Snapshots: Seattle-Winnipeg, McGinn, Brown, Stone
The NHL has postponed tomorrow’s game between the Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets due to inclement weather heading toward the Manitoba area, rescheduling the match for May 1. That is the day before the playoffs are set to begin, another sign of just how difficult it would be for the Jets to make the postseason at this point. The team is currently only five points behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card position, but have played two more games (leaving just eight remaining in their season) and are still dealing with the Vegas Golden Knights in between.
For Seattle, there hasn’t been any hope of the playoffs for a while now, but there are certainly things to get excited about. Matty Beniers will make his NHL debut tonight after signing his entry-level contract, giving fans the chance to see the first draft pick in franchise history.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have activated Brock McGinn off injured reserve, bringing him back after more than a month on the shelf. McGinn, 28, has 11 goals and 18 points this season through 56 games for the Penguins, but adds another level of depth for a roster that is still trying to improve their playoff position. The Penguins sit six points behind the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan, with just eight games left to play.
- Dustin Brown has also been activated, this time by the Los Angeles Kings, giving the team a huge boost after yesterday’s announcement that Drew Doughty would miss the rest of the season. While the 37-year-old isn’t the player he once was, Brown can still contribute and has 25 points in 57 games this season. More importantly, he’s a two-time Stanley Cup champion and extremely important member of the leadership group in Los Angeles, who are headed to the playoffs should they be able to hold onto that Pacific Division spot.
- Mark Stone is a game-time decision for the Golden Knights, though it means they will have to make several other roster transactions if they want to activate him from long-term injured reserve. As CapFriendly points out, even loaning every eligible player to the minor leagues wouldn’t clear enough space, meaning someone else would have to be transferred to long-term injured reserve (or, technically they could make a trade, though that brings other complications) for Stone to be activated.
Winnipeg Jets Sign Henri Nikkanen, Daniel Torgersson
April 11: The Jets have made it official, announcing the contracts for both players. They have also signed professional tryouts with the Manitoba Moose for the rest of 2021-22, meaning they can get their feet wet in the AHL.
April 9: According to CapFriendly, the Winnipeg Jets have signed forwards Henri Nikkanen (link) and Daniel Torgersson (link) to three-year, entry-level contracts. Both contracts will begin starting in the 2022-23 season. Because their contracts begin next year, neither player is eligible to play for Winnipeg this season.
Per CapFriendly, Nikkanen’s contract carries a cap hit of $860K, an average annual value of $925K, and is worth $70K at the minor-league level. Nikkanen is an imposing figure on the ice, listed at 6’4″ and 209 pounds, he should be able to use his size up front to make plays for his team. A fourth-round draft pick in 2019 by the Jets, Nikkanen has spent the last four seasons in Finland’s Liiga, playing parts of three seasons with Mikkeli Jukurit and this season with the Lahti Pelicans.
Torgersson’s contract will carry a cap hit of $867.5K and an average annual value of $925K, while paying him $80K per season in the minor leagues. The 20-year-old forward was Winnipeg’s second-round draft pick in 2020, 40th overall, and has spent his entire professional career in Sweden, playing parts of four seasons with Frolunda and Frolunda’s junior team. This season, Torgersson played just one game with Frolunda before being loaned to AIK, where he had 17 points in 40 games.
Blake Wheeler Doubtful For Monday
- Jets winger Blake Wheeler won’t play in tonight’s game in Ottawa and is listed as doubtful for tomorrow in Montreal due to his upper-body injury, relays Jeff Hamilton of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). The captain has been quite productive since the start of February, collecting 34 points in 30 games and his absence certainly isn’t helping Winnipeg’s quickly-decreasing chances of getting into the final playoff spot in the West.
Kyle Connor, Nate Schmidt Clear COVID Protocol
April 4: Both Connor and Schmidt have cleared the protocol and re-joined the Jets at practice today, after missing three games. Unfortunately, the team lost two of those and now sits six points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the final wild card position.
