The Winnipeg Jets, in the 2025-26 season, will attempt to follow up their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2024-25 with another strong campaign despite some losses in free agency.
With training camp, preseason, and opening night all getting closer with each passing day, it’s worth taking a look at who might lead the team in various important statistical categories. Some leaders will likely be the same as last season, while others will top categories for the first time.
Goals, Assists, Points: Kyle Connor
Coming off a season where he lead the team in goals (41) and assists (56) for a career-high 97 points, Connor should have plenty of motivation this season to repeat as team leader in all three categories.
He will want to perform well not only because it’s a contract year for him, but also to secure a spot on USA’s 2026 Winter Olympic squad (he will want play so well that he not only makes the team, but forces USA’s coaching staff to give him a much-bigger role than the paltry one he played in the4 Nations Face-Off).
Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets celebrate a third period goal against the St. Louis Blues in Game Two of the First Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Photo by Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images)
With Nikolaj Ehlers gone to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Jets’ top line of Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi might be leaned on a little harder than last season, leading to an increase in chances for Connor. If the power play can continue to operate at the elite level it did for much of last season (Connor had 28 points on the man advantage) he could also be the first player in Jets 2.0 history to reach the 100-point plateau.
Connor has been extremely consistent throughout his career, recording seven 30-plus goal seasons, six 60-plus point seasons, and three 80-plus point seasons.
Power-Play Goals: Gabriel Vilardi
The Jets have not had a player quite like Vilardi in 2.0 history, and there perhaps is not another player quite like him in the NHL, especially when it comes to power-play prowess.
While he is not the fastest skater or a sniper, he is an extremely efficient scorer — almost all his goals come from within a few feet of the net — and has outrageous hands. While he produced 36 points at even strength last season, it’s on the man advantage where his unique and heady skillset is on display most prominently.
His wizardry around the net and his puck-handling ability in tight — Adam Lowry said last season Vilardi can stickhandle in a phone booth — make him a huge threat as a “facilitator” from the net-front position and his presence there was key to the team’s league-best 28.90 power-play efficiency last season.
Vilardi, who finished with a team-high 12 power-play goals and also had 13 power-play assists in 71 games last season, should easily finish with a dozen-plus power play goals again as long as he stays healthy.
Hits: Nino Niederreiter
This category is a bit hard to predict as the top three Jets in hits finished within 15 of each other last season (Nino Niederreiter with 152, Lowry with 140, and Dylan DeMelo with 137.)
This season, we are going to go with Niederreiter again, who has long been a mainstay on an effective third line that has both ground opponents down and provided an offensive punch.
Nino Niederreiter, Winnipeg Jets (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)
Lowry is going to miss the first month or so of the season as he continues to recover from a May hip surgery, which will lessen the rugged captain’s chance to finish atop the hits leaderboard. Neal Pionk finished second to Brendan Dillon in 2023-24 with 221 hits but dished out only 114 last season as he adjusted his playstyle — for the better, most would say — so he doesn’t seem likely to challenge for top spot either.
Physicality is an underrated part of Niederreiter’s game. While the 33-year-old isn’t a dirty or highly-penalized player by any means, he has racked up 115-plus hits in nine of his 14 seasons.
Penalty Minutes: Logan Stanley
Logan Stanley is not a great fighter but when one possesses a 6-foot-7, 230-pound frame, one is compelled to drop the gloves from time to time either to protect a teammate or provide a spark.
Even if the 27 year old is scratched from time to time — which he should be considering he’s likely the 9th-best defenseman available — or misses time due to injury, he will rack up a handful of fighting majors and plenty of minors due to his lack of speed. The Jets were not a highly-penalized team last season, but he led the squad in penalty minutes with a fairly-modest 78 in 63 games while finishing second in fights with four.
Average Ice Time: Josh Morrissey
Morrissey, an elite top-pairing two-way defenseman, will be leaned on as such again this season.
The Jets have been a stingy squad since the now-retired Rick Bowness came aboard in 2022-23 and revamped the team’s entire defensive philosophy. The one constant since that time has been the Morrissey/DeMelo pairing being deployed against — and succeeding in shutting down — the opponents’ best.
Apr 21, 2024; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey (44) celebrates his first period goal with Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo (2) against the Colorado Avalanche in game one of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Canada Life Centre. Mandatory Credit: James Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports
Last season, Morrissey averaged a team-leading and career-high 24:23 of average ice time, almost three minutes higher than DeMelo’s 21:32, mostly due to also being on the top power-play unit. Morrissey also led the team in ice time per game in 2024-25 with 24:23, 2022-23 with 24:14, in 2021-22 with 23:40, and in 2020-21 with 23:33. He should easily lead in this category for the sixth-straight season.
Plus/Minus: Dylan Samberg
Samberg continued to blossom last season and was arguably the Jets’ most-improved player.
Tapped by new head coach Scott Arniel for a second-pairing assignment after two seasons on the third pairing, the now 26 year old recorded a career-high 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in 60 games and a team-leading plus-34 rating.
Now with a brand-new three-year extension in his back pocket, Samberg will enter 2025-26 with the expectation that he can repeat — and even build on — the even-strength defensive performance that has risen him to top-four prominence.
Goals Against Average and Save Percentage: Connor Hellebuyck
With all due respect to Jets’ backup Eric Comrie, even if Hellebuyck’s numbers dip a bit this season, he will still finish with the team’s best GAA and SV%.
Related: 3 Way-Too-Early Jets Predictions for the 2025-26 Season
Last season, Hellebuyck reached a new level of dominance en route to his second-straight Vezina victory and first Hart Trophy win, posting a 47-12-3 record, 2.00 GAA, .925 SV%, eight shutouts, and 41.6 goals saved above expected.
Putting his three-straight subpar postseasons aside, there’s no doubt Hellebuyck is the league’s best regular-season goaltender and there’s no real reason to expect a downturn in his play in that regard. If Hellebuyck can maintain a similar standard to last season, there’s no reason he can’t be the first goaltender since Dominik Hasek to three-peat as Vezina winner (“The Dominator” did it from 1997 through 1999 with the Buffalo Sabres).
