Jets bring back familiar faces in free agency

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/07/2023 (803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets went free agent shopping on Saturday and ended up strolling down a rather familiar aisle.

Goaltender Laurent Brossoit and forward Vladislav Namestnikov will feel right at home after signing deals to rejoin the organization.

“I think it was a good day,” general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said at an afternoon news conference. “It’s been a busy period of time here and I thought today went well for us.”

Brossoit previously spent three years with the Jets and comes back to town as Stanley Cup champion, having spent the past two seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights. He’ll earn US $1.75 million on a one-year deal.

The 30-year-old British Columbia product helped lead the team to a first-round playoff victory over Winnipeg this past spring — you may recall 15,000 fans at Canada Life Centre chanting “You’re a backup” at him during Games 3 and 4 — only to suffer a serious groin injury in the second round against the Edmonton Oilers which ended his season.

“I thought (goalie coach) Wade Flaherty did a great job in helping him grow. He went off to another situation for a period of time. But the opportunity to come back and work with (Connor) Hellebuyck was something that appealed to LB as well,” said Cheveldayoff.

“I think they’ll be a good tandem. LB has grown in the goaltending department as well. He’s a different goaltender than he was when he was here the first time, which is going to benefit the organization.”

Namestnikov, 30, signed a two-year contract with Winnipeg which will pay him US $2 million per season. The Jets obtained him from the San Jose Sharks at the trade deadline last year in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick. The Russian product had 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 20 games with the Jets, both as a winger and a centre.

“We’ve been in constant contact with Vladdy’s camp over the course of the summer and wanted to make sure that was something we stayed close on and hopefully we could do,” said Cheveldayoff.

He gives the Jets plenty of versatility up front along with forwards Gabe Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari who were obtained last week from the Los Angeles Kings in return for Pierre-Luc Dubois.

“Obviously we made the trade that acquired some additional forwards within the line-up so we had to kind of take a step back and adjust as to how things would fit,” said Cheveldayoff. “But ultimately we took a good hard look at it today and said ‘let’s get at this.’ Vladdy was awesome and he’s excited to be back.”

It wasn’t clear how aggressive Winnipeg would be as July 1 free agency began, with Hellebuyck and top centre Mark Scheifele both about to enter the final year of their contracts. There has been plenty of buzz the Jets will have to trade them this summer if long-term extensions aren’t signed.

Cheveldayoff didn’t close the door on anything Saturday.

“It’s something I’m definitely comfortable with,” Cheveldayoff said when asked about the prospect of heading into next year with both players still on the roster but no new contracts in place, increasing the risk of potentially seeing them walk for nothing in free agency next summer.

“I don’t think the door is closed for an extension. I still think there’s opportunities for extension.”

Winnipeg also signed free agent goaltender Collin Delia as added depth on Saturday. The 29-year-old from California will be paid the league minimum of US $775,000. He spent last year with the Vancouver Canucks organization, splitting games between the NHL and AHL.

For his career, Delia has appeared in 52 big-league games with a 19-18-7 record, a 3.51 goals against average and .897 save percentage.

Winnipeg began the day with just two goaltenders under contract in Hellebuyck and Oskari Salminen, who played with the Manitoba Moose last season. There’s a good chance Delia joins Salminen on the farm team, assuming Hellebuyck remains in Winnipeg to pair with Brossoit.

The Jets also have 20-year-old Thomas Milic, the reigning Western Hockey League goaltender of the year, who they drafted in the fifth round last week. He’s expected to turn pro immediately and could be an option for the Moose or, perhaps, the ECHL to start.

Winnipeg made a fourth and final move on Saturday, signing rugged forward Jeffrey Viel to a one-year contract worth US $775,000.

The former Memorial Cup champion and All-Star (2018, Acadie-Bathurst) has spent the past five years in the Sharks organization. He’s appeared in 49 NHL games (three goals, two assists, 139 penalty minutes) and 212 AHL games (45 goals, 48 assists, 398 penalty minutes).

“He is someone we’ve talked to San Jose about several times before in the past. It didn’t work out when he was on waivers at different points in time,” said Cheveldayoff.

“He brings an element of hard-nosed grit and sandpaper, good size, and energy that you want on the bottom side of your line-up.”

Cheveldayoff was asked if the Jets might make any other free agent signings in the days ahead.

“There might be a couple things we’re still kicking around. There was some intriguing things that we’ve talked about. We’ll see how things come together,’ said Cheveldayoff.

Winnipeg also has six restricted free agents still to be signed this summer – Vilardi, Kupari, Morgan, Dylan Samberg, Logan Stanley and Declan Chisholm.

“You have those things to take care of and once you go through all that, we’re going to be pretty tight to the cap,” said Cheveldayoff. “But that’s the reality. That’s what we’ve always committed to. So we’ll see, but there might be some other depth things we’ll talk about doing or some tweaks around the side.”

Cheveldayoff said there could also be some future moves coming with regards to a fairly crowded blue-line, especially with young players like Chisholm and Ville Heinola pushing for regular work with the big club.

“We’ve had conversations. We’ve talked about a lot of different scenarios, talked to a lot of different teams,” he said.

“The dust will settle here and we will see what happens, whether the interest level in some of the guys we’ve talked to different teams about increases, decreases, stays the same. That’s a good situation to be in.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg