Connor Hellebuyck Offers Scathing Review Of Season
Murat Ates of The Athletic summarized Connor Hellebuyck‘s scathing review of the Winnipeg Jets 2025-26 season. Hellebuyck was highly critical of the team’s effort throughout the year, saying, “What we did this year was unacceptable. No one wants to be part of that.”
Furthermore, he questioned the Jets’ ability to bring in the necessary talent, saying, “Can you get the pieces that you need? Will the players come? These are always questions that you have in Winnipeg. I’ve made it my home and I like it here, but the majority of the league doesn’t feel the same way.” He went on to articulate that his only focus is on winning the Stanley Cup and has become frustrated with the lack of movement toward that goal in Winnipeg.
Regardless, Hellebuyck didn’t leave any room for speculation, saying how much he loves the city and the organization, and only wishes for other players to see what he sees. Still, it’s indicative of the situation the Jets are in regarding their location and the simple fact that the team has failed to acquire top-level talent in free agency.
Although he silenced many of his doubters during his impressive run at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Hellebuyck has arguably been a key component in the Jets’ failing to reach the Western Conference Final since 2018. In the last three years, Hellebuyck has managed an 8-15-0 record in 23 games, with a .870 SV% and 3.60. He became a radically different goalie than the one he is in the regular season, where he has a 56.1% win percentage and .916 SV% in 615 career starts.
Jets Reassign Brad Lambert, Brayden Yager
Two of the Winnipeg Jets’ best forward prospects will continue their season in the Calder Cup playoffs. The Jets announced that they’ve reassigned forwards Brad Lambert and Brayden Yager to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.
Despite spending much of the season in the AHL, Lambert, 22, remained with the Jets after the trade deadline. Although he set a new career-high in NHL games played, he was largely ineffective. Lambert finished the campaign with three goals and six points in 25 games with a -5 rating, averaging 10:48 of ice time per game. Earlier this season, the Jets permitted Lambert to seek a trade. There’s no telling if his lengthy opportunity after the deadline was enough to change his mind.
Meanwhile, Yager, 21, only spent the last few games of the season with Winnipeg. Still looking for his first NHL point, Yager skated in three games for the Jets, averaging just under 11 minutes of ice time per game. Still, he was a decent tertiary scorer for the Moose this season, scoring 10 goals and 30 points in 68 games with a -15 rating.
Jets Sign Cole Koepke To Two-Year Extension
The Winnipeg Jets are retaining some of their bottom-six depth for a few more seasons. The Jets announced that they’ve signed forward Cole Koepke to a two-year, $2.9MM ($1.45MM AAV) extension through the 2027-28 season.
Truth be told, many believed Koepke would sign a similar deal last summer. The 27-year-old was coming off the best season of his career with the Boston Bruins, scoring 10 goals and 17 points in 73 games, averaging 11:15 of ice time. The Bruins’ fourth line of Koepke, Mark Kastelic, and John Beecher was arguably the most dominant on the team, averaging a 61.6% xGoals% according to MoneyPuck.
Despite the solid season, Koepke settled for a one-year, $1MM contract with the Jets for the 2025-26 campaign. Fortunately, Koepke proved that his 2024-25 season wasn’t a flash in the pan, and instead, his baseline. He finished this season with eight goals and 17 points in 66 games, averaging 10:28 of ice time. Additionally, he marginally increased his physicality from last season, leading the team in hits with 186.
At the very least, as they look to retool this summer and get back to contention, the Jets know Koepke will bring some energy and toughness to the team’s bottom-six. Although he’s not much of a fighter, teams will have their heads on a swivel when Koepke is on the ice, which should benefit prospects such as Brad Lambert or Brayden Yager if they crack Winnipeg’s roster out of training camp next season.
Jets First Rounder Sascha Boumedienne Transfers To Ohio State
With the NCAA season now over, the transfer window is open and with a much shorter period this year, moves have been happening quickly. (Instead of 45 days, it’s now just 15, running through April 28th.) Quite a few NHL prospects have found new places already but those players have been later-round selections; there hadn’t been a top-round draft pick moving in the opening days.
However, that has now changed. Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald reports (Twitter link) that Jets prospect Sascha Boumedienne is transferring from Boston University to Ohio State University.
The 19-year-old defenseman was the 28th overall selection last June after Boumedienne’s first season at BU, one that saw him put up 13 points in 40 games. He was much more productive at the World Under-18s, however, tallying 14 points in just seven appearances to give his draft stock a boost after it has slid during the season.
Unfortunately, Boumedienne didn’t progress too much in his sophomore year. His output actually dipped slightly to two goals and eight assists in 35 appearances while playing a little lower on the depth chart at times as well. He had a decent showing at the World Juniors with Sweden though, notching four points in seven games while averaging 22:13 per game of ice time.
With this move, Boumedienne is banking on having an opportunity to have a more prominent role in the hopes of sparking a big year from a development perspective. If that happens, he’d be a strong candidate to turn pro and sign with the Jets next season, foregoing his final year of eligibility.
Jets Sign Garrett Brown To Two-Year Deal
The Winnipeg Jets have added a collegiate national champion to their ranks. Defenseman Garrett Brown has signed a two-year contract with the Jets following the end of his junior year at the University of Denver. Winnipeg drafted Brown in the 2022 fourth-round after his first season with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers.
Brown, 22, has long been regarded as a mobile, two-way defenseman. He grew up through the San Jose Sharks AAA program, where he played alongside fellow NHL prospects including Calgary Flames forward Cade Littler and Vancouver Canucks defenseman Aiden Celebrini. Brown was a third-round selection in the 2020 USHL Futures Draft and debuted with the Musketeers at the end of the following season. He joined Sioux City full-time in the 2021-22 season and left his rookie USHL year with 17 points in 72 games. More notably, he left his rookie season with a USHL championship, filling a third-pair role on a Sioux City squad that featured seven other NHL prospects. Brown took on an assistant captain role with Sioux City, before a mid-year move to the Waterloo Black Hawks, in his second USHL season. He finished the year with 18 points in 54 games.
Winning tendencies followed Brown to the college level. He was an extra defenseman for much of the 2023-24 season but did manage four points in the eight games he stepped into. More than that, he helped spread some luck on a Denver Pioneers squad that went on to win the 2024 National Championship. Brown earned a full-time role in 2024-25 and scored eight points in 42 games, a mark that grew to 14 points in 34 games in another Championship-winning year this season.
Through it all, Brown has stood out for his fundamental defense and active stick. He has never finished a season with a negative plus-minus and found his way into routine minutes with the Pioneers. Brown will now push into the pro flight hoping that his strong stick and ability to defend tempo will be enough to cement a role in the AHL. The Manitoba Moose are headed for the Calder Cup Playoffs and have already added late-year additions Alfons Freij and Lukas Gustafsson to the blue-line. Brown will be the right-handed compliment to those lefty additions, and should compete with bruiser Tyrel Bauer for minutes.
Winnipeg Jets Activate Colin Miller
The Winnipeg Jets announced today that defenseman Colin Miller has been activated off of injured reserve. Miller has been sidelined since January, when he underwent surgery on his knee.
The 33-year-old’s activation will allow him to potentially skate in the three contests left in the Jets’ regular season schedule. His activation would also allow him to enter the team’s playoff lineup should Winnipeg go on a miracle run in these final few days of the regular season and snatch a playoff spot from either the Los Angeles Kings or Nashville Predators.
It’s been a difficult season for Miller, who has been limited to just 15 games due to his injury as well as some healthy scratches from early in the season. In those 15 games, he’s managed just one point, and is averaging just 13:45 time on ice per game. That’s a slight decline from how much he was playing last season (14:31 per game) and well below his career average of 17:10 per game.
While two or three games won’t be able to fully reverse the course of his season, it will be enough for him to build some positive momentum for himself and enter the summer with a greater level of confidence than he might have otherwise had if he wasn’t able to return after his January surgery. It’s an important offseason for Miller, who is slated to hit unrestricted free agency for the fourth time in his career.
Miller is currently making $1.5MM against the cap on what is the second year of a two-year deal he signed on July 1, 2024. The difficulty he’s had staying on the ice this season, combined with a less-than-stellar 2024-25, makes it somewhat unlikely he’ll be able to match that number this summer.
