Cole Perfetti Wants To Be A Winnipeg Jet For a Long Time
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joined Jay Onrait on SportsCenter to discuss Cole Perfetti’s desire to stay with the Winnipeg Jets long-term and why a contract took so long to complete.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Jay Onrait: “This is a welcome site for Jets fans. Cole Perfetti joined his teammates Tuesday after agreeing to a two-year deal Monday night with an AAV of $3.25 million, first reported by our hockey insider Darren Drager, 10th overall in 2020, 19 goals in 71 games last season.
I love listening to Cole Perfetti talk, and we’re going to talk about Cole Perfetti with another guy I love to listen to talk. It’s our hockey inside of Darren Dregerr who broke the deal that Perfetti signed with the Jets. He’s right here after a well-deserved vacation this summer.”
Darren Dreger: “Yes, thanks.”
Onrait: “Hanging out your cabin on the prairies. We’re not going to say exactly where. You had too many visitors this year, listening to Perfetti, Dregs, basically him coming out and saying, I wanted to be here long term. We talk about it all the time. You get a player. I mean, he went on the NHL media tour without a contract”
Dreger: “A bit unusual.”
Onrait: Are you surprised that Kevin Cheveldayoff didn’t just bite the bullet and say, let’s lock in this kid longer?”
Dreger: “Well, and I think ultimately that would be the goal for both Cole Perfetti and the Winnipeg Jets. Let’s just see how it plays out over the next couple of seasons. But this is a painful reality, how difficult certain restricted free agents’ second contracts can be.
You know how this kind of all went down? Right? The agent comes in with his number initially way too high, and the team responds with a number that’s way too low. And yeah, there’s some awkwardness. There’s some frustrations from both sides. But here’s what I can assure you, Jay, Cole Perfetti wants to be in Winnipeg, and he wants to be in Winnipeg long term.
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He never left. He stayed in Winnipeg. He skated with his Winnipeg Jets teammates throughout the offseason, loves Winnipeg, loves the community. So yeah, it’s a frustrating process at times. I’m sure it was difficult, certainly for Cole, perhaps for his family, yes, for the Winnipeg Jets, but in the end, they get them back in camp with plenty of time left in the preseason to get fully game ready for the regular season.”