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Jets Sign Jaret Anderson-Dolan To Two-Year Deal

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7:26 PM: The Jets have officially signed Anderson-Dolan to a two-year deal for $775K at the NHL level (as per Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun). The first year of the deal is a two-way contract, with the second year as a one-way deal.

12:49 PM: The Jets are expected to pick up versatile depth forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan on a two-year deal, Mayor’s Manor reports.

Once a second-round pick of the Kings in 2017, Anderson-Dolan has now moved to his third squad in the past few months. He began last season in a 13th-forward role for Los Angeles, his usual spot on the depth chart for the past couple of years. But after providing serviceable depth scoring in 2022-23 (12 points in 46 games), the offense dried up. Shuffling in and out of the lineup when injuries dictated his presence, Anderson-Dolan managed only one goal and three assists through his first 30 games of the year.

That led the Kings to place him on waivers ahead of the trade deadline to open up some roster flexibility, upon which he was claimed by the Predators. The move to Nashville didn’t yield any more opportunity for the 5’11”, 200-lb forward, though. He played just once in the Preds’ final 18 games of the season, posting a -1 rating and two shots in 13:39 of ice time in his lone appearance against the Blue Jackets on April 13. He was then scratched for all six games in Nashville’s first-round loss to the Canucks.

Anderson-Dolan should land a bit more opportunity in Winnipeg, which will look for its depth forwards to step up after losing Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli to free agency yesterday. His usability at center helps his case for minutes, but he’s been somewhat rocky in the faceoff dot with a 45.2% career win percentage. He’ll likely compete for roster spots and ice time with the likes of David Gustafsson, Axel Jonsson-Fjällby and Rasmus Kupari in training camp.

In 127 career NHL games, Anderson-Dolan has 15 goals and 28 points with a -31 rating. He’s still young enough to be an RFA upon expiry of his new deal, at which point he’ll be 26.

Jets Sign Colin Miller To Two-Year Deal

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Defenseman Colin Miller is returning to the Jets on a two-year, $3MM contract, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. That’s good for a $1.5MM AAV and cap hit.

The 31-year-old extends his stay in Winnipeg after arriving at the trade deadline when he was picked up from the Devils in exchange for a fourth-round pick. The nine-year veteran ended the season as the Jets’ seventh defender, though, only playing in five regular-season games down the stretch and just one of their five playoff games in their first-round loss to the Avalanche.

A multi-year deal and seven-figure cap hit both suggest the Jets envision Miller playing a slightly larger role than that in 2024-25. The departure of Brenden Dillon for the Devils and the buyout of Nate Schmidt has thinned out their defensive depth, meaning Miller more than likely will start the season in a third-pairing role on the right side behind Dylan DeMelo and Neal Pionk. What’s less clear is who his partner will be. For now, Ville Heinola, Dylan Samberg and Logan Stanley are expected to challenge for the second and third-pairing slots on the left side behind star Josh Morrissey.

That said, you could do worse than Miller as a third-pairing anchor. He’s a decent puck-mover and has overall had positive possession impacts at even strength over his 512-game career. Last season was a difficult one for him offensively, though, recording just nine points in 41 games split between New Jersey and Winnipeg. He’ll look to rebound to the 15-20 point form we’ve come to expect from him in recent years this season.

Jets To Sign Kaapo Kähkönen

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The Jets are signing goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen to a one-year, $1MM deal, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.

Winnipeg could be replacing Laurent Brossoit, last season’s above-average backup, by committee. After he left for the Blackhawks in free agency today, the Jets signed a duo of tenders – Kähkönen and Eric Comrie, who projects to be the third-string netminder but could compete for NHL starts.

Kähkönen is the overwhelming favorite to serve as the full-time backup to Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck, though. The 27-year-old Finn was solid in a tough situation with the Sharks last year, putting up a respectable .895 SV% behind the league’s worst defense with a 3.81 GAA and 6-20-3 record. He continued a strong run of play after a deadline deal to the Devils, where he ended the campaign with a .923 SV% and 2.51 GAA in a brief sample of six starts.

There wasn’t any room for him in New Jersey after they traded for Jacob Markström, so he found a new market to take his services to. Now on his fourth team in the past four seasons, the 2014 fourth-round pick of the Wild likely won’t replicate Brossoit’s .927 SV%, but he’s a solid bet to yield some slightly above-average numbers at $1MM. If he truly flames out and regresses to his 2022-23 form, when he put up a .883 SV% for the Sharks and conceded 25 goals above average, the contract can be completely buried in the minors.

Winnipeg Jets Expected To Sign Eric Comrie

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The revolving door of backup goaltenders will continue in the Winnipeg Jets organization as Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports the team will be signing netminder Eric Comrie. Comrie was originally drafted by the Jets in the 2013 NHL Draft and this will mark his third stint with the organization.

