‘This community is amazing’ Jets defensive stalwart DeMelo happy to make Winnipeg his year-round home By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 5:42 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025

When True North Sports & Entertainment held a June news conference to announce how proceeds from Whiteout street parties would be distributed to grassroots groups addressing Winnipeg’s homelessness crisis, a surprising face stood out in the crowd at Ogijiita Pimatiswin Kinamatwin on Main Street: Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo.

Considering the hockey season had ended more than a month earlier in heartbreaking fashion, you’d have expected the veteran blueliner to be long gone, joining teammates in scattering to their various off-season homes, not to be seen again until training camp in September.

Thing is, DeMelo was home. The Ontario native has put down deep roots in Winnipeg, living here virtually year-round with his wife, Jessica, and their two boys, Caleb, four, and Eddie John, 15 months.

That’s a rarity among NHL players and truly makes him one of us — coaching his son’s Timbits team, socializing with neighbours, keeping tabs on local events, and gaining a deeper appreciation for the bond between the city and its sporting heroes whether at the local park or the grocery store.

“This community is amazing. People here I’m going to have as life-long friends. I’m just so fortunate,” DeMelo, 32, told the Free Press earlier this week in a one-on-one conversation that went far beyond typical topics like defensive structure and penalty killing.

“It’s been a dream fit.”

Now into his sixth full season in Winnipeg, DeMelo has realized one very important thing about this place:

“The Jets? They’re Winnipeg,” he said.

“It’s funny, I’ll go to my kid’s school and be like ‘Hi there, it’s nice to meet you.’ And they’re like ‘We know who you are.’ People will say ‘You guys are so down to Earth.” Well, yeah, we’re just very fortunate to play a sport for a living.”

“It’s been a dream fit.”

His appreciation for the city also means occasionally defending it when Winnipeg takes a hit from some of his peers in player polls, free-agent decisions, or no-trade clauses.

“It’s not a fair representation. And it is sometimes disappointing because I know how much Winnipeg has to offer, and how much the organization is trying to be the best that they can be,” said DeMelo.

”Once you’re here, you don’t want to go.”

DeMelo has seen the bad-mouthing up close. He was part of the 2017-18 San Jose Sharks team that made headlines when a video surfaced of players ranking Winnipeg among their least-favourite cities to visit. Tomas Hertl described it as “cold and dark,” while Justin Braun jokingly wondered if the city even had Wi-Fi.

DeMelo acknowledged that visiting for a one-game stop in winter is very different from living here year-round.

“It’s so nice to have that community outside the arena, people you can depend on if you’re in a pinch. I think that’s what makes Winnipeg unique, for sure. There really is that sense of community,” he said.

“When I’m on the road, my wife sometimes might be overwhelmed with both the boys. And our neighbours will be like, ‘Hey, we’ll take them over here to give you a bit of a break.’ And the kids want to play with each other, so it’s great.”

DeMelo said the decision to stay put was based on several factors, including what they felt was best for their growing kids. They did make a trip back home this summer to visit extended family in London, but that was essentially “vacation.”

“If it was just myself, or me and my wife, maybe (shuffling around) would be OK. But when you have kids, and you have to move them from school and their friends and all the activities they’re doing, that’s so hard,” he said.

“It’s so nice to have that community outside the arena, people you can depend on if you’re in a pinch. I think that’s what makes Winnipeg unique.”

“It was nice, after this past season ended, I was able to hang out with neighbours a little bit more because obviously I wasn’t playing. I was able to have that time.”

Living in the Winnipeg neighbourhood they do helped seal the deal.

“We’ve been in the same place for five years now. It was a new development so a lot of people came in together at the same time. It reminds me a lot of where I grew up,” DeMelo said.

“I had all my buddies down the street. We’d come home from school and your parents would be like, ‘Hey, whose house are you going to? OK, come home before the street lights come on.’ I really like that in Winnipeg, people go outside, even when it’s cold. They go hang out, they go to the outdoor rink.”

So how, exactly, did we get here? For DeMelo, it’s been a long journey, one that began 14 years ago when he was drafted in the sixth round by the Sharks while playing for the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors of the Ontario Hockey League.

He started his pro career a year later in Worcester with the AHL affiliate, making his NHL debut three years after that. Now in his 11th NHL season, DeMelo was traded to the Ottawa Senators in 2018 as part of the blockbuster Erik Karlsson deal, and then to Winnipeg in February 2020 — a third-round pick went the other way.

“I knew on the ice there’d be a good fit, because at the time there was a lot of turnover with the D-core. I knew there was a spot and an opportunity for me to go play with Josh (Morrissey), play with the great players we have here. But sometimes you never know off the ice,” said DeMelo.

“We’ve been so happily surprised that off the ice, it’s been equal if not greater than the on-ice success.”

That’s high praise, considering DeMelo has now signed a pair of contract extensions with the Jets — three years at US $12 million in the summer of 2020 ($3 million AAV), and four-years at US $19.6 million in the summer of 2024 ($4.9 million).

He set a new career high in points in 2022-23, then re-wrote his personal record book again in 2023-24. He’s been a key part of the NHL’s stingiest defensive team for two consecutive years and watched as Morrissey has grown into one of the league’s best blue-liners.

“It’s been a lot of dedication to the craft to be able to have that security. And it gives us such peace of mind, for sure,” said DeMelo, who is signed through 2027-28.

“We’ve been so fortunate to make so many friends here. In the community. On the team with the group of guys and their kids, the wives. This is the place, most likely when its all said and done, where I’m going to have played the most of my career at. So for me that’s very special.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg