{"id":198609,"date":"2025-09-18T18:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/198609\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T18:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:30:10","slug":"connor-evangelista-zuccarello-neighbours-molendyk-reid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/198609\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor, Evangelista, Zuccarello, Neighbours, Molendyk, Reid"},"content":{"rendered":"

As expected from reports<\/a> a few weeks ago, the Winnipeg Jets have begun extension negotiations with All-Star winger Kyle Connor<\/a>. Unfortunately, there hasn\u2019t been much substantial progress made before the start of training camp.<\/p>\n

Murat Ates of The Athletic shared a quote<\/a> from General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff<\/a>, saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve had great dialogue with KC\u2019s representatives and we continue to have that. He\u2019s obviously a big part.\u201d A few moments later, Cheveldayoff added, \u201cEvery conversation, you\u2019re hopeful that this is the one that closes it. But it\u2019s not\u2026 I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s a timeframe sort of thing. You just keep on working at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Connor is poised for a major payday, from the Jets or elsewhere, on the heels of a career year and with the salary cap continuing to rise. Although he didn\u2019t match his career-high in goals, he did in points, scoring 41 goals and 97 points in 82 games, averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game.<\/p>\n

Other notes from the Central Division:<\/p>\n

Despite being the only member of the team without a new contract heading into training camp, there\u2019s little chance forward Luke Evangelista<\/a> is moving on from the Nashville Predators. Speaking with Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean<\/a>, General Manager Barry Trotz<\/a> said that trading Evangelista is \u201cnot even a thought.\u201d Over the last two years, playing full-time in Nashville, Evangelista scored 26 goals and 71 points in 148 contests.
\nIn a vague report from Michael Russo of The Athletic<\/a>, it doesn\u2019t appear that veteran forward Mats Zuccarello<\/a> will start the Minnesota Wild\u2019s training camp on time. Without specifying the nature of the injury, there\u2019s some concern in Minnesota that Zuccarello will miss some of the regular season due to the injury.
\nThe St. Louis Blues announced<\/a> that forward Jake Neighbours<\/a> would miss the first three days of the team\u2019s training camp due to a family matter. As expected, the team didn\u2019t share any insights into the matter, though it doesn\u2019t appear they expect Neighbours to miss much more time. The former first-round pick has become a quality secondary scorer for the Blues over the past few years, recording 49 goals and 84 points in 159 games.
\nMoving back to the injury train, Daugherty reported<\/a> that Nashville prospects Tanner Molendyk<\/a> and Cameron Reid<\/a> are both out with lower-body injuries. Molendyk\u2019s injury likely stems from being on the receiving end of a large hit<\/a> during the team\u2019s rookie camp, while Reid\u2019s injury (likely longer term) was also suffered during rookie camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As expected from reports a few weeks ago, the Winnipeg Jets have begun extension negotiations with All-Star winger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[4678,709,5,402,1478,78,10009,1290,9245,3707,38,231,4,84,4779,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-198609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-barry-trotz","9":"tag-cameron-reid","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-injury","12":"tag-jake-neighbours","13":"tag-jets","14":"tag-kevin-cheve","15":"tag-kyle-connor","16":"tag-luke-evangelista","17":"tag-mats-zuccarello","18":"tag-minnesota-wild","19":"tag-nashville-predators","20":"tag-nhl","21":"tag-st-louis-blues","22":"tag-tanner-molendyk","23":"tag-winnipeg","24":"tag-winnipeg-jets","25":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115226727195145442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}