The Winnipeg Jets offseason has been a rollercoaster up until this point. Now that the roster is starting to take shape, now is a good time to look at some potential wild cards heading into this season.
One honourable mention goes to Nikolaj Ehlers, who was injured for the majority of last season, but when he was on the ice he controlled play and produced at a top-six level. Staying healthy is the wild card for him, and this list will focus more on the performance aspect of the upcoming season rather than health.
There remains the wild card of whether or not Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck will start the season with the franchise, but Elliotte Freidman reported in a recent interview with NHL Network that he would not be shocked if the Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender started the season in Winnipeg, due to the current market. Putting the unknown of those situations aside for now, here are four players who project as wild cards for the Jets roster in 2023-24.
Cole Perfetti
While Cole Perfetti’s health is a wild card similar to Ehlers, his production on the ice is also a wild card heading into 2023-24. He has posted strong defensive analytics in his short career but has yet to dominate offensively in the way that the organization may have hoped when he was drafted. A lot has contributed to that, but with another shot in the top six looking likely, this is the year for him to take a massive step forward and solidify his role as an offensive point producer at the top of the lineup.
Perfetti posted a solid 30 points in 51 games last season, before a season-ending shoulder injury. In that time he showed incredible flashes as an offensive playmaker, and routinely made impressive passes to high-danger areas. A big factor in whether or not we will see a production leap from Perfetti is if head coach Rick Bowness elects to play him on the team’s top power play. That is obviously a role that needs to be earned, and Perfetti has the potential to do it.
Within the range of outcomes for the 21-year-old winger, is he posts another season with similar production and strong defensive metrics, making him a solid third-wheel on a top-six line. The flip side is he fully breaks out and earns a top-line and top power play role, and his production shoots up like a rocket.
Neal Pionk
Neal Pionk is the ultimate wild card on the Jets roster heading into this season, based on the simple fact that he plays a wild card style of hockey. As we can see from his Evolving Hockey card, he continues to post strong offensive metrics but fails to back that up in the defensive zone.
When he has a good game or two defensively, he looks like the top-four defender that the Jets paid handsomely for a few seasons ago, but when he struggles defensively, he rarely makes up for it at the offensive end.
There was a reason Pionk earned that large contract and that was because of his play in the 2020-21 shortened season. He posted 32 points in 54 games and looked like a surefire top-four defenceman and power play specialist. Jets fans and the organization know that he can play at that level, it’s just a matter of whether or not he can return to it.
While he hit a career-high in goals last season with 10, his inclusion on this list is not because of his offensive play. He is a high-event player, and he will need to improve in the defensive zone if the Jets are to compete this season. As of this writing, the defence core remains unchanged, which all but assures that Pionk will resume his role as a second-pairing defenceman.
Gabriel Vilardi
Fresh off of signing a new two-year, $6.875 million contract, Gabriel Vilardi has plenty to prove this season. He is coming off of a breakout season of sorts, where he posted 41 points in 63 games which came close to doubling his previous career-high. Now that he has bet on himself with a bridge deal, both he and the organization will be watching to see if he can replicate that performance.
Related: Jets Getting Great Short-Term Value in New Vilardi Deal
Similar to Perfetti, Vilardi will likely have every opportunity to dominate this upcoming season. Power play time is at a premium, but he is all but guaranteed to be slotted into the top six on opening night. With the potential to play with skilled wingers such as Kyle Connor, Nino Niederreiter, and plenty of other options throughout the forward group, Vilardi has a real chance to see a major bump in production.
There is obviously the flip side of that conversation, where Vilardi keeps on the same pace or even regresses a little bit, and the Jets find themselves without a competent second-line centre after the departure of Pierre-Luc Dubois. Health is a factor for Vilardi as well, as he has suffered his fair share of injuries for a player at 23 years of age. It’s more likely we see him break out than regress, but the unknown of the situation remains.
Rasmus Kupari
Rasmus Kupari was another piece in the Vilardi – Dubois trade and his upcoming campaign is somewhat make-or-break. He was selected 20th overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, which shows that the potential is there for flashes of talent, but his career-high at the NHL level is only 15 points.
There projects to be a training camp battle for the fourth-line centre role between him and David Gustafsson, but if he can come out on top of that battle, he has the potential to bring size and speed to a bottom-six that desperately needs it. The flip side of that is he loses it and spends the majority of his season in the press box, which labels him a wild card for this season.
In 130 career games at the NHL level, he has posted nine goals and 29 points. He is not known to be a dynamic scorer, but if he can bring his defensive abilities and create a shutdown fourth line alongside Morgan Barron and Mason Appleton, the Jets may be able to ice their best fourth line in years.
These four players are going to play a big role in whether or not the Jets are able to return to the playoffs this season. If they all come out and play to the best of their abilities, they may be one of the better teams in the Western Conference. But in this piece, I outlined how things can go south for these players, and if that is the case, the Jets may be looking to sell at the trade deadline and aim for a high pick in the 2024 Draft.
