Gabriel Vilardi said his contract extension was “inevitable” and he was glad to avoid arbitration.
The Winnipeg Jets forward, a restricted free agent, signed a six-year, US$45 million contract last Friday.
Vilardi was coming off a career year in the second of a two-year, $6.88 million deal.
“Everything went pretty smoothly from what I heard,” Vilardi told reporters on Zoom. “And I’m glad to hear that because from the end of the season, whenever I started thinking about this stuff, it was never any question for me.
“I always wanted to be back in Winnipeg, so it was important that we got it done and we didn’t get to arbitration. I don’t think anybody wanted that, so how it played out was almost inevitable.”
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The 25-year-old from Kingston, Ont., helped the Jets to their first-ever Presidents’ Trophy last season.
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Vilardi had career highs with 27 goals, 34 assists, 61 points and 71 regular-season games. He added another four points (one goal, three assists) in nine playoff games after missing the last 11 games of the regular season and first four of the post-season with an upper-body injury.
Vilardi also set new single-season bests in power-play goals (12), power-play points (25) and ice time per game (18:08) and matched his six game-winning goals from 2022-23.
“The opportunity for us to win in our window here of four or five years is something I’m very excited about and I want to be a part of,” he said. “And I love Winnipeg, it’s a great spot.
“It feels like home to me and all the fans, the team, the organization, everybody has welcomed me to Winnipeg since I’ve been there and it’s been great. So it made it a pretty easy decision for me.”
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Vilardi was traded to Winnipeg in the deal that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings on June 27, 2023, coming off a 41-point season (23 goals, 18 assists).
He was a first-round pick (11th overall) by the Kings in the 2017 NHL draft. He has 175 points (90 goals, 85 assists) in 270 career games.
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