AFP Analytics currently projects his next deal at one year, $907K. While it’s unlikely he’ll be able to do too much to change his leaguewide stock in what remains of the regular season, a good performance or two in games where the Jets’ playoff hopes are still alive certainly can’t hurt.
Jets Recall Brayden Yager, Nikita Chibrikov
The Winnipeg Jets announced that they have recalled forwards Brayden Yager and Nikita Chibrikov from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. Per the team, these two moves are emergency recalls.
While the Jets have not been officially eliminated from playoff contention at this point, they are teetering on the brink of elimination. They’ll need to win their final three games – and get some help from other teams – to return to the playoffs.
Today’s recalls have added two of the Jets’ better prospects to their roster in the event that they rest some of their veterans or ailing players if they are eliminated from playoff contention. The moves also add some depth to the Jets’ forward corps, a group that recently lost Morgan Barron for the rest of the regular season.
Yager, 21, could get the chance to make his NHL debut within these (likely) last three games of the Jets’ season.
Originally a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Yager was acquired by the Jets in August 2024 after it became clear that top prospect Rutger McGroarty preferred to turn pro in a different organization.
In the first year of his professional career, Yager has made progress in his development. The Moose have had an up-and-down season as a whole, and have scored the second-fewest goals of any team in the AHL.
But Yager has nonetheless been able to successfully acclimate himself to the pro game in his time there. The former WHL Champion and CHL Sportsman of the Year has scored 10 goals and 30 points in 68 games for the Moose this season.
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler recently ranked Yager as the No. 2 prospect in the team’s system, calling him someone who “projects as a potential 3C/PP2/PK2 type.” That’s right in line with where he began the season, ranked No. 2 in the Jets’ system by the team at Elite Prospects, who also assigned him a middle-six projection.
Yager has two years remaining on his entry-level contract. While there aren’t many games left on the regular-season schedule, the Jets may be interested in seeing how Yager fares at the NHL level in order to get a clearer sense of whether they can plan for him to be on their NHL roster in 2026-27. The team’s current No. 4 center, Jonathan Toews, is a pending UFA, meaning that role could be open for Yager to seize in training camp in the fall.
The other player who was recalled, Chibrikov, does have some NHL experience unlike Yager. The 23-year-old Russian winger was a 2021 second-round pick and has played in 13 career NHL games, including eight this season.
Chibrikov built real momentum with his first season in North America, 2023-24. He scored 47 points in his first 70 AHL games and even nabbed his first NHL goal. But a season-ending knee injury cut his sophomore campaign short, and he’s since struggled to re-gain the form he once displayed.
In 53 games with the Moose this season, Chibrikov has just 16 points. While it’s been a season to forget for Chibrikov, this recall will give him the chance to at least try to end his campaign on the right note with some NHL experience. Chibrikov signed a two-year, one-way contract extension in October that carries an $875K AAV, and that deal is set to kick in this summer.
Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Morgan Barron Out For Regular Season, Salomonsson Still In Concussion Protocol
The Winnipeg Jets were all but eliminated from playoff contention yesterday, suffering a 7-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. With three games remaining on the schedule, they’ll need to win all three, as well as get considerable outside help, in order to return to the playoffs. As they seek a miracle over these next three games, they’ll need to do so without winger Morgan Barron. Barron has missed three straight games with a lower-body injury and Jets head coach Scott Arniel told the media yesterday, including Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press, that Barron is done for the regular season. The 27-year-old finishes his 2025-26 season with 11 goals and 23 points in 65 games, a career high in offensive production. He’s under contract through next season at a $1.85MM AAV before he’s set to become a UFA.
In addition to Barron, Arniel also provided an update on the status of injured defenseman Elias Salomonsson. Arniel said Salomonsson is still dealing with concussion symptoms and has not yet returned to the ice. The 21-year-old defenseman suffered his injury April 2 against the Dallas Stars, and has missed four consecutive games. Salomonsson, who was recently ranked the No. 1 prospect in the Jets’ system by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, has averaged 17:57 time on ice per game across 32 NHL contests this season.
Poll: Who Will Capture The Final Wild-Card Spot In The West?
Now that every team is below five games remaining in the regular season, it’s scoreboard-watching time in the NHL. There are still a few things to sort out in the Eastern Conference, though the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference remains a wide-open race.
