Winnipeg celebrated one marquee free agent signing on Tuesday, but Jonathan Toews\u2019 homecoming \u2014 already announced, now official \u2014 was not the story of Winnipeg\u2019s July 1.<\/p>\n
The Jets\u2019 lack of reinforcements is a bigger story. Signees Cole Koepke and Tanner Pearson don\u2019t make up for the loss of Nikolaj Ehlers, nor will they match the impact of contingency plans like Brock Boeser, who re-signed in Vancouver for seven years at $7.25 million AAV. Winnipeg is a Presidents\u2019 Trophy-winning team that gained Toews but lost Ehlers, Brandon Tanev, and Mason Appleton. Winnipeg has also signed Phil Di Giuseppe to a one-year, two-way contract, according to PuckPedia. Di Giuseppe is a 2025 Calder Cup champion who has split time between the NHL and AHL for most of his career.<\/p>\n
This gives Winnipeg one of the league\u2019s strongest cap positions: $21 million in space, according to PuckPedia (prior to Toews\u2019 performance bonuses). It ensures a lack of albatross contracts, unless Toews is just healthy enough to play a lot of games but not impactful enough to help. The Jets can boast that they did not sign Mikael Granlund to a three year, $7 million contract and, as the season continues and Winnipeg accrues cap space \u2014 and the opportunity that comes with it \u2014 we can point to the Jets\u2019 misses on July 1 as a source of strength as opposed to weakness.<\/p>\n
Winning in the NHL is about more than efficiency, though \u2014 it is about accumulating the most impactful collection of on-ice talent. Winnipeg has established an exceptionally high floor: Connor Hellebuyck, Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Dylan Samberg, Neal Pionk, Gabriel Vilardi, and Cole Perfetti are an impressive core of players. Adam Lowry is a throwback shutdown centre who has delivered second-line results, while Toews may be able to fit productively into the Jets\u2019 middle-six. The Jets are committed to their five-on-five structure and got brilliant results from their power play. What they have not accomplished so far this offseason, given the comparison of outgoing vs. incoming talent, is finding another level of on-ice talent to insulate against those long playoff nights in St. Louis or Dallas.<\/p>\n
But this is not a Winnipeg Jets hit piece. The Jets\u2019 relative lack of success on the depleted free agent market needs to be acknowledged, particularly given Ehlers\u2019 courtship by Carolina, Washington, and Tampa Bay, among others. Acknowledgment should come with context, however \u2014 Winnipeg is not a marquee UFA destination. Toews\u2019 signing was celebrated by so much of the fanbase because he is the exception, not the rule. We\u2019ve seen the no-trade clause data; we know the Jets\u2019 UFA history. Winnipeg was never going to be able to sign Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad for a combined cap hit of under $20 million.<\/p>\n
Where do the Jets go from here? What do Pearson and Koepke bring and what might Kevin Cheveldayoff still have in store?<\/p>\n
Those are the questions that matter now. It\u2019s contingency plan time. Winnipeg is a highly probable playoff team, with questions about its ceiling, and our playoffs postmortem indicated a need to get harder to play against in the middle of the ice. The loss of Ehlers is navigable, but Winnipeg has to replace his offence. The UFA market may not provide that: The top remaining forwards include Pius Suter, Jack Roslovic, Andrew Mangiapane, Gustav Nyquist, and Appleton. Mangiapane has extra appeal for the number of pucks he wins on the forecheck, but these are not top offensive players.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg\u2019s biggest successes have always come from the trade market and that\u2019s where I think the Jets could look.<\/p>\n
Take Ehlers, for example. Carolina and Washington may have ample cap space to sign Ehlers, but the Rangers and Lightning are capped out. If Ehlers gets close with New York, it would necessitate another move. Will Cuylle ($3.9 million, just re-signed) would command a lot of interest if New York shopped him, while Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re ($7.45 million) has often been the subject of trade rumours. Tampa Bay\u2019s path to cap space for Ehlers is murkier, but I understand that they\u2019ve expressed interest and always manage to clear cap space. (The problem with that concept? Almost everyone making substantial money on the Lightning has no-trade protection of some sort.) The point is that, when making Ehlers a \u201cJet for life\u201d is Plan A and Boeser is Plan B, and the Jets are still trying to improve their team as secondary and tertiary options sign elsewhere, Winnipeg may need to make aggressive, proactive moves via trade. New York and Tampa Bay aren\u2019t the only cap-strapped teams, nor is the silly season of UFA spending over quite yet.<\/p>\n
It is normal, expected, and potentially even advantageous for the Jets to miss out on free agents. $21 million is enough to sign restricted free agents Samberg, Vilardi, and Morgan Barron without pause. It leaves space for Winnipeg to re-sign Kyle Connor before he reaches free agency on July 1, 2026, and to extend Perfetti \u2014 ideally before time spent on the top power play inflates his price.<\/p>\n
It also leaves Winnipeg with the following roster.<\/p>\n
LWCRW<\/p>\n
Kyle Connor<\/p>\n
Mark Scheifele<\/p>\n
Gabriel Vilardi (RFA)<\/p>\n
Vladislav Namestnikov<\/p>\n
Jonathan Toews<\/p>\n
Cole Perfetti<\/p>\n
Nino Niederreiter<\/p>\n
Adam Lowry<\/p>\n
Alex Iafallo<\/p>\n
Cole Koepke<\/p>\n
Morgan Barron (RFA)<\/p>\n
Tanner Pearson<\/p>\n
Jaret Anderson-Dolan<\/p>\n
David Gustafsson<\/p>\n
Parker Ford<\/p>\n
LD<\/p>\n
RD<\/p>\n
Josh Morrissey<\/p>\n
Dylan DeMelo<\/p>\n
Dylan Samberg (RFA)<\/p>\n
Neal Pionk<\/p>\n
Logan Stanley<\/p>\n
Luke Schenn<\/p>\n
Haydn Fleury<\/p>\n
Colin Miller<\/p>\n
Ville Heinola<\/p>\n
G<\/p>\n
Connor Hellebuyck<\/p>\n
Eric Comrie<\/p>\n
Again, it\u2019s a playoff team, in all likelihood. Its defence corps hasn\u2019t changed, while its forward group loses Ehlers, Appleton, and Tanev while gaining Toews.<\/p>\n