The Winnipeg Jets have been one of the NHL’s biggest surprises this season, sitting first in the Central Division and battling for top spot in the entire NHL. They have displayed a balanced offense, historically stingy defence, great goaltending, and a strong work ethic.
Related: NHL-Leading Jets Surprisingly Dominant in Season’s First Half
The team is quite different, personnel wise, than last year’s club that dominated in the first half of the season before faltering greatly through the second half and getting quickly eliminated in the playoffs.
Overall, nine Jets from last season (eight skaters and one goalie) joined new teams for 2023-24, whether via trade or free agency. Here, we’ll check in on each.
Pierre-Luc Dubois
Pierre-Luc Dubois, who makes $8.5 million per season and will through 2030-31, recently got demoted to the fourth line. That’s about the perfect illustration for how well his maiden season with the Los Angeles Kings is going.
The 25-year-old — who played three seasons with the Jets but refused to sign with long term and caused a major year-long distraction — has majorly underwhelmed to this point on his third team since January, 2021, when the Jets acquired him from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Patrik Laine. He is sitting at nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points and a minus-11 rating in 42 games and has two fewer points than Gabriel Vilardi, who has played 17 fewer games. His 19 points for $8.5 million make him one of the most expensive cost-per-point players in the NHL.
Dubois, at times for the Jets, lived up to his billing as a true number-one centre and his mix of skill and pure power made him an X-Factor opponents had a hard time dealing with. His effort levels have been inconsistent this season, NHL Network Radio’s Scott Laughlin said recently.
“He’s an enigma where some nights he can look like a world beater and other nights of course you don’t notice him and really question his effort,” he told Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek, comparing him to other players who have exhibited a lack of drive at times but are “guys (who) could dominate games if they really, deep down, wanted to.”
In addition to Vilardi, the Jets also got Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a second-round draft pick in the June trade that sent Dubois packing. That deal, right now, looks like highway robbery for Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
Michael Eyssimont
Michael Eyssimont played 19 games for the Jets last season, recording one goal and four assists and impressing with his no-holds-barred, menacing play style. When the Jets tried to send him back to the AHL last January after they got healthier, the San Jose Sharks picked him up off waivers.
After recording three goals and five assists in 20 games for the Sharks, they traded him to the Tampa Bay Lighting, where he recorded one goal and one assist in 15 regular-season games and one goal and one assist in three playoff games. He signed a two-year extension in Tampa in the offseason.
The 27-year-old has locked down a full-time NHL role this season with the Lightning as a bottom-six right winger. In 44 games, he has seven goals and seven assists for 14 points, a plus-5 rating, and 52 penalty minutes.
Sam Gagner
Sam Gagner and the Edmonton Oilers: a romance that just can’t die.
The veteran of more than 1,000 NHL games — a milestone he celebrated with the Jets last season — returned to The Big E for his third stint with the team that drafted him sixth overall in 2007. An unrestricted free agent (UFA) in the offseason, he accepted a professional tryout option in September, signed an AHL contract with the Bakersfield Condors, then a one-year two-way contract on Oct. 31.
The now 34-year-old worked hard to rehab after double hip surgery last March that ended his only season with the Jets early. He was a reliable contributor for the first half, posting eight goals and six assists for 14 points by mid-January and at times jumping up to the top six when the Jets were ravaged with injuries. His role ebbed in the second half and he bounced in and out of the lineup, not producing any further points, before he went under the knife.
Gagner has four goals and five assists for nine points in 19 games for an Oilers squad that started the season miserably and fired head coach Jay Woodcroft but now look like the wagon everyone expected them to be and are rising steadily in the Pacific Division. Gagner missed nearly a month with injury but returned to their lineup on Jan. 19.
Jansen Harkins
The Jets tried to slip Jansen Harkins through waivers at the beginning of the season but he did not clear, being claimed by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 26-year-old, who is a proven scorer at the AHL level but has trouble translating that in the NHL, had three goals and two assists for five points in 22 games with the Jets last season but dominated with the Manitoba Moose, posting 25 goals and 25 assists for 50 points in just 44 games.
Harkins, who played 154 games with the Jets over parts of four seasons, has carved himself out a bottom-six role in Pittsburgh over the past few months. He has no goals and four assists in 27 games and is playing an average ice time of 8:37 (although he did score a memorable game-winner in a 12-round marathon shootout against the Montreal Canadiens in December.) He also has four goals and five assists for nine points in 11 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Karson Kuhlman
The Jets picked up Kuhlman off waivers from the Seattle Kraken in December, 2022 to bolster a depleted right side when Mason Appleton, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Saku Maenalanen were all out with injury.
For a three-month span, the 27-year-old consistently drew into the lineup, but didn’t provide much in the way of offence in a bottom-six role and he was often a healthy scratch by the season’s end. Overall, he played in 33 games, produced two goals and two assists for four points, had a minus-seven rating, and logged an average ice time of 12:45.
The Jets let Kuhlman walk as a UFA and he signed a one-year, two-way contract with the New York Islanders. He has not found his way into an NHL game yet and in 36 games for the Bridgeport Islanders, has seven goals and two assists for nine points and a minus-16 rating.
Saku Maenalanen
The now 29-year-old Finn played 64 games for the Jets last season in his return to North America after three seasons in the KHL and Liiga. While he did not flash the offensive skill to the extent he did in Liiga in 2021-22, when he had 41 points, he recorded four goals and six assists for 10 points and an average ice time of 10:20.
He played a role on the Jets’ much-improved penalty kill, skating the fifth-most time down a man amongst forwards, and used his 6-foot-4 frame to his advantage with 113 hits, third among Jets forwards. However, he posted poor possession numbers, with his CORSI and Fenwick at all strengths both hovering just above 40 per cent.
The Jets let Maenalanen walk in the offseason as a UFA and he had a professional tryout option with the Colorado Avalanche, but failed his physical and was released.
He then joined the Swiss National League’s Langnau Tigers, where he has four goals and five assists for nine points in 30 games.
David Rittich
Rittich signed a one-year deal on last July 1 with the Kings worth $870,000 after one season as Jets’ backup. He provided serviceable relief for Connor Hellebuyck, posting a 9-8-1 record, 2.67 GAA, and .901 SV% in 18 starts and 21 total appearances.
The Czechian product, who has also played for the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Nashville Predators, spent most of the first part of this season with the AHL’s Ontario Reign. However, an injury to backup Pheonix Copley that forced Copley to the Long Term Injured Reserve opened a path for Rittich back to the NHL and he’s seized the opportunity.
On a defensively-strong Kings squad that has allowed the second-fewest goals in the NHL (only the Jets have allowed fewer), Rittich has a 3-1-1 record, 1.69 GAA, and .934 SV% in five starts and six appearances.
Kevin Stenlund
Kevin Stenlund’s departure to the Florida Panthers in the offseason as a UFA was a bit of a surprise since he earned a spot as fourth-line centre for the majority of last season and largely relegated David Gustafsson to the press box.
The 26-year-old Swede started with the Manitoba Moose but got an opportunity with the Jets in December, 2022 and never looked back. He suited up for 54 NHL games — a career high — and recorded six goals and three assists for nine points and one goal in five playoff games. He was strong in the dot, winning 53.3 per cent of his faceoffs, and played a key role on the Jets’ top-10 penalty kill.
This season with the Panthers, Stenlund has locked down a full-time NHL spot and is playing a similar role to the one he played with the Jets. has two goals and eight assists for 10 points in 45 games, is averaging 12:42, and leads the Panthers with a 55.2 faceoff winning percentage.
Blake Wheeler
The Jets moved on from former captain Blake Wheeler last June, buying him out of the last year of a contract that had become a boat anchor and among the NHL’s worst. Removing the now 37-year-old, who head coach Rick Bowness stripped of the captaincy before last season began, was necessary to allow the new leadership core to truly establish themselves and change the team culture.
Wheeler immediately signed a one-year contract with the New York Rangers, but hasn’t been very effective in the twilight of his career and has displayed the same shortcomings that made him a liability at times in his last few seasons in Winnipeg.
Wheeler has seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points in 44 games but has been miscast as a top-six player. Wheeler being on the top six when he shouldn’t be is something familiar to anyone who has followed the Jets as former head coach Paul Maurice stapled him there even when it was obvious the veteran couldn’t keep up with opponents’ best players anymore.
Wheeler started the season ice cold, with no points in his first 10 games, but did return to Winnipeg on Oct. 30, where he was rightly acknowledged for his contributions to the franchise over 12 seasons in a Jets jersey.
While 17 points — which will probably be 25-30 by the season’s end — is not a bad return on investment for $800,000, he was not a good fit as the top line’s right winger alongside Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. Wheeler has recently been bumped back to the third line, being replaced on the top line by the now-healthy Kaapo Kakko.
On of Wheeler’s biggest flaws is his skating and just how slow he truly is at 37 years old,” The Hockey Writers’ own Lucas Standel wrote last month. “He can never win a race to a puck because the players around him are faster and younger. When he gets caught up the ice, it takes him too long to get back into the play… If there is something he can do to help change that, then he should, because at this point, he is holding the Rangers back and other players could probably fill in for him and do a better job.”
“Wheeler looks very slow and his lack of speed makes it difficult for his line to get in on the forecheck,” THW’s Brian Abate wrote similarly earlier this month. “He also has gotten caught in the offensive zone without the speed to get back defensively which has led to the top line allowing more scoring chances.”