March 30: The Winnipeg Jets will not have Kyle Connor or Nate Schmidt in the lineup for the next few games, as they have both tested positive for coronavirus and have entered the league’s COVID-19 protocol. Not only will they miss tonight’s match against the Buffalo Sabres, but Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press reports that they will also have to remain in the U.S. for the next five days, while the Jets head to Toronto and then back to Winnipeg.
It’s brutal timing for the Jets, who have won seven of their past ten games and are just three points behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card spot. They have played 67 games, meaning every single one is extremely important from here on out, and losing Connor is a huge blow. The 25-year-old forward has scored 41 goals and 82 points in 67 games, setting new career highs in both categories. That includes 18 points in that recent ten-game stretch, carrying the offensive load for the Jets in recent weeks.
While losing Connor is probably the worst thing that could happen, losing Schmidt is also a substantial blow to the Jets. The 30-year-old leads all Winnipeg defensemen with 31 points in 66 games, and is still averaging more than 20 minutes a night (though that number has dropped recently). Losing both could very well be a death sentence for the Jets’ season, if other players aren’t able to step up and secure some points in the next three games.
Interestingly enough, even though they sold Andrew Copp at the deadline, the Jets have actually brought in some forward depth of late. Mason Appleton, Morgan Barron, and Zach Sanford were all acquired, giving them some more options that will hopefully emerge over the next few games.
Chaz Lucius To Return For Sophomore Year
- Jets prospect Chaz Lucius is expected to remain at the University of Minnesota for his sophomore year, notes Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe. The 18-year-old was the 18th-overall pick in 2021 and had 19 points in 24 games before suffering a lower-body injury in February that ended his season early. While Winnipeg will need some cheaper forwards to balance out the bigger deals they have, turning Lucius pro after that short of a college career would have been risky.
Contract Talks For Pierre-Luc Dubois To Begin After The Season
- Jets center Pierre-Luc Dubois will wait until the offseason to begin negotiations on his next contract, notes NHL.com’s Tim Campbell. The 23-year-old has had a nice bounce-back year in his first full season in Winnipeg, notching 50 points in 65 games, giving him a shot at surpassing his career high of 61 set in his sophomore year. Dubois is owed a $6MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights and is two years away from UFA eligibility which makes it likely that Winnipeg will seek a long-term deal this summer.
Winnipeg Jets Extend Kristian Reichel
The Winnipeg Jets capped off a surprisingly busy trade deadline day by signing forward Kristian Reichel to an extension this evening. The contract is a two-year, two-way deal that carries a $775K AAV. In the first year of the deal, 2022-23, Reichel will earn $750K at the NHL level, along with a $25K signing bonus, and the deal being worth $150K at the minor league level. In the second year, Reichel will earn $775K in the NHL and $175K in the minors. Reichel is currently in his final year of a two-year entry-level contract that he signed with the Jets in June of 2020.
Reichel’s extension comes in the midst of a difficult season for the 23-year-old, who has been called up and sent down several times, and been transferred on and off of Winnipeg’s taxi squad for a majority of the season. After all this, Reichel was placed on injured reserve on February 23rd and activated today. Reichel has played in both the NHL and AHL this season, putting up two points in 12 games for the Jets and 12 points in 26 games with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.
The forward first played in North America with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL in 2017-18, where he excelled with 34 goals and 23 assists in 63 games. Reichel would turn professional the following season and spend parts of the next four seasons with the Moose before making his NHL debut this season with the Jets.
Los Angeles Kings, Winnipeg Jets Complete Minor Trade
The Los Angeles Kings have acquired Nelson Nogier from the Winnipeg Jets, sending Markus Phillips back the other way. Both players are currently playing in the minor leagues and will likely report to their new respective AHL affiliates. Additionally, the Kings have recalled Quinton Byfield, Rasmus Kupari, Gabriel Vilardi, and Jordan Spence, after they were sent down on paper to become eligible for the AHL playoffs.
The swap brings a slightly older defenseman to the Ontario Reign in Nogier, but also one with considerably more experience. The 25-year-old has played 11 games in the NHL and is in his sixth full season of professional hockey, after being drafted 101st overall in 2014. Through 25 games with the Manitoba Moose this season he has six points, which is actually not all that far off his AHL career-high of 13. On an expiring contract, he’ll be a Group VI unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, making this essentially a deadline rental for the Reign, who are second in the Pacific Division and looking for a Calder Cup.
In Phillips, the Moose are getting a 23-year-old who is in just his second full season of pro hockey, after a long career in the OHL. Selected 118th overall in 2017, the left-shot defenseman has five points in 38 games this season and will be a restricted free agent in the summer, without arbitration rights. While he could potentially go unqualified, he’ll at least get a chance down the stretch to show the Jets organization he’s worth another contract, even if it is of the two-way variety.
New York Rangers To Acquire Andrew Copp
As originally reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, the New York Rangers are set to acquire forward Andrew Copp from the Winnipeg Jets. Per Dreger, the trade is as follows:
NYR receives: Copp, 2023 sixth-round pick
WPG receives: F Morgan Barron, two conditional 2022 second-round picks, 2023 fifth-round pick
One second-round pick, the Rangers’ 2022 pick, can be upgraded into a first-round pick if the Rangers make the 2022 Eastern Conference Final and Copp plays in 50% of the team’s playoff games. Winnipeg can opt for the other second-round pick to be the Blues’ 2022 second-round pick or the Rangers’ 2023 second-round pick.
Winnipeg ended up being both buyers and sellers at the Trade Deadline this year, making this deal after acquiring Mason Appleton back from the Seattle Kraken. It’s inarguable, though, that the departure is a more significant sign as to the current direction of this team.
While Winnipeg is 6-3-1 in their last ten games, they’ve had an inconsistent year and still sit four points back of a playoff spot. Keeping Copp was a gamble, as the 27-year-old is an unrestricted free agent this offseason with no guarantee that the Jets would be able to afford his new deal. Whether the Rangers invest money into Copp past this season remains to be seen, however.
But for the Rangers, Copp is well worth the rental, especially without having to give up a guaranteed first-round pick or one of the organization’s true top prospects. Copp is an extremely versatile forward who can really slot in anywhere in their middle-six forwards, helping create a depth matchup against other teams that’s been missing all season in New York. He’s now strung together back-to-back 30+ point seasons and is likely to hit the 40-point mark this year. Copp is also an extremely effective penalty killer who can help the team in that regard.
Winnipeg Jets Acquire Zach Sanford
The Winnipeg Jets are the next team that will take a chance on Zach Sanford, acquiring him from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a 2022 fifth-round pick. Sanford is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
Sanford, 27, was originally selected in the second round by the Washington Capitals, as his mix of size and skill was quite the attractive prospect. After just 26 games with the Capitals though he ended up traded to the St. Louis Blues in a deal for Kevin Shattenkirk, where he would spend the next few seasons. Another trade took him to Ottawa last fall, and now he’ll get one last chance to show what he can do before hitting the open market. In 62 games this season he’s registered nine goals and 17 points, though is still providing that trademarked physicality, racking up 131 hits in that time.
It’s kind of an odd move for the Jets, given they sold Andrew Copp to the New York Rangers, but there’s certainly still a possibility that they could contend down the stretch. A fifth-round pick isn’t going to hurt the future very much, and it could also give the team a headstart on an extension, should they feel like Sanford fits what they’re trying to do in Winnipeg.
For Ottawa, grabbing a draft pick for Sanford was better than losing him for nothing, as it was becoming clear that the team’s young forward prospects would likely keep him from reaching an extension anyway. With their moves the last few days, the Senators have racked up a good number of draft picks, assets they can use to acquire more talent in the summer or continue to stock the cupboard with prospects.
Darren Dreger of TSN broke the trade on Twitter.