Comrie is looking to rebound after a few poor showings with the Buffalo Sabres organization over the last two seasons. Since the start of the 2022-23 NHL season, Comrie has managed 29 starts and has put together a record of 11-16-1 while posting a dismal .882 save percentage and 3.68 goals against average. One silver lining in his return to Manitoba is that much of Comrie’s previous success as he has already posted a career record of 12-8-1 with the Jets while carrying a .909 SV% and 2.94 GAA.

It will be interesting to see if this signing is the end of the day for Winnipeg regarding their backup goaltending situation. The team is one of the few that does not need much depth in the department given that Connor Hellebuyck is coming off the second Vezina Trophy win of his career. Nevertheless, Comrie will have a much better defensive structure in front of him which should help turn his career in a positive direction.

Jets Buy Out Nate Schmidt

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The Winnipeg Jets have bought out the final season of defenseman Nate Schmidt’s contract, per Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff (Twitter link). Schmidt will first have to pass through unconditional waivers before the buy out goes into effect. Should he clear, Schmidt’s contract will count towards $2.717MM of Winnipeg’s cap next season – a savings of $3.233MM – and an empty $1.617MM in 2025-26.

This move pushes Schmidt to the open market one year sooner than expected, while ridding Winnipeg of the $5.95MM cap hit he’s carried since 2019-20. Schmidt’s six-year, $35.7MM contract was originally signed with the Vegas Golden Knights, who traded Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks in the offseason ahead of the 2020-21 season. Schmidt spent the shortened year with the Canucks, before being flipped to the Jets for the 2022 pick used to select Jordan Gustafson.

Schmidt kicked off his tenure in Winnipeg with a strong year, recording 32 points and averaging 20 minutes a night, while still offering the stout defense he’s become known for. But that impact has dwindled in the seasons since, with Schmidt managing just 19 points last year and 14 points this year. He’s fallen from a top pair role to a bottom pair role alongside the low scoring, though he still recorded the best xGA/60 (2.03) of any Jets defenders, per Evolving Hockey.

Schmidt’s decline over the last two seasons has made his hefty price tag hard to bear, especially for a Jets team in the midst of a cap crunch. But there should be no shortage of suitors for Schmidt on the open market – with his veteran presence and stout defense a great replacement for Chris Tanev, who is expected to be taken off of the market after a trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Schmidt will be set for a significant pay cut, but at 32, he could still find his way into a deal with term.

Rutger McGroarty Will Not Attend Jets Development Camp

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  • After nearly a week of trade chatter, the Winnipeg Jets could not find an optimal trade to move prospect Rutger McGroarty out of the system during draft weekend. Looking for updates on the matter, Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press could only confirm that McGroarty would not be present at the Jets’ development camp this summer. Due to McGroarty not being eligible for unrestricted free agency for another two seasons, Winnipeg can be patient when it comes to moving his contract rights.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Bruins, Wild Among Top Suitors For Rutger McGroarty

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News broke last week that Jets 2022 first-round pick Rutger McGroarty was seeking a trade, with most assuming that a deal could come across the finish line as soon as a few days ago so Winnipeg could recoup a first-rounder in this year’s draft. It hasn’t happened yet, but there’s still a strong chance he could be moved as the first round kicks off in less than an hour.

Among the teams with significant interest are the Wild, The Athletic’s Michael Russo relays. The Bruins have also held “ongoing talks with Winnipeg regarding McGroarty, Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press reported last night. McIntyre added that the Blue Jackets, Islanders and Sabres have also checked in but didn’t use as strong language to describe their interest.

Winnipeg selected McGroarty 14th overall in 2022, one pick later than the selection Minnesota holds this year (No. 13). The idea of a one-for-one swap makes sense. As for Boston, they ended up back with their own first-rounder (No. 25) after it traveled to Detroit and then Ottawa in the past 15 months, recouping it as part of the return for sending 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark to the Senators. They’d likely need to add an additional pick or an equivalent asset in the form of a roster player or prospect in order to land McGroarty.

McGroarty, 20, was one of the best players in college hockey this season. Suiting up in his sophomore campaign at the University of Michigan, he finished top ten in NCAA-wide scoring with 52 points (16 goals, 36 assists) in 36 games. He was a nominee for the Hobey Baker Award for the top player in collegiate hockey and captained the United States to a gold medal at the 2024 World Juniors, scoring five goals and four assists in seven games.

But he wasn’t given a clear role on Winnipeg’s roster next season, and as such, he’s decided to return to Michigan for his junior season rather than play for their AHL affiliate in Manitoba. Of course, he could decide to turn pro after a trade and make his NHL debut for a different team in the fall.

NHL Announces 2023-24 All-Star Teams

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The NHL announced their annual season-ending All-Star teams as part of last night’s award festivities. The rosters, as voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, are as follows.

