Shane Pinto's Deal Being Used As Potential Comparable In Perfetti Talks
- Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link) that Cole Perfetti’s camp is believed to be using Ottawa’s two-year, $7.5MM agreement as a comparable in contract discussions, one that the Jets would likely want to avoid. The numbers between the two are quite close; Perfetti has 75 points in 140 career NHL games while Pinto checks in at 70 in 140. While Pinto’s agreement was actually his third contract, he wasn’t arbitration-eligible which still makes it a legitimate comparable agreement. Clearly, Winnipeg is looking for this deal to come in below that price point.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Winnipeg Jets
Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office. Teams that can avoid 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 often 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 2024-25 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia. We wrap up our look at the Central Division with Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Jets
Current Cap Hit: $82,223,691 (under the $88MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
None for players projected to be full-time regulars.
Signed Through 2024-25, Non-Entry-Level
F Mason Appleton ($2.167MM, UFA)
F Morgan Barron ($1.35MM, RFA)
F Nikolaj Ehlers ($6MM, UFA)
F Axel Jonsson-Fjallby ($775K, UFA)
G Kaapo Kahkonen ($1MM, UFA)
F Rasmus Kupari ($1MM, RFA)
F Alex Iafallo ($4MM, UFA)
F Vladislav Namestnikov ($2MM, UFA)
D Neal Pionk ($5.875MM, UFA)
D Dylan Samberg ($1.4MM, RFA)
F Gabriel Vilardi ($3.4375MM, RFA)
Ehlers has been in trade speculation for a while now but nothing has happened on that front and he’ll start the season with the Jets. While he is a bit of a streaky player and has had some injury woes, he has averaged at least 0.74 points per game (a 61-point pace per 82 games) in five straight years. That type of overall consistency should earn him another long-term deal with an extra million or so on the cap hit. Iafallo was part of last summer’s Pierre-Luc Dubois trade but wasn’t able to provide the same level of scoring despite spending a lot of time in the top six. If he has another stat line like that in 2024-25, he could be looking at a small dip but if he gets back to the 40-point range, he could check in a bit higher than his current cost.
Vilardi was arguably the key piece of the Dubois trade. A 2017 first-round pick, he had shown flashes of being a top-six piece in Los Angeles but struggled to do so consistently and dealt with injuries. With Winnipeg, he was consistently productive but the injury struggles continued as he missed 35 games. Nonetheless, the 25-year-old showed that he can be a core piece for the Jets and is someone who they’ll want to have around for the long haul although the injury history will be a complicating factor. Even so, there’s a good chance his next contract will start with at least a six which will come in well past his $3.6MM qualifying offer.
Appleton stayed healthy last season after battling injuries in 2022-23, reaching a new career-high in points in the process with 36. A true middle-six winger who moves up and down the lineup, he should be able to add at least $1MM to his current price tag on a multi-year deal; it could approach $4MM if he puts up a similar point total this season. Namestnikov hasn’t had much success on the open market in recent years as he has struggled to find a long-term fit. While he’s coming off his best point total since 2017-18 with 37, he’d need another season like that to get to the $3MM mark. As things stand, another two-year deal around $2.5MM per season might be where he winds up.
Barron was limited to primarily fourth-line ice time last season and he’s likely to have a similar role this season which won’t help his cause. He’s owed a $1.4MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights so if his production dips a bit in 2024-25, he could become a non-tender candidate. Failing that, a small raise to around $1.5MM to $1.75MM could be achievable. Kupari was also brought in from Los Angeles last summer but struggled mightily with his new team. Owed a $1.1MM qualifying offer next summer, that seems on the high side unless he’s able to secure a full-time roster spot and have a bit of success this season. Jonsson-Fjallby has been up and down in recent years while holding a fringe role when he has been in the NHL. Accordingly, it’s likely that he’ll stay at or near the minimum moving forward.
Pionk’s best season was his first with Winnipeg back in 2019-20. Since then, he has still shown flashes of being an above-average blueliner but has struggled somewhat with consistency. Having said that, he can still log over 20 minutes a night without much issue, has passed 30 points in five straight years, and is a right-shot player. That’s a strong combination heading into free agency, positioning himself for likely another long-term deal with a price tag starting with a six. Samberg has been limited to third-pairing duty thus far but has fared well in that role. Still, he’ll need to take on a bigger role if he wants any sort of significant raise from the $1.5MM offer he’ll be owed in the summer with arbitration rights.
Kahkonen struggled last season with San Jose but did well in a small sample size with New Jersey to finish the year. Still, the lasting memory of his time with the Sharks didn’t help his cause in free agency, resulting in this one-year deal at a sizable pay cut. Given Winnipeg’s recent track records with backups, this could be a good landing spot for him but he’ll need to come closer to maintaining his numbers with the Devils to get back to the $2.75MM of his last contract.
Signed Through 2025-26
G Eric Comrie ($825K, UFA)
F Kyle Connor ($7.143MM, UFA)
F David Gustafsson ($835K, RFA)
D Ville Heinola ($800K, RFA)
F Adam Lowry ($3.25MM, UFA)
D Colin Miller ($1.5MM, UFA)
D Logan Stanley ($1.25MM, UFA)
Connor will be the next big-ticket contract that the Jets have to contend with relatively quickly. The 27-year-old has emerged as a legitimate top-line threat, averaging more than a point per game over the past five seasons combined while passing the 30-goal mark in four of those. If that continues over the next two years, he will make a strong case to become Winnipeg’s highest-paid player with a price tag in the $9MM range.
Lowry doesn’t put up the offensive numbers to necessarily be worth this money but as a strong defensive player as well, he’s well worth the contract. Best suited as a third-line pivot, we’ve seen some of those players push past $4MM lately and it stands to reason that he’ll be able to do so as well. As for Gustafsson, he’s still working on securing himself a full-time role in the lineup. He’ll need to do that to have a chance at pushing past the $1MM threshold on his next agreement.
Miller didn’t play much with Winnipeg after they acquired him at the trade deadline but it didn’t stop them from re-signing him. It’s the second straight contract in which he has accepted a pay cut, a reflection of his diminishing role. At $1.5MM, they don’t need him to do much but they’ll be hoping he can at least get back to the 15-20-point range.
Stanley and Heinola have seemingly been on shaky ground for a while now but they’re still in Winnipeg. Stanley has been a frequent healthy scratch, especially the last two years which led to a trade request that went unfulfilled. The two years is a small showing of faith but if he’s still in this role at the end of this contract, it’d be shocking to see him re-signed. Heinola made the team in training camp last year but was injured in the final preseason game and once he was cleared to return, he stayed in the minors the rest of the way. Playing time was hard to come by when he was healthy and he’s likely on the fringes again although he’s now waiver-eligible. Still, this is a low-risk move that buys more time to evaluate and if Heinola can produce like he did in the minors (and stay healthy which is already an issue again), this could be a team-friendly pact quite quickly.
Comrie is back for his third stint with the team. The second one saw him put up his best performance before going to Buffalo in free agency where he struggled. It’s possible that he pushes for the backup spot but considering that he cleared waivers last season, they may view him as a third-string option. Until Comrie can re-establish himself as a regular backup, this is more the price range he’s likely to stay in.
Signed Through 2026-27
F Nino Niederreiter ($4MM, UFA)
Niederreiter has settled in as a player who should hover around 20 goals and 35-40 points per season. At this price point, that’s neither a bargain nor a bad value deal as reliable secondary scoring can be hard to come by. He’ll be 35 when this contract is up, however, which means he might be going year-to-year from there.
Appleton Wants To Re-Sign In Winnipeg
- Jets winger Mason Appleton is entering the final year of his contract, making him eligible for a contract extension. The 28-year-old told reporters including Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press that the perfect world scenario is that he remains in Winnipeg. Appleton has spent most of his six-year NHL career with them aside from one season in Seattle after being picked in expansion. Appleton is coming off a career year that saw him produce 14 goals and 22 assists, putting him in line for a raise on his current $2.167MM cap charge.
Ville Heinola Out Long-Term With Infection
Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press reports that Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ville Heinola will miss an extended time due to an infection in his ankle. The infection appears to be stemming from a screw placed in Heinola’s ankle during surgery last year to repair a fracture. Winnipeg head coach Scott Arniel said the team would re-evaluate Heinola in a week but there are little odds of him starting the season on time.
It’s a gut punch for Heinola who will now miss the better part of another season due to an ankle fracture requiring the surgical repair. He was limited to 41 games last year with the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, scoring 10 goals and 27 points. The young Finnish defenseman was entering camp with a legitimate shot at earning a full-time spot with the Jets’ after an offseason of departures for the team’s blue line.
Murat Ates of The Athletic followed up on the initial report indicating that Heinola and the team’s medical staff would look into antibiotic treatments and surgery. The physical depth of the surgery will likely make the largest impact on Heinola’s recovery timeline if they decide to take that route.
Even if Heinola misses another half-season it should not be a total detriment to his development. He’s still only 23 years old and is one of the better defensive prospects in Winnipeg’s pipeline. One could reasonably expect the former 20th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft to eventually pass Colin Miller, Dylan Samberg, and Logan Stanley on the team’s depth chart over the next two years.
Outside of Heinola being out long-term, the only other downstream effect of this news is that one of Dylan Coghlan or Haydn Fleury will make the Jets’ roster out of camp as the team’s seventh defenseman. Winnipeg brought in both defensemen as unrestricted free agents this summer on identical one-year, $775K contracts. The organization should provide an update over the next week indicating Heinola’s recovery path and timeline.
Winnipeg Still Working On Perfetti Extension
- Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke at length today regarding the extension negotiations with forward Cole Perfetti (X Link). Cheveldayoff was adamant the team is still trying to craft a resolution with Perfetti now that training camp has kicked off. Perfetti is looking for other skating arrangements while the contract negotiations play out to be ready for the start of the regular season. It doesn’t appear the lengthy negotiations will tarnish the relationship between the Jets and Perfetti with Cheveldayoff saying, “Personally, I’d give these guys the moon. I’d love to have the ability to pay them everything they want and deserve. In a salary cap world I have to make business decisions“. Winnipeg currently has approximately $5.77MM in cap space with no other RFA’s to sign according to PuckPedia.
[SOURCE LINK]
Still A Significant Gap In Perfetti Contract Talks
Several restricted free agents have signed new deals in recent days as they ensured they’d be ready for the start of training camp. However, that might not be the case for Jets forward Cole Perfetti. TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on the latest Insider Trading segment that there is still a significant gap to bridge between the two sides in contract discussions. Perfetti is coming off a season that saw him score 19 goals and 19 assists in 71 games but also saw him spend time as a healthy scratch, including in the playoffs. This is a fairly obvious case for a bridge contract but even those can sometimes take a little longer to hammer out and this might be one of those cases.
Cheveldayoff: Jets Taking A Wait-And-See Approach To Ehlers Extension Talks
Earlier in the offseason, there was a fair amount of trade speculation surrounding Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers although a move never materialized. Now in the final season of his seven-year, $42MM contract, the 28-year-old is now extension-eligible leading some to wonder if the fact he wasn’t traded could mean there are positive signs towards a new agreement. That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, as GM Kevin Cheveldayoff told Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link) that they are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to contract talks for Ehlers. While he allowed for the possibility of in-season discussions, he noted that they might wait to address it until after the upcoming season. Ehlers had 25 goals and 36 assists in 81 games last season, his best offensive performance since when he was on his entry-level contract. It appears Cheveldayoff may be wanting to wait to see if that will be repeatable under new head coach Scott Arniel before beginning extension talks.
Perfetti Had No Interest In An Offer Sheet
- While there appears to be a gap to still bridge in discussions between the Jets and RFA forward Cole Perfetti, the 22-year-old told Sportsnet’s Luke Fox that he has given no consideration to the thought of trying to land an offer sheet over concern of creating tension with the organization. Perfetti had a career-best 19 goals and 38 points in 71 games last season but is most likely heading for a short-term bridge deal, allowing Winnipeg to stay cap-compliant while giving Perfetti a chance at a fair-sized increase with arbitration rights in the near future.
Snapshots: Crosby, Ullmark, Perfetti
Elliotte Friedman spoke on his 32 Thoughts podcast about Sidney Crosby’s contract negotiations with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Friedman believes that Crosby will sign a short-term deal because he doesn’t want to leave the Penguins in a difficult salary cap situation if his play was to fall off. Friedman adds that he has talked to sources who’ve said that Crosby doesn’t want to do anything that would affect the long-term outlook for the Penguins or his legacy with the team. Crosby is coming off one of the finest seasons ever for a 36-year-old after posting 94 points in 82 games and appears more open to playing into his 40s, however, no one knows if that is his intention.
