The Winnipeg Jets, between their active NHL roster and American Hockey League roster, have 10 pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs.) Here, we’ll look at three who are unlikely to return.
Laurent Brossoit
Laurent Brossoit, by playing so well, has most likely played himself right off the Jets.
The recently-turned-31-year-old, by signing a one-year deal to return to the Jets for this season, bet on himself. He hoped — after being a part of the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup winning 2023 squad — to catch the attention of the rest of the NHL by showing the starter-level skills he showed down the stretch last season and early in the postseason for Vegas before being injured (or, conversely, set himself up to be the Jets’ next starter if Connor Hellebuyck left for unrestricted free agency.)
Consider attention captured. Brossoit has been the NHL’s best backup and the Jets have had just a good a chance to win when he’s patrolling the crease as when Hellebuyck is. In 20 starts and 21 appearances, he has a 13-5-1 record, 2.10 goals against average, .925 SV%, two shutouts, and 10.4 goals saved above expected.
With Hellebuyck signing a seven-year deal before the season started, Brossoit will have to go elsewhere to get the opportunity he deserves. He will certainly capture a lot of attention this offseason from teams looking for a starter or someone to use in a two-man tandem, and is set to get a big raise on a multi-year deal from someone. Teams who may be looking to upgrade in net include the Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, and Ottawa Senators.
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In a March article about Brossoit and Hellebuyck’s strong relationship, Brossoit spoke on his likely departure.
“It is a bit bittersweet. If I could choose, and if it didn’t mean halting or stalling of my career, I’d prefer to stay here,” he said, adding he’s very comfortable in Winnipeg. “It will be sad to go, if I do, but it’s the nature of the beast.”
“He should be a starter somewhere,” Hellebuyck agreed. “I would be his front-runner saying that he belongs starting in goal. It will be sad to see him go, but I’ll send the reference letter.” (From ‘No masking this relationship, Winnipeg Free Press, March 18, 2024.)
Tyler Toffoli
Of the three players general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff acquired over the past few months to deepen the roster for a Stanley Cup run, Tyler Toffoli seem the most like a pure rental.
Toffoli, acquired from the New Jersey Devils for a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 third-round pick, was one of the biggest pieces of trade bait by the time the March 8 deadline rolled around. He is on the final year of a four-year contract he inked with the Montreal Canadiens in 2020 that carries a $4.25 million average annual value will be an UFA this summer. The only reason the Jets were able to fit him onto their roster is because the Devils agreed to retain 50 per cent of his salary.
Toffoli, to this point, has been deployed in a second-line role alongside Sean Monahan and Nikolaj Ehlers. He has four goals and two assists for six points in 11 games, but all of his points have come in just three games. In the other seven, including every game of the Jets’ season-long six-game losing streak, he was held pointless.
The salary cap is slated to rise to $87.675 million this offseason, but Cheveldayoff has a few other orders of business to take care of. Toffoli could be the odd-man out.
Monahan, acquired in February from the Canadiens for a first-round pick, is also a pending UFA and has provided more consistent production and a faceoff prowess the Jets desperately needed. In 27 games since coming from Montreal, he has 11 goals and 8 assists for 19 points and has won 54.6 per cent of his draws. He currently makes $1.95 million on a one-year deal the Canadiens tendered him, but in the seven-year contract the Calgary Flames tendered him in 2016, he commanded $6.375 million per year.
If Toffoli is strong down the stretch and into the playoffs, a more fulsome discussion about re-signing him may occur. However, it seems more likely Cheveldayoff will go after Monahan. Dylan DeMelo and Brenden Dillon — two keys of the Jets’ defense core that has been stingy for much of this season — are also pending UFAs who currently make a combined $6.9 million, and Cole Perfetti is a restricted free agent.
While Toffoli hasn’t been awful, Cheveldayoff will have some tough decisions to make regarding which players will most benefit them in the future and there will likely be casualties. We could see a repeat to how things ended in 2018 with Paul Stastny, who was acquired from the St. Louis Blues near the trade deadline that season and was a key part of the Jets’ run to the Western Conference Final.
Cheveldayoff wanted to re-sign him that offseason, but was facing a cap crunch and couldn’t. Stastny and the Jets parted on good terms and Stastny signed with the Golden Knights. The good relationship between he and the Jets led to the team trading for him again prior to the 2020-21 season.
Colin Miller
When Cheveldayoff acquired defenseman Colin Miller from the Devils at deadline in a separate trade, the thought was Miller would be a lineup regular and an upgrade over Neal Pionk on the second pairing, or at the very least, an upgrade over Nate Schmidt and Logan Stanley on the third pairing.
However, head coach Rick Bowness has used the 31-year-old sparingly. He has only played three games and has been a scratch for six straight, including the final five losses of the six-game losing streak. Schmidt and Stanley keep getting put into lineup with Bowness’ justification being that with eight healthy defensemen on the roster, it’s important to keep everyone fresh. Pionk, despite his struggles through much of the season and down the stretch especially, has not seen the press box once.
At this point, Miller just seems to be around as a contingency for injuries as Bowness appears to prefer the guys who got them to this point in the season. Miller, who is a pending UFA, will likely be off to the seventh team of his career for 2024-25 unless negotiations with DeMelo and Dillon go nowhere.