As it currently stands, the Los Angeles Kings own the spot with 85 points and four games left in their regular season. The Nashville Predators (84 points), Winnipeg Jets (82 points), and San Jose Sharks (81 points) are all within striking distance.
The Kings should be considered the favorites. Three out of their final four games are against teams well outside the postseason chase, although teams in their position love playing spoilers, especially against inter-divisional opponents. Still, Los Angeles will continue to ride the hot hand of Anton Forsberg, who has put up a .950 SV% over his last three appearances, winning them all.
However, the Predators aren’t going down without a fight. Playing much more competitively than last season, Nashville has three games left against the Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks. If they win all three and finish with 90 points, they would have a strong likelihood of getting in since the Kings don’t have a pathway to usurp them in the first tiebreaker (regulation wins).
Meanwhile, the Jets and Sharks, despite having four games remaining, have the hardest path. According to Moneypuck, Winnipeg has a 12.4% of reaching the playoffs, whereas San Jose has a 2.4% chance. The Jets have an ace in the hole in Connor Hellebuyck, who can win four games in a row mostly by himself. Still, even if they do win their last four, they would need some serious good luck.
Now, it’s your time to vote. Which team will win the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference and secure a date with the Colorado Avalanche in the opening round of the playoffs?
Who Will Capture The Final Wild-Card Spot In The West?
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Los Angeles Kings 52% (377)
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Nashville Predators 19% (134)
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Winnipeg Jets 17% (120)
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San Jose Sharks 12% (88)
Total votes: 719
Jets Activate Nino Niederreiter, Reassign Parker Ford
8:30 p.m.: The Jets made Niederreiter’s activation official via a team announcement. Additionally, the team has reassigned depth forward Parker Ford to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose in a corresponding roster move.
10:49 a.m.: Jets winger Nino Niederreiter is set to come off injured reserve to play in Monday’s game against the Kraken, Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press reports. They’ll also be getting center Vladislav Namestnikov back after he missed more than a month with a lower-body injury. However, he never hit IR prior to the roster limit being lifted at the trade deadline. It’s two steps forward, one step back, though, as head coach Scott Arniel told reporters that center Morgan Barron is now week-to-week with the lower-body injury he sustained Saturday against the Blue Jackets.
Niederreiter has not played since suiting up for Switzerland at the Olympics. He sustained a lower-body injury at some point during the tournament and required surgery upon returning to Winnipeg, which kept him out of the lineup on a week-to-week basis. After 20 games sidelined, he gets a chance to contribute – albeit in a limited role – as Winnipeg aims to hold onto its slim playoff hopes. He’ll be skating as the team’s fourth line left wing with Namestnikov and Brad Lambert.
A top-nine fixture for the vast majority of his 15-year NHL career, Niederreiter has had a tough go of things in 2025-26. That’s been the case for virtually every Jet outside their top line and Josh Morrissey, indicative of their offensive production tumbling from 3.35 goals per game last year to just 2.80 this season. His 8-11–19 scoring line in 55 outings works out to 0.35 points per game, his worst output since managing just one point in 55 games during his rookie season for the Islanders way back in 2011-12.
The 33-year-old, who had turned into a strong checking piece after playing a less physical two-way game earlier in his career, has also laid off the hits this year as his ice time dips below 14 minutes per game. He’s still returning to his usual spot on the second power play unit but has seen all of six seconds of shorthanded ice time this season. He has another year left on his contract at a $4MM cap hit to prove he can still be an effective piece heading into free agency in 2027.
Namestnikov managed to play in Winnipeg’s first game after the Olympic break but sustained a lower-body injury in his next game and has been sidelined since. Like Niederreiter, the 33-year-old has taken a tumble down the depth chart this year with captain Adam Lowry moving up to center the Jets’ second line behind Mark Scheifele. After back-to-back 30-point years for the Jets, Namestnikov has only produced seven goals and 13 points with a -11 rating in 57 outings while winning just 39.8% of his draws.
Losing Barron means losing one of the few Jets who’s taken a real step forward this season. Through 65 games, the 6’4″ pivot has a career-best 11 goals and 23 points with a +5 rating that sits fifth on the team. That’s a considerable depth loss as their playoff odds could jump back up to 10% with a win against Seattle, but drop below 5% with a loss.