In other news from around the NHL:
- Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast that the Boston Bruins traded Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators before signing Jeremy Swayman, because they were concerned that if they waited until July, Ullmark could change his no-trade list and put Ottawa on it. Boston did not have to ask the former Vezina Trophy winner for permission to move him to the Senators, however, it did create a situation where they now rely solely on Swayman for starting goaltending this season, which could be problematic if Swayman misses any length of time due to a contract dispute.
- The Winnipeg Jets and forward Cole Perfetti appear to have a gap in the financials regarding the 22-year-old’s contract extension (as per Elliotte Friedman). Perfetti is reportedly negotiating a bridge deal with the Jets, and while they appear to be on the same page with regard to terms, the two sides have room between them when it comes to dollars. Perfetti is coming off his third NHL season and posted 19 goals and 19 assists last year in 71 games while averaging just 13:35 of ice time per game. He was benched down the stretch last season but does seem poised for a breakout this year, particularly if he can continue to generate chances in the offensive zone and post good defensive numbers.
Jordie Benn Announces Retirement
Veteran defenseman Jordie Benn has retired after a 17-year run in the pros, he told Paul Haysom of CHEK News.
Benn, 37, last played in the NHL for the Maple Leafs in the 2022-23 season. The older brother of Stars captain Jamie Benn closes the book on a 12-year, 607-game NHL résumé – an incredibly unlikely run.
Not only was Benn undrafted, he never played high-level juniors or collegiate hockey. The physical, stay-at-home defender spent parts of four seasons in Junior ‘A’ for his hometown Victoria Grizzlies in the British Columbia Hockey League before turning pro in 2008, staying in British Columbia but jumping to the ECHL with the Victoria Salmon Kings.
Benn worked his way up the professional ranks over the next couple of seasons, landing an AHL contract with the Texas Stars for 2010-11 before inking his first NHL contract, a one-year entry-level pact, with Dallas for the 2011-12 campaign. That kicked off a six-year run for both Jordie and Jamie playing together in the Lone Star State.
The elder Benn spent most of 2011-12 back on the farm with Texas, but he did make his NHL debut with two assists in three games with the big club. Two years later, he was a regular in a depth role on the Dallas blue line, saying goodbye to the AHL entirely after splitting the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign between leagues.
While Benn mostly used his 6’2″, 201-lb frame to be a physical force and box out opponents, resulting in some decent possession numbers in his heyday, he wasn’t a complete non-factor offensively. He put up decent production on the Stars’ blue line in a low-scoring era, totaling 11 goals, 60 assists and 71 points with a +7 rating in 302 games there before he was traded to the Canadiens shortly before the 2017 deadline.
Benn remained an effective fringe top-four option in Montreal, posting 39 points and a +12 rating in 171 appearances in parts of three seasons while averaging 18:26 per game, slightly more than he averaged during his time in Dallas. Upon reaching unrestricted free agency in 2019, he inked a two-year, $4MM deal with the Canucks, returning as close to home as possible.
Unfortunately, it was in Vancouver his game began to decline, with his point-per-game production halving and his ice time slipping to exclusively bottom-pairing usage. He was traded to the Jets as a rental at the 2021 deadline and then spent 2021-22 with the Wild before landing in Toronto for 2022-23.
North of the border, Benn struggled with injuries, limited to a goal and an assist in 12 NHL appearances with a -1 rating. He was sent to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies for his first minor-league assignment in a decade, posting six points in 23 games there.
Upon reaching unrestricted free agency again last summer, Benn decided to try his luck overseas by inking a one-year deal with Sweden’s Brynäs IF. He ended up being a major get for the club, which relied heavily on his strong performance (22 points, +24 rating in 39 games) to win the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan championship and gain promotion back to the Swedish Hockey League for 2024-25.
It’s a neat bookend for Benn, who opts to end his pro career on a high note. In his NHL minutes, he recorded a very respectable 26 goals, 111 assists, 137 points, and a +19 rating while averaging 17:28 per contest. He tended to have positive possession quality impacts at even strength over the course of his career, posting a 50.8 xG%, per Hockey Reference.
Benn is about to welcome his third child, he told Haysom, but hopes to work in a front-office role in some capacity when the time is right. All of us at PHR congratulate him on a lengthy run in the pros and wish him the best in his next chapter.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.