the question of Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor. Both star forwards are heading into the final years of their entry-level contracts, and both could break the bank on long-term extensions. While Laine says there is no rush to get a deal done, the Jets have to try and save every possible dollar if they’re going to be able to bring back Wheeler and Myers too. Connor is fresh off a breakout 31-goal campaign as a rookie, and Laine looks like he’s poised to be the next great NHL goal scorer capable of winning multiple Maurice Richard trophies and contending for the Hart as league MVP. That kind of player could get an eight figure salary if he pushes hard for it, though the recent Nikita Kucherov extension could put a soft cap on winger earnings for a while.

The Jets are currently sitting with $35MM in cap space for the 2018-19 season, but that suddenly doesn’t seem like very much when you start adding up the salaries of Morrissey, Wheeler, Myers, Trouba, Laine and Connor. There’s room to keep everyone in Winnipeg, but it will be a tight fit. The next 12 months will be an incredibly busy period for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, even while the team tries to compete for the Stanley Cup.

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