With the Winnipeg Jets near the bottom of the NHL this season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy last season, it’s pretty clear some player personnel changes are required.
Here, we’ll look at seven players the Jets should move on from, whether via trade on or before the March 6 2026 Trade Deadline or by letting them walk into free agency this offseason.
Eric Comrie
Comrie’s been a decent backup to Connor Hellebuyck over the past two seasons (he was stronger last season than this one), but his completely disastrous tenure as starter in November and December when Hellebuyck was out with arthroscopic knee survey proved once again he is not a number-one goalie. However, contenders may be looking to add some additional experience and insurance in their crease ahead of their playoff runs, opening the potential for a trade.
With prospects Domenic DiVincentiis and Thomas Milic both playing quite well for the Manitoba Moose in the American Hockey League and the Jets’ playoff hopes extremely dim, it’s time for the organization to look at moving Comrie to give the two youngsters some NHL starts down the stretch.
If general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff deems necessary, he can always attempt to re-acquire Comrie as an unrestricted free agent (UFA) this summer. Cheveldayoff has already acquired him four separate times, drafting him in 2013, re-acquiring him off waivers twice, and signing him as a free agent in 2024 to his current two-year deal.
Vladislav Namestnikov
Namestnikov has been a reliable and versatile secondary contributor for the Jets since being acquired in 2023, but his offensive numbers have fallen off a cliff this season. One of many underperforming veterans, he has just seven goals and six assists for 13 points and a minus-10 rating in 55 games this season after recording 38 points last season and 37 in 2023-24.
It’s possible that age has simply caught up to the 33 year old and he is now on an irreversible downward trajectory. His contract, which runs through next season and carries a $3 million cap hit, would be best moved off the books.
Gustav Nyquist
Cheveldayoff may have never wasted money more completely than he’s wasted $3.25 million on Nyquist.
Another veteran who appears to be in a steep and irreversible decline, the 36 year old has exactly zero goals this season and only nine assists in 35 games. He’s been a semi-frequent healthy scratch since December, and when he does get into head coach Scott Arniel’s lineup, it’s usually in a fourth-line role.
Signing Nyquist — who is just two seasons removed from a 23-goal, 75 point campaign — seemed like a smart stop-gap solution for the middle six that would mitigate the loss of Nikolaj Ehlers’ production, but the Swede’s tenure as a Jet has been nothing short of laughably bad.
The return in a trade would be minimal, but Cheveldayoff would be wise to take whatever he could get for the pending UFA.
Tanner Pearson
Pearson has had some utility on the Jets’ bottom six this season but has underperformed offensively with seven goals and three assists for 10 points in 47 games. The 33 year old, who put up 27 points with the Vegas Golden Knights last season and a career-high 45 with the Vancouver Canucks in 2019-20, appears to be on the downslope like Namestnikov and Nyquist.
While the return in a trade would again be minimal, some contenders may value the pending UFA’s 59 games of playoff experience and the Stanley Cup pedigree he gained by winning it with the Los Angeles Kings in 2014.
Logan Stanley
Stanley is playing much better than he ever has and has found another gear offensively this season, with nine goals and nine assists for a career-high 18 points in 55 games. He has jumped to the top four at times and is currently quarterbacking the second power-play unit with Colin Miller and Neal Pionk out with injuries.
His semi-frequent booming slap-shot goals, when combined with his occasional hellacious hit and size — the latter trait something NHL teams often overrate and overpay for when it comes to d-men — make the pending UFA someone with potential to be sought after by contenders looking to increase their depth ahead of the postseason.
Related: Jets Should Trade Logan Stanley While Value Is High
His underlying defensive and possession numbers remain poor as they have been for his whole six-season career and the offensive burst could be a one-off, so Cheveldayoff should sell Stanley while his value is high.
Luke Schenn
Schenn, who was acquired at of the 2025 Trade Deadline to give the Jets more experience on the blue line and make them harder to play against, was alright for the team down the stretch last season but has been a liability this season. The 36 year old’s play — stop us if you’ve heard this before — is sharply declining and he is often turnover prone and much too slow to keep up.
However, like Pearson, there may be suitors after the pending UFA’s Cup pedigree (he won back-to-back Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021) and for his 1100-plus games of NHL experience. Like Stanley, there may be suitors after his physicality — for all his flaws, Schenn certainly can punish his opponents with hard hits.
Various rumours over the past few weeks have linked him to the Colorado Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues, the latter of which his younger brother Brayden captains.
Jonathan Toews
Despite all the hype around Toews joining his hometown team, the experiment has been a failure.
The 38 year old and three-time Stanley Cup champion has never really gotten back up to speed after a two-year hiatus due to health issues and has been invisible or a detriment more often than he’s been an asset. He had a brief resurgence after Christmas, but only has seven goals and 12 assists for 19 points in 56 games and a minus-17 rating.
While a trade would be an admission on Cheveldayoff’s part that the player he held a laudatory press conference to announce adding was a bust, one has to believe Toews came to the Jets thinking he’d get a chance at a fourth Stanley Cup and would like to be dealt to a team where that could be a reality. No one wants to finish their career gutting it out with a bottom feeder.
If Cheveldayoff can find himself a trade partner, he’s best to pull the trigger if only to free himself of the shackles of Toews’ lucrative salary structure, which pays him an additional $550,000 bonus for every block of 10 games played starting at the 20-game mark. With his base $2 million salary, he’s raked $4.2 million so far — or $221,052.63 for each point — and is set for another $550,000 bonus after playing four more games.
