Two areas of need, and three players for the Winnipeg Jets this offseason
Daily Faceoff: David Pagnotta, on three players needed for two areas on the Winnipeg Jets that will be priorities for them this offseason.
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
Pagnotta: “But it’s not like this just crept up on them overnight. They knew a year prior that (Nikolaj) Ehlers was going to free agency. They didn’t, they weren’t able to replace that the way that they wanted.
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This is going to be another team that’s going to be looking we’ve talked about this as well. This is going to be another team that’s going to be looking to be looking to make some impact additions for that second line. Find two guys, not one guy, two guys who play with Cole Perfetti on that second line. And that’s going to be a priority for them. I think they’re going to want to shore up the defense a little bit as well.
But the message was loud and clear from (Connor) Hellebuyck in a sense that we better be back to contention next season, or we’re going to have some awkward conversations, private, not just publicly. So this is going to be a very important offseason for the Winnipeg Jets in terms of getting back on track.
Back on track being Stanley Cup contender status. And finding that secondary scoring and again, replacing some pieces on that back end. But this team needs to be a little bit deeper. You have to be more offensive from spreading it out side of things. Great season for (Mark) Scheifele. Great season for Kyle Connor. Very good season for (Gabe) Vilarde.
But you need more than that to win in the National Hockey League. And the message that Helly was saying was quasi a warning, and I think the message was received. And we’ll see what type of action comes out of Winnipeg this summer, because I think they have to be at that level in terms of aggressiveness to get this team back to legit Stanley Cup status, contenders.”
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Irfaan Gaffar: “Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, Winnipeg always a tough place to sell players. So free agency, like you mentioned, it is going to be tough. Like, if I’m Alex Tuch, just spitballing here, and I have the opportunity to go to Winnipeg or Chicago and play with Conor Bedard, I’m probably going to one of the best cities in North America over Winnipeg Jets. And the Jets might be further ahead right now in winning a Stanley Cup, then, you know, the Chicago Blackhawks are at this very moment, at the time, obviously, us doing this.”
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