From 116 points to 82 in one season
Thirty-four points, gone. Winnipeg went from the Presidents’ Trophy to seventh in the Central and no playoffs, one of the ugliest single-season falls the league has seen in years. The forwards were not the problem. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor both had monster years while the team leaked 260 goals.
Key data
2025-2026 record : 35-35-12 (231 goals for, 260 against)
2025-2026 NHL ranking : 7th in the Central division
Top scorer 2025-2026 : Kyle Connor (39)
Top playmaker 2025-2026 : Mark Scheifele (67)
Top point getter 2025-2026 : Mark Scheifele (103)
Average age of roster (2026-2027) : 28,6 years
Available cap space (2026-2027) : 4.48 M$
Recent moves (off-season)
Arrivals :
- Stuart Skinner (G)
- Mario Ferraro (D)
Departures :
- Eric Comrie (G)
Franchise outlook: one trade request changes everything
Winnipeg Jets – Future contracts and draft picks
Connor Hellebuyck asked out this summer. That single fact reframes the whole season. He carried this team to a Presidents’ Trophy two years ago, then his numbers cratered after mid-season knee surgery, and now he wants a fresh start somewhere else.
Kevin Cheveldayoff has confirmed the phone has been ringing and has not slammed the door on a deal. He is also under no obligation to move quickly, since Hellebuyck is signed for five more years. Fans will still find that combination unnerving.
Elsewhere the picture is steadier. Connor, Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi are all under contract past 2030-31, so the forward group survives whatever happens in net. Winnipeg skipped the summer splash and bet on Cole Perfetti and Brad Lambert taking a step instead. The draft cupboard is stocked, with a first-rounder every year through 2029. Push or teardown, though, hinges entirely on the goalie.
The duo that still wasn’t enough
Scheifele put up 103 points, a career high and a top-five finish league-wide, ahead of Pastrnak and Draisaitl. Connor sat on 92, his third season past 90. Neither needed the power play to inflate the total; both drove play at five-on-five.
None of it mattered. The blue line came apart at exactly the moment Hellebuyck’s knee did, and no forward group in the league scores its way out of 260 goals against. Fix the goaltending and tighten the defence, or the two best players on the roster keep producing for nothing.
Player to watch : Mark Scheifele (F)
Scheifele is coming off the best year of his career and his future in Winnipeg is chained to somebody else’s. If the franchise is willing to trade its franchise goalie, the window is shut, and the guy with five years left on his deal becomes the next obvious chip.
Nothing suggests the Jets are there yet. The front office keeps saying it wants to win now. Watch it anyway. And even setting the noise aside, the harder question is whether Scheifele can hit those numbers again behind a defence this shaky.
2026-2027 target
Projected Winnipeg Jets lines 2026-2027
Cap space of 4.48 million dollars does not buy a rebuilt blue line. The roster that finished seventh is more or less the roster that starts this season, with Stuart Skinner brought in to share the crease and Mario Ferraro added on the back end. Internal growth from Perfetti and Lambert is the plan, which is another way of saying the plan is hope.
Realistic ceiling: a wild-card scrap. Realistic floor: a deadline sell-off that starts with the goalie.
My prediction
Bottom two in the Central again. Connor and Scheifele will be excellent and it will get Winnipeg to roughly where it got them last year. Hellebuyck wants out, the roster has not improved, and the teams around them have. Hard to see the climb.
Photo credit : wallpapersafari.com | annj96
Leave a Reply