The Winnipeg Jets Offseason (So Far)

The Winnipeg Jets Offseason (So Far)

What’s going on everybody? Welcome back to another video and today we’re going to be talking about the Winnipeg Jets off season so far. Lots to talk about just a few days after free agency opened. We’re going to be talking about who they’ve signed, who they haven’t signed, and what the lineup could look like going forward here. So without further ado, let’s take a look at free agency so far for the Jets and who they’ve added and who they’ve lost. We’re going to start off with who they’ve lost because this has kind of been the talking point of the off season. Nikolai Elers does not appear to be coming back to the Winnipeg Jets. I believe it would take an absolute miracle at this point at last second heave, but it really does sound like he’s choosing between Washington and Carolina. Kind of sounds like Carolina is the front runner at this time. Uh but it does seem like he’s informed teams that hey uh you know you’re out of it unless you’re Carolina or Washington. Uh Mason Appleton thank god is gone. CIA he signs in Detroit for 2 years. Brandon Taniff guy that really didn’t do too much in the playoffs for the Jets. He heads to Utah. Kapari to Switzerland. Toninado to Chicago. And then some boost guys there. Coglin heads back to Vegas. not a ton of losses outside of the obvious of course with Nikolai Eers, one of the best players in the Jets whole team and uh you know he’s a tough one to replace. They’ve made an effort to do so uh but you know maybe a little bit underwhelming in the returns. Obviously as of July 1st it became official that Jonathan Taves has signed in Winnipeg. You know 37year-old that hasn’t played in a little while. Little bit of a risky signing for sure, especially with you in win now mode. Uh, you know, will he be able to carry the load on the second line? We will see. Deal is $2 million. Uh, you know, could be $7 million if the Jets win the Stanley Cup with this lineup right now. I don’t see them doing so. Moving on here, Gustav Nyquist was signed. A good, you know, middle six guy, probably better for the third line. Kind of reminds me of Mason Appleton at this point in his career. maybe a little bit more offensively skilled. Uh his defensive game, you know, leaves a little bit to be desired here at 35, about to turn 36 years old during the season. You know, I I don’t know if this is your Eer’s replacement. Good luck. I mean, I don’t know if that’s your second line. Cole Perfetti, Jonathan Taves, see how he does, and Gustav Nyquist. Jets’s got a little bit of a problem. The Jets signed a couple of death forwards on July 1st in Tanner Pearson, now 33 years old. And Copeki, uh, you know, Copeki, I think, is a pretty good player. I believe that’s how you say his last name. I’m probably saying it wrong. Uh, but, you know, we’ll figure that out, I guess, soon. Not a bad pickup whatsoever. Um, but, you know, cheap deals for these guys. One years. All of these guys have one-year deals that they’ve signed. So, you know, not the end of the world if these guys don’t work out. They’ll be able to, you know, move on from them fine. And maybe the best addition that they made all free agency was going out and signing legit AHL talent for their young guys down there in the A. Last year it was like Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibberov, and Solomon against the world. Those young guys were fending for their lives. The Moose were so thin last year. There was nobody on that team to help them out. And you know, it it posed a problem for Brad Lambert and Nikita Gibberov for sure, being forced just to be the guys at all times in a league where you’re playing against, you know, grown men, you know, pros that have been around for a while. And, uh, you know, they go ahead, they add some good names here. DJeppy, uh, Derer, uh, Fajimo, really like Fajimo, great scorer, uh, Kle, you know, these guys, all really solid depth options, all signed to, you know, two-way deals. Fajimo, one of those guys I wouldn’t even mind the Jets taking a look at. Maybe he shines in preseason. Guy’s a goalc scoring machine down there in the A, you know, maybe find a bit of a gem there. But, uh, yeah, so these are the signings that the Jets have made thus far in free agency. They have roughly $19 million remaining. We’ll see where they go with that. And you might be saying, hey, that’s a ton of cash. Why don’t the Jets go out and, you know, throw Eers the bag, right? Well, the problem with that is they have three players to sign. As I make this video, Dylan Samberg, Gabe Valardi, and Morgan Baron are still all unsigned. They are restricted free agents, so you know, the Jets have team control on them. Uh, you know, we’ll have to see what they go ahead and do here. Uh, sometimes RFA deals can be signed, you know, pretty quickly. I think that Dylan Samberg is the most likely to get done, uh, you know, before the rest here. Uh, Gabe Valardi, you know, he’s out there as well. Uh, sometimes these drag on a little bit. Sometimes you have to hit to arbitration. I hope they don’t. I think there’s a chance they have to with Gabe. Uh, you know, just given his injury history, I can see the Jets trying to lowball him a little bit. Uh, you know, maybe shorter term. We’ll see what ends up happening with these three. I think that, you know, Samberg’s going to make between 6 and $7 million. I think, uh, you know, Valardi, same kind of deal. I think that he may get a little bit less than Matthew NY’s got. maybe a 4year 5year contract for maybe around the 725 $7.5 million range. Maybe they look to, you know, hit that range. Uh with Morgan Baron, don’t think it’ll be much. You know, bottom six player type money. I estimate probably around, you know, the two $2.5 million range for maybe I don’t know. I I don’t know how long the deal is going to be. We’ll see what happens there. Depends what Morgan wants to do. Uh but yeah, so the Jets have three RFA forwards. is going to take up roughly, you know, 156 million worth of their cap of the remaining 19 they have. And then that’ll leave them with, you know, roughly $3 million. That’ll probably go towards Taves’s uh contract as it is incentives based. You know, with every 10 games that he plays after game, I believe game 20 of the season, he gets an extra 550k. So 550k if he plays up to game 20. if he makes it to game 30 of the year, another 550k, right? So, that does add up as the season goes on. There’s some playoff incentives, too. But, we got to look at the lineup first before we talk about the playoffs. This, of course, is a projected lineup, but one that I think is, you know, pretty accurate, could probably happen. Uh, and it’s not one that necessarily excites me. A lot of things have to go right here. Obviously, Adam Lowry had hip surgery in the offseason. he won’t be returning until late November, early December. That’s the estimate right now. Uh but you know, the the unwillingness to split up Connor Schley Valardi for the majority of the year. You have to kind of assume that that’s going to be line one. Taves was brought in probably to try to be the second line center. I think the Jets really want that to work out. Playing between Perfetti and I’d have to say one of Nyquist or Ayafalo. who probably, you know, interchanged those guys, but I think those two are the guys that they’re going to be looking at. That’s a pretty slow second line. You know, I like Cole Perfetti a ton, but, you know, he was also contrasted by playing with one of the fastest wingers in the NHL and playing with Nikolai Eer. So, I wonder if that hurts him a little bit. Doesn’t help that his center is likely going to be Jonathan Taves. You know, talented players here, but how will the fit be? I’m not so sure. You know, doesn’t really change if you put a follow on that line either. We’ll have to see if, you know, one of the younger guys like Lambert or Chibberov get a look in the top six there. We saw them in that role last season. See if they get a look there. Uh, you know, obviously they’re not listed here on this graphic, but uh we will see, you know, if one of them is able to break out and sneak into the lineup there. Your bottom six, Nita, Raider, Nestnikov, and I have follow. Um, you know, good line, good third line. Can’t really complain about that. And then your fourth line is rounded out by Capeeki Baron and Tanner Pearson. Uh, you know, there is definitely some age on this Jets roster right now. Right. If we take a look at this, there are no young players in this lineup. I would imagine they definitely need to, you know, blow the doors off of it in preeason as, uh, you know, I can see the Jets kind of going veteran heavy here. Uh, but, you know, a guy like Brad Lambert, if he could step up, that would go a long long way. Uh, same with Braden Jagger. If he could have the preseason of his life, now would be an awesome time to do it because this team got old really quickly. The Jets weren’t able to resign Nick Eelers and they couldn’t replace him really. I don’t think there is any replacing him, you know, adequately. Anyway, uh, so they go ahead and they sign, you know, Gustav Nyquist, Copek, and Pearson to fill out, you know, the bottom nine here. And these are fine signings. These are okay depth signings, but they don’t push the Jets ceiling really at all here. Same with Jonathan Taves. Unless he’s, you know, drinking out of the fountain of youth here, I don’t know if we’re going to see the Jonathan Taves of old, right? I think that he’s going to be a productive player, but I see him more as probably a bottom sixer. If he plays like a top sixer, okay, we can talk about this here. Okay, maybe the Jets, you know, got some got a chance here, but, you know, this isn’t a team that’s going to be going out and winning the division this year. I can promise you that this is not going to be a President’s Trophy winning team, and that’s fine. Uh, but you know, I don’t know if this is even a top three in the Central Jets team. I think this is legitimately a year where the Jets take a step back. Maybe they’re a bubble team. Um, but, you know, I think this team is more likely to be fighting for for a wild card spot rather than, you know, top of the division this year because you lose one of your best uh forwards first of all, and then you take a look at the rest of the lineup and yes, you added pieces, but they’re all kind of the same piece. And uh you know these guys are getting older. This is not a young team. We may see you know steps taken back, right? I thought Neon Nether kind of showed a little bit of age last season. I thought he still played fine, but there was times where he kind of disappeared near the back half of the year. You know, you can ask that question for, you know, a ton of the players uh on this roster. Uh but, you know, it’s just a lot of question marks with this team. How are they going to perform? And we obviously won’t know until puck drop, you know, game one of the year. But I guess we’ll see what happens here. But uh you know, right now with this lineup, if the Jets are done, which I kind of think they are, uh you know, unless something happens that’s unforeseen here, I think we’re probably looking at a team that’s going to be fighting for a wild card spot. And you know what? If the Jets do great, that’s awesome. I really hope they, you know, win games. But if they don’t, on the flip side, it’s also not the worst year to do this, as you know, they signed a lot of guys to one-year deals. They could trade all of those contracts at the deadline. uh you know re reacquires some draft capital you know around the trade deadline I guess and uh this draft is one of the best in the last 10 years. This is a really deep draft class. Uh you know obviously headlined by Gavin McKenna, great young player. He’s going to be a monster in the league. I don’t think the Jets are going to be you know picking number one overall. But if they are to take a step back uh not the worst year to do it. I think that uh you know loading up the cupboards here with this draft would go a long way for the future. But I’ll obviously see how the year goes first before we get too much into that. But with all that said, thank you guys so much for watching. As always, let me know down below what you guys thought about the Jets off season thus far. Uh how do you think they’re going to do this year? Do you think they’re going to be a playoff team? Do you think that they could, you know, go back, win the division again? Let me know down below. Leave a like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. And I’ll see you guys in the next one. Go Jets go. Bye-bye.

With the Winnipeg Jets losing Nikolaj Ehlers to free agency, it left the with some holes. How have/will they address them this offseason?

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