The Winnipeg Jets, near the top of the Western Division and a team with $9 million of projected cap space, have been rumoured to be a possible destination for a number of players at the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline.
With speculation swirling for weeks already about who the Jets — a team whose Stanley Cup window may never be more open than it is right now and has serious money for the first time in a long time — might add to boost their chances at glory, it can be hard to keep track of all the names. With the Deadline just two weeks away, here’s a brief rundown of everyone linked to the team recently.
Forwards
Timo Meier
Rumours that the Jets are interested in Timo Meier — one of the biggest pieces of trade bait this season — first emerged in mid-January. Discussions ramped up even more after Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff traveled to San Jose to take a closer look at the 26-year-old.
Meier, a Swiss-born right-winger, has 31 goals and 21 assists for 52 points in 56 games with the Sharks this season and has spent his entire seven-year career with the organization. He is on the final year of four-year deal with a $6 million AAV, and is a restricted free agent this offseason.
Related: Jets Should be Actively Pursuing a Trade for Meier
Adding an excellent finisher and play-driver such as Meier would be massive for the Jets. He would bolster their top six immensely and would instigate a trickle-down effect that would lead to a point producer (perhaps Cole Perfetti or Blake Wheeler) heading to the third line and giving more balance to the Jets’ overall attack.
The asking price for Meier will undoubtedly be high and there are many other teams gunning for his services, including the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils (potentially the front-runner given the picks and prospects they have to offer the Sharks,) Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vegas Golden Knights.
Jonathan Toews
Toews, the longtime Chicago Blackhawks captain and Winnipeg native who has 14 goals and 14 assists for 28 points in 46 games this season, is not the player he was in his prime. Nonetheless, some pundits have floated a homecoming as logical.
Toews, on the final year of an eight-year deal with a $10.5 million AAV, would not command as much going the other way as Meier. Some, such as Winnipeg Free Press sportswriter Mike McIntyre, have extolled his virtues.
“The 34-year-old pending unrestricted free agent is just the type of rental the local hockey club needs, checking off multiple boxes in the process. Winning pedigree. Strong two-way play. Faceoff specialist. Special-teams guru. Natural leader. It just makes so much sense,” McIntyre wrote last month. (From ‘Jets need to get serious about landing hometown hero Toews,’ Winnipeg Free Press, Jan. 20, 2023.)
Toews is certainly a proven winner and strong leader, and has been a power play and faceoff-dot force throughout his career (he has 11 power play points this season and has won 63.3 per cent of his draws.) However, he doesn’t provide much at even strength anymore and there are questions about his health, specifically his battle with chronic immune response disorder that caused him to miss the entire 2020-21 season. Those questions have arisen again recently as he’s missed the past five games, including the tilt in Winnipeg last weekend, due to an undisclosed illness.
Related: Jets Cannot Win the Stanley Cup Without a Couple of Trades
These factors have led one camp to opine the Jets could do much better, viewing Toews at this stage of his career as inferior to any of the current top-six personnel. Even with part of his hefty salary retained by the Blackhawks, this group argues the cap space can be wielded much more effectively.
James van Riemsdyk
Van Riemsdyk is another veteran player on a selling team. The left winger has nine goals and 13 assists for 21 points in 36 games this season for the Philadelphia Flyers and has played more than 900 NHL games over 14 seasons. He is on the final year of a five-year deal with a $7 million AAV.
Adding van Riemsdyk would not make nearly the same splash as adding Meier, but he could provide the team with some middle-six scoring and potentially slot in on the third line alongside Adam Lowry. Van Riemsdyk also has a workmanlike attitude that head coach Rick Bowness values and has stressed to all his players they must possess.
Max Domi
Domi is another middle-six option for the left side or middle as he’s capable of playing wing and centre. The 27-year-old — born in Winnipeg during his father Tie Domi’s last season with the Jets 1.0 — is having a nice offensive season with the Blackhawks, notching 14 goals and adding 22 assists for 36 points in 53 games. Like his dad, he’s no shrinking violet as he has 64 penalty minutes.
Domi has been well-traveled over his eight-year NHL career. He suited up for the Arizona Coyotes, Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Carolina Hurricanes before signing a one-year, $3 million deal with the Blackhawks last summer. It was apparent immediately after the signing he’d likely be flipped at the Deadline for further draft picks.
