The Winnipeg Jets had a huge number of players experience down seasons in the team’s highly-disappointing 2025-26, where they regressed by 21 wins and 34 points to miss the playoffs.
Here, we’ll look five candidates to bounce back in 2026-27 after some rough times.
5: Adam Lowry
The captain was one of many underperforming veterans responsible for the lack of secondary scoring that plagued the Jets all season long; he saw his production drop to 21 points in 70 games from 34 points in 73 games in 2024-25.
Even though he returned in November from offseason hip surgery, he did not look comfortable for a number of weeks after. He admitted in his exit interview he may have returned too quickly and should have spent more time building up his strength.
Adam Lowry, Winnipeg Jets (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)
While Lowry — a big, physical, tough-to-play-against power forward and key penalty killer — is not expected to be one of the Jets’ primary offensive producers, secondary scoring from third-liners such as him was one of the things that made the team so dangerous in their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2024-25.
One has to hope that a fully-healthy Lowry can get back to posting 30-plus points, as he did in each of the three seasons prior to last.
4: Connor Hellebuyck
Rumours have swirled for months that Hellebuyck will be traded and Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said he’s listening to offers. Despite that, the goaltender remains Jet as of this writing, so we’ll mention him here.
Hellebuyck’s game declined sharply last season after his 2024-25 culminated in him capturing his third Vezina Trophy and becoming the first goaltender since 2015 to win the Hart Memorial Trophy.
He truly never looked very comfortable or “big and boring” in his crease for any long stretch last season, and having to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery didn’t help matters either.
His record was 23-23-11, his goals against average (GAA) jumped all the way to 2.86 from 2.00, his save percentage (SV%) fell to a career-worst .895 from .925, and he posted zero shutouts compared to eight.
By comparison, now-departed backup Eric Comrie, who made one-tenth of the money, had a 3.13 GAA and .890 SV%.
The only time Hellebuyck looked close to his 2024-25 self was at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where he backstopped the United States squad to their first gold medal since 1980 by posting a 5-0-0 record, 1.18 GAA, .956 SV%, and stopping 5.92 goals above expected.
In the gold-medal game, he was simply outstanding, making 41 saves — many of the 10-bell variety — and even snagging the secondary assist on Jack Hughes’ overtime golden goal.
No one wins a trio of Vezinas and a Hart by fluke, and there’s historical precedent for Hellebuyck bouncing back as he did so in 2022-23 after a rough 2021-22 that saw him post similar numbers to last season. If Hellebuyck stays with the Jets and can get closer to his 2024-25 or 2026 Olympic self, they will have a chance at making the playoffs no matter how the defence plays in front of him.
3: Neal Pionk
Pionk took a big step back last season after his 2024-25 was among his best campaigns as a Jet. In 2024-25, he maintained his strong offensive production (10 goals and 29 assists for 39 points) while shoring up his actual defensive game that had been often chaotic and made him a lightning rod for criticism since joining the Jets in 2019. The 30 year old parlayed his strong campaign alongside Dylan Samberg on the second pairing into a lucrative six-year extension worth $7 million annually.
Last season, the first year of that deal, he struggled to stay healthy as he missed 31 games with various injuries and his production plummeted all the way to 12 points (three goals and nine assists) for his lowest-career single-season point total.
There’s still plenty of time for the contract to turn out at least alright in the long run, and one can hope that his underperformance was injury-related rather than indicative of the beginning of his decline. However, 2025-26 raised the level of concern that the deal could age like milk rather than wine.
2: Vladislav Namestnikov
Namestnikov had been a reliable and versatile secondary contributor for the Jets since being acquired in 2023, but his offensive production fell off a cliff last season. He posted just eight goals and six assists for 14 points in 60 games, way down from the 38 points he recorded in 2024-25 and the 37 he recorded in 2023-24. His season ended with a whimper as he missed 21 of the Jets’ final 24 games with a lower-body injury.
It’s possible that age has simply caught up to the 33 year old and he is now on an irreversible downward trajectory and no longer capable of shouldering a top-nine assignment. His contract, which has one season remaining and carries a $3 million cap hit, seemed to have the potential to be moved off the books via trade or buyout, but as of writing, he remains a Jet.
1: Cole Perfetti
The Jets were hoping Perfetti would take another step forward in the second and final year of his bridge deal — especially after scoring the Manitoba Miracle in 2025’s first round — but he took a step back.
The 24 year old recorded just 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) last season, down from a career-high 50 (18 goals and 32 assists) in 2024-25.
He missed the first 14 games of the campaign with a high-ankle sprain he suffered in the team’s final preseason game, and even though he returned in November, he did not look comfortable until the new year. He admitted in his exit interview he came back from injury “a hair too early” and that it “took awhile” to get back up to speed.
Winnipeg Jets center Cole Perfetti (Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images)
“I don’t know if I was necessarily mentally there to get back yet,” he said. “I think early on, I was a little hesitant and wasn’t playing my game. Really after Christmas, it started to get a little bit better. And then really around the Olympic break is when I started to feel full confidence and I felt like my game started to get that chippiness back, get the speed back, get the legs going, started making plays a lot more.”
Indeed, Perfetti recorded just seven points in his first 24 games through the end of December, but picked it up by putting up 25 points in his final 44.
The 2020 first-rounder, who has a fresh five-year contract with a $6 million average annual value (AAV) in his back pocket, will be looking to show that the downturn was injury-related and not indicative of a trend. The team needs him to be a consistent top-six threat, especially considering his salary has almost doubled from the $3.25 million AAV his bridge carried.
“I expect a lot from myself on the ice this year to take a major step from last year,” Perfetti said recently. “This is the most I’ve spent on the ice. This is the best I’ve felt in the gym. Overall, the body and the mind are in a great spot. Obviously now with being here for five years and kind of knowing what the future looks like, it’s really settling and at ease a lot more.” (From ‘Jets’ Perfetti motivated to prove his worth following ‘life-changing’ contract,’ Winnipeg Free Press, July 20, 2026.)
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