First All-Star Team

LW: Artemi Panarin (Rangers)
C: Nathan MacKinnon (Avalanche)
RW: Nikita Kucherov (Lightning)
D: Quinn Hughes (Canucks)
D: Roman Josi (Predators)
G: Connor Hellebuyck (Jets)

Second All-Star Team

LW: Filip Forsberg (Predators)
C: Connor McDavid (Oilers)
RW: David Pastrňák (Bruins)
D: Adam Fox (Rangers)
D: Cale Makar (Avalanche)
G: Thatcher Demko (Canucks)

The First Team nod caps off quite a successful 24 hours for MacKinnon, who also swept both media-voted and player-voted MVP honors with the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. It’s his third All-Star nod, although his two prior ones were both Second Team honors in 2018 and 2020. The 28-year-old pivot led the Avs in scoring with 51 goals and 140 points this season and recorded a league-high 405 shots on goal.

Notably, the voting ledger (available in the league’s announcement) indicates Kucherov was the unanimous First Team selection at right wing. That’s the first time that’s happened since 2002, when the Flames’ Jarome Iginla was the across-the-board pick after also winning the Richard and Art Ross trophies. Like Iginla, Kucherov was crowned this year’s Art Ross winner after recording 144 points in 81 games. He tied with McDavid for a league-leading 100 assists, becoming the first winger in NHL history to hit the mark.

Absent from either team is Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews, whose 69 goals this season were the most of anyone since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. He also fell short of being a Hart Trophy finalist behind Kucherov, MacKinnon and McDavid. He was third in All-Star voting among centers, though, and did receive nine First Team and 55 Second Team votes out of 187 ballots. The only other center to receive consideration was the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, who only appeared on four ballots.

Connor Hellebuyck Wins 2023-24 Vezina Trophy

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Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had one of the best seasons of his career in 2023-24, helping lead the Jets to a playoff appearance.  He was rewarded for his efforts as the league announced that he has won the Vezina Trophy, awarded “to the goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position,” as selected by NHL general managers.

The 31-year-old also won the Jennings Trophy, going to the team that allowed the fewest regular-season goals.  Technically, that one is a shared award but it carries a games-played requirement of 25 games, a threshold that backup Laurent Brossoit didn’t reach.

That’s because Hellebuyck has been one of the NHL’s workhorses between the pipes, playing in at least 60 games in each of the last three years.  He posted a 2.39 GAA with a .921 SV% in 2023-24, his best numbers since the 2017-18 campaign, a year that saw him finish as the runner-up for the Vezina.  Hellebuyck allowed three or fewer goals in 50 of his 60 total appearances, including a pair of 10-game streaks with two or fewer allowed, becoming the third goaltender in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) to post multiple stretches like that in a single season.

As a result of his performance, Hellebuyck was a near-unanimous, selection, taking 31 of 32 first-place votes.  Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky was the only other player to get a first-place vote although he finished third in voting points behind Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko, who was on all but two ballots.  A total of nine netminders appeared on at least one GM’s ballot.

Hellebuyck was Winnipeg’s first-ever Vezina winner when he took home the prize in 2020.  He joins Bobrovsky as the only active netminders with multiple wins under their belts.

Jets Sign Dylan DeMelo To Four-Year Extension

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11:17 a.m.: DeMelo’s deal breaks down as follows, per PuckPedia. It carries a 10-team no-trade list throughout.

2024-25: $5.5MM base salary
2025-26: $5.0MM base salary
2026-27: $5.0MM base salary
2027-28: $4.1MM base salary

10:19 a.m.: The Winnipeg Jets have signed defenseman Dylan DeMelo to a four-year contract extension with an AAV of $4.9MM, per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). DeMelo was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

DeMelo, 31, will drive through the majority of his remaining career on this deal, cementing his spot as an evergreen piece of the Jets lineup. Winnipeg traded for DeMelo ahead of the 2020 Trade Deadline, sending a third-round draft pick back to the Ottawa Senators and extending the defender ahead of the 2020-21 season, signing him to a four-year, $12MM contract. He performed well on the deal, recording career-highs in scoring with 27 points last year and then 31 points this season. DeMelo has climbed his way into more and more of a role with strong play, working from an average of 17 minutes of ice time at the start of his deal to nearly 22 minutes this season.

The move to Winnipeg wasn’t the first of DeMelo’s career, having previously been one of the pieces returned to the Ottawa Senators in the legendary Erik Karlsson trade. DeMelo was joined by Joshua Norris, Chris Tierney, Rudolfs Balcers, and the picks used to select Tim Stutzle, Jamieson Rees, and Zack Ostapchuk. DeMelo went on to play a limited 126 games with the Senators, though he managed a productive 32 points from a second-pair role.

Through nine years in the league and three different teams, DeMelo has totaled 554 games and 144 points. He’s been a staunch defensive presence on second pairings since his debut in 2015 and is now clawing his way into top-line minutes. He’ll look to hang onto that role as he kicks off another long-term deal with the Jets – this time $1.9MM richer than his salary last season.

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