The Winnipeg Jets, 15-18-4 and dead last in the NHL in points entering play Dec. 31, are going to need a whole lot more from a whole lot of players in the New Year if there’s any chance of it being happier than their past two months.
Really, this article could feature anyone other than Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi, who are carrying much of the offensive mail but cannot be expected to lug 18 other passengers. Longtime NHL head coach Bruce Boudreau put it succinctly recently, saying “if they had any other line scoring goals, they wouldn’t be in this mess they’re in.” (From ‘You’ve got to score goals in this league,’ Winnipeg Free Press, Dec. 30, 2025.)
However, here, we’ll look at the four who most need to drastically up their games in a hurry if the defending Presidents’ Trophy winners are going to have any chance of clawing back into the playoff picture.
4: Gustav Nyquist
Signing Gustav Nyquist seemed like a smart stop-gap solution for the team’s middle six, but he haas beenn nothing except invisible so far.
The Swede came to the Jets coming off a down season where he produced just 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in 79 games between the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild, but had put up a career-high 75 points for the Predators the season prior. While general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff wasn’t banking on 75 points, he was banking on him to make up for some of the departed Nikolaj Ehlers’ production and be a reliable secondary scorer.
He had been a consistent offensive threat throughout his career, with nine 40-plus point seasons, four 50-plus point seasons, five 20-plus goal seasons, and more than 500 points to his name before inking a deal with Winnipeg.
However, the 35 year old hasn’t even scored a goal as a Jet as the calendar flips — he appeared to get the monkey off his back on Dec. 27 against the Minnesota Wild but his goal was disallowed after a coach’s challenge revealed linemate Nino Niederreiter was offside on the zone entry — and has recorded just seven assists in 28 games. He was often a healthy scratch in December, or given a bottom-six role, and only has two assists since the end of October.
3: Jonathan Toews
The signing was much-ballyhooed, even garnering a press conference to announce it, but the impact has been negligible at best and detrimental at worst.
Jonathan Toews, the Winnipegger who inked a one-year deal to much fanfare and ink spillage, has just 10 points in 33 games and is a minus-15. He has three points since the start of November and hasn’t scored since Nov. 11.
This is not the same Toews who led the Chicago Blackhawks to Stanley Cup glory in 2010, 2012, and 2015. This is a 37 year old who looks every year of it. The fact he has been demoted to the fourth line — and even to the wing — recently from the second-line centre role he began the season with is quite the indictment on the whole experiment.
There was always a risk to banking on Toews — who hadn’t played a hockey game in two years — to put together a big bounce-back campaign, a risk this author warned about back in June.
Related: Jets’ Veteran Free-Agent Additions Have Been Busts
Unfortunately, the Jets are paying hand-over-fist for taking that risk. Not only is Toews’ presence blocking someone younger, but his lucrative salary structure pays him an additional bonus for every block of 10 games played, whether his play helps or hurts the team. He’s raked in $3.1 million so far, $310,000 for every point.
Since the bad optics of scratching someone they hyped so highly is not something Cheveldayoff seems willing to subject the organization to, Toews simply needs to start providing what everyone promised he would.
2: Vladislav Namestnikov
Another middle-six forward who has been terribly — and uncharacteristically — cold is Vladislav Namestnikov.
After getting off to a hot start with six goals and seven points in his first 12 games, the 33 year old has completely lost his offensive touch, with just one assist since. He is currently on a 13-game pointless streak (all of December) and had an 11-game pointless streak in November as well.
His long stretches of frigidity are quite inexplicable as while the Jets have never expected him to be one of their primary scorers, he’s been a consistent secondary producer through his career and has looked comfortable no matter where he has been deployed in the lineup through his Jets tenure.
He had 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists) last season, 37 (11 goals, 26 assists) in 2023-24, and 10 in 20 games down the stretch 2022-23 after being acquired from the San Jose Sharks. With eight points in 37 games this season, he is on pace for just 17, nowhere near good enough for a top-nine player who got a raise on a two-year extension in February.
Cole Perfetti
What on earth has happened to Cole Perfetti?
The player who put up a career-high 50 points a season ago and seemed to be well on the way to rounding into a complete player has fallen off the face of the earth since scoring the “Manitoba Miracle” last spring and far out of head coach Scott Arniel’s favour.
Perfetti has undoubtedly been the most-disappointing Jet this season, both because his development trajectory seems to be going in reverse and because he was the main player Arniel and Cheveldayoff were counting on to compensate for Ehlers’ departure.
Through 23 games after returning from a high-ankle sprain he suffered in preseason, the 2020 10th-overall pick has just two goals, seven points, and a minus-14 rating. He has been demoted to the bottom six at times, and even benched. He had a career-high 18 goals and 50 points last season, but that seems more like a fluke now than any indication of what to expect from him going forward.
While a high-ankle sprain is difficult to come back from, that excuse can only be used as a crutch for so long; the statute of limitations for giving him a pass may have already expired considering he returned almost two months ago.
If the reason for his underperformance is because of pain or limited mobility, he needs to be removed from the lineup. If the reason is simply a lack of confidence, that’s something he needs to work out for himself. If he can’t get things turned around, he certainly won’t be in any position to command any type of raise or longer-term contract this summer once his two-year bridge deal worth $3.25 million is up.
The Jets will close out the 2025 portion of their schedule in Detroit versus the Red Wings on New Year’s Eve.
