Jets clear cap space by trading Mason, Armia

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This article was published 30/06/2018 (2627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has been busy Saturday, swinging a pair of trades and clearing some much-needed salary cap space.

Goalie Steve Mason and forward Joel Armia were dealt to the Montreal Canadiens in the morning, along with a 7th round pick in the 2019 draft and a 4th round pick in the 2020 draft. In exchange, the Jets get defenceman Simon Bourque while clearing more than $5 million off their books.

Montreal then promptly announced they were placing Mason on waivers for the purpose of buying out his contract. That will make him an unrestricted free agent as of Sunday. Buying out Mason was not a sensible option for the Jets, as doing so still requires a portion of his salary to count against the cap. By moving him to Montreal, the Canadiens are now absorbing all of that.

And that opens the door for the Jets to take a legitimate run at re-signing veteran centre Paul Stastny. It’s no secret there is mutual interest from both parties, but finding a way to make it happen under the cap was always going to be a challenge. Suddenly that window of opportunity just got a whole lot bigger.

No news had been announced on that front by late Saturday afternoon, with the clock ticking towards the start of free agency on Sunday.

Mason, 30, was set to make $4.1 million next season, while Armia, 25, was a pending restricted free agent who made $925,000 and was due for a raise.

Moving Mason now means the Jets will be in the market come July 1 for a less-expensive free agent backup to Connor Hellebuyck. With Mason gone, the Jets are suddenly quite thin in terms of organizational depth in net, especially since they allowed goalie Jamie Phillips to move on earlier this week by not qualifying him, and are not expected to re-sign pending UFA Michael Hutchinson.

That means Eric Comrie and rookie Mikhail Berdin are suddenly No. 2 and No. 3 on the depth chart. For now, anyways. Expect a veteran puck stopper to be signed in the next day or two.

Mason struggled to carve out a role last year with the Jets, suffering numerous injuries and appearing in just 13 games. He went 5-6-1 with a 3.24 GAA and .906 SV%. Armia is coming off a career year in terms of offence, scoring 12 goals and adding 17 assists in 79 regular-season games. He also had two goals in 13 playoff games. Winnipeg had acquired Armia in 2015 as part of the multi-player trade with Buffalo that sent Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian to the Sabres.

Montreal was clearly targeting Armia but had to agree to take on Mason’s salary in order to get him. The draft picks thrown in by Winnipeg were meant to sweeten the pot.

Bourque, the player coming back to Winnipeg, is considered AHL depth. The 21-year-old left-shooting defenceman had three assists in 46 games with Montreal’s farm team in Laval last season. That was his rookie campaign after several years in the QMJHL with Rimouski and Saint John. He was a 6th round pick, 177th overall, by Montreal in the 2015 draft.

In a separate move Saturday afternoon, the Jets shipped forward Chase De Leo to Anaheim in exchange for forward Nic Kerdiles.

De Leo, 22, is a California native who was picked in the 4th round by the Jets in the 2014 draft. He had 12 goals and 23 assists in 69 games with the Manitoba Moose last season. De Leo was getting lost in the shuffle of a relatively deep pool of prospects at forward and appeared in just two NHL games with the Jets, both in the 2015-16 season.

Kerdiles, 24, had 15 goals and 19 assists in 49 AHL games last season with the San Diego Gulls. He also skated in two NHL games with the Ducks.

Both De Leo and Kerdiles are pending restricted free agents who need new contracts this summer. This move essentially gives both of them a fresh start in a new organization, and allows De Leo to play close to home.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg