Will the Winnipeg Jets be interested in Mattias Ekholm?
Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet: The Winnipeg Jets are near the top of the North Division. They have a busy schedule coming up ahead the April 12th trade deadline. Will general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff look making a trade sooner than later because of the required quarantining? Could they look at Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm?
Ekholm has a year left on his deal at a $3.75 million salary cap hit and could possibly be left unprotected depending on who the Predators want to protect – eight skaters or seven forward and three defensemen.
Acquiring Ekholm makes sense for the Jets, but the Predators will be looking for maximum return. Would it take a first and another asset?
Defenseman Ville Heinola would be a non-starter for the Jets. Defenseman Dylan Samberg could be off-limits as well. Forward Cole Perfetti isn’t going anywhere.
Goaltender Mikhail Berdin or Kristian Vesalainen could be made available.
If the Jets were to acquire Ekholm, he may create some difficult expansion decisions for them as well.
Ekholm would complicate expansion but would be worth it
Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet: (mailbag) If the Winnipeg Jets were to land Mattias Ekholm there would be expansion complications but it would be worth it. Dylan DeMelo would interest in the Seattle Kraken if exposed. Neal Pionk will be protected. Josh Morrissey would likely be protected as well. If they traded for Ekholm, they would likely protect him.
At foward the seven protected would likely be Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp and Mason Appleton. Adam Lowry is a pending UFA would get some consideration if he’s re-signed before.
The Jets shouldn’t consider trading forward Paul Stastny and it wouldn’t be a surprised if the pending UFA isn’t brought back next season on a reduced salary.