The Winnipeg Jets are dead last in the Western Conference and the NHL with 34 points on the season. They fell to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night by a score of 4-2. Logan Stanley was suspended on Sunday by the Department of Player Safety for his altercation with Brady Tkachuk. Everything that could go wrong for the Jets this season is happening.
Despite their solid start to the season, the Winnipeg Jets have completely collapsed. Winnipeg is missing that scoring punch that made them successful, and their window might have closed after winning the Presidents’ Trophy last season and falling in Round 2 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
There is only so much Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele can do without help. Losing Nikolaj Ehlers to the Carolina Hurricanes this past offseason was a gut punch. Just imagine if they still had Ehlers on that top line with those two. Winnipeg is missing a second-line center still. Adam Lowry is a great 3C, and Jonathan Toews is a great depth center, but his skating is way behind the pack.
Now, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on Saturday Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada says the Winnipeg Jets are looking for goal scoring. Maybe not mismanaging Ehlers over the years could have kept the player in Winnipeg. Now the Jets are regretting that decision and looking for help.
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As Jim Biringer of NHLRumors.com, Full Press NHL, and RG Media explained on TSN Radio in Montreal, when asked about why the Winnipeg Jets are on this free fall.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Host: “So Jim, how are these Jets going to handle this? Losers of four in a row, 2-5-3 (1-6-3 over their last 10). I get the part that they don’t have their starting goalie (Hellebuyck now back in the lineup), and arguably, I think we all need to see a little bit more from Hellebuyck in the postseason. But when it comes to game 81 to game 82, the last couple of years, there’s been nobody better at goaltending in the world than him.
But like this free fall, seems like it’s a little bit much, no? Like, I thought that they would struggle. Obviously, you lose your goalie, but I did not think that they’d be, what are they here? Just leave the one point clear of the Chicago Blackhawks for the bottom of the Western Conference (now in last place in the West). And if memory serves me correct, they won the Western Conference last year.”
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Jim Biringer: “Yeah, they did win the Western Conference last year. I don’t think anybody expected them to be a President’s Trophy team again, because a lot felt right for them last year. But again, it’s a mismanagement of assets. If you look at it, Nikolaj Ehlers, isn’t there? A guy that really helped their power play. Really helped their depth scoring. He’s off in Carolina, and they never really replaced his production.
Jonathan Toews is great. It’s a great, feel good story. The Winnipeg Boy comes home, but I think he’s playing above his weight class right now because they brought him in to be a third-line center, not a consistent 2C right now. And he’s played well, but to be at that 2c level and not really that well. He wants to be a depth forward, depth center for them.
And yeah, Hellebuyck being out of the lineup doesn’t help them. (Eric) Comrie, I thought played well. But again, it’s playing defense. It’s getting the goal scoring. Kyle Connor is not producing at a high rate as he has in the past. Cole Perfetti‘s been in and out of the lineup because of injury. Mark Scheifele has great games, and he doesn’t have good games.
This team, again, constructed wise on the back end, it’s always been a weakness to me. Yeah, Neal Pionk is great, but Josh Morrissey, you have another great defenseman there. But they still need more. They’re lacking the depth that made them so good for the last couple of years. And maybe last year was their window, and you only hope that Hellebuyck having the surgery now allows him to find his game, and then he gets rolling going into the playoffs, because, let’s be honest, that’s why he’s getting paid what he’s getting paid to be a playoff goalie.”
Something has to give eventually for the Winnipeg Jets. Does it make sense for a coaching change there to spark the team? What will GM Kevin Cheveldayoff do to make his team better? While the Jets weren’t going to win the Presidents’ Trophy again, nobody saw this coming. Many felt they were a playoff team.
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Winnipeg will need a miraculous St. Louis Blues run of 2019 to get in, and now could be focused on a top-five pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. This is just so strange to see, given the talent on the team. But as we have seen, two or three players can’t carry a team to a championship.
In the span of a year, the Winnipeg Jets went from Stanley Cup contenders to a possible rebuilding team just like that.”
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