Jets mailbag: Trade talks heating up for the summer

Business is about to pick up when it comes to the Winnipeg Jets.

And our mailbag was once again bursting this month with questions about the hockey club. From Connor Hellebuyck’s future, Shane Doan’s status and potential summer trade targets to the fate of the eighth-overall pick, the possibility of a hometown selection and whether there could be any draft day dealings, you covered a lot of ground.

Hockey writers Ken Wiebe and Mike McIntyre have the answers:

1. Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada says Dylan Larkin won’t be the last American player who won a gold medal in Italy to make a trade demand. Is goalie Connor Hellebuyck a content Jet come fall or are there grumblings that he wants to move on ASAP?? @dasboss_wire

WIEBE: Connor Hellebuyck voiced his displeasure with last season after his exit meeting in April, but there hasn’t been any real fallout on that front since.

Like most Jets fans, Hellebuyck is surely wondering what this off-season is going to bring in terms of roster reinforcements, whether that’s from the upcoming draft, free agency or trades made by Kevin Cheveldayoff. The belief is that Hellebuyck is planning for a redemption tour with the Jets and the reality is that elevating his play is one of the surest ways the organization returns to the playoffs next spring.

Like most Jets fans, Hellebuyck is surely wondering what this off-season is going to bring in terms of roster reinforcements

Of course the environment in front of him needs to improve in order to ensure that happens, but if Hellebuyck is once again a candidate to win his fourth Vezina Trophy, the Jets should at the very least be a bubble team battling for a wild card.

Motivation has never been an issue for Hellebuyck, but his desire to win a Stanley Cup has never been stronger after winning that gold medal for his country in February. If he gets to the point of believing that’s no longer possible in the place he was drafted in the fifth round of 2012, those grumblings could surface and the idea of him spending his entire career with the Jets might see a seismic shift.

What the Quinn Hughes deal and Larkin request have