Domi is logging a career-high 18:17 on a Blackhawks club that is at the beginning stages of a massive rebuild. His potential to add to the Jets’ offensive attack and also bring a bit of sandpaper to the proceedings makes him an intriguing possible rental.
Ryan O’Reilly
Jeremy Rutherford of the Athletic reported the Jets are one of the teams interested in St. Louis Blues’ captain, who is on the final year of a seven-year deal with a $7.5 million AAV.
A 32-year-old centre, O’Reilly is strong in the dot — winning 54.1 per cent of his draws this season — but his offence has fallen off a cliff, recording just 12 goals and seven assists for 19 points as the leader of a disappointing Blues’ squad. It really is a precipitous drop in production as he had 54-plus points in eight-straight seasons (and 60-plus points in five of those eight) coming into this one.
While plus/minus is not the most meaningful statistic, O’Reilly’s minus-24 rating also can’t be ignored as it indicates he’s troubled at five-on-five, something Rick Bowness and the new coaching staff don’t need after finally getting Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler’s play at even strength turned around at some degree.
Ivan Barbashev
Rounding out the list of middle-six forwards is another Blue in Ivan Barbashev, who Daily Faceoff paired with the Jets in a Valentine’s Day Matchmaker article.
“His acquisition cost won’t be exorbitant. He has positional versatility. He’s proven he can play with talented players at the top of the lineup given his 26-goal, 60-point season last year. And trading for him wouldn’t preclude the Jets from making another impactful move if they wanted,” the article states.
This season, Barbashev — a Russian 27-year-old capable of playing centre and wing — has 10 goals and 18 assists for 28 points. He is on the final year or a two-year deal with a $2.25 million AAV, so the Jets could easily absorb his contract while still adding elsewhere.
The Blues’ ask seems a bit high to this author. Kevin Weekes reported the Blues want either a first or second-round pick and a prospect for him.
Defensemen
While the Jets’ defense is much improved over last season and is giving up fewer dangerous chances, Cheveldayoff still may look to add to the back end in anticipation of a long and grinding playoffs.
Jakob Chychrun
The biggest trade bait blueliner of the Deadline is the Arizona Coyotes’ Jakob Chychrun, and the Jets have been rumoured for weeks to be in the running for his services.
Chychrun — who the Coyotes have already scratched since last weekend in anticipation of dealing him — would be a seismic addition to any team as a top-four talent just entering his prime. He would immediately claim the second-pairing left-side job if he were to join the Jets, which would allow Bowness to reunite Dylan DeMelo with Josh Morrissey on the top pairing and put Neal Pionk, who has struggled, on the third pairing.
In 36 games this season, Chychrun has seven goals and 21 assists for 28 points and is logging more than 23 minutes per game. The Coyotes’ asking price is reported to be massive, and the suitors are many, but if the Jets want to go all-in this season before Dubois, Connor Hellebuyck, and Scheifele all hit unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2024, no prospect should be untouchable.
Related: Jets Should Trade for Coyotes’ Jakob Chychrun
Chychrun would also be more than a rental. His current deal carries a team-friendly $4.6 million AAV, and he has two more years on his contract beyond this season. He won’t be an unrestricted free agent until the summer of 2025.
Luke Schenn
The Jets have also been linked to an older and more rugged defenseman: the Vancouver Canucks’ Luke Schenn, with Nick Alberga reporting earlier this week the Jets’ interest in him.
Schenn, 33, has three goals and 15 assists for 18 points this season, which are his best offensive numbers since 2011-12 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Saskatoon product has logged an average of 17:10, dished out 252 hits, (far more than anyone on the Jets) and has blocked 80 shots.
Schenn, on the final year of a two-year deal with an $850,000 AAV, shoots right, and with 916-career NHL games under his belt, would bring an additional veteran presence to the third pair that Dylan Samberg or Logan Stanley do not. He’d also be an insurance policy against injury.
Overall, it’ll be interesting to see which, if any, of these players ends up with the Jets, or if Cheveldayoff has a few tricks up his sleeve and adds someone no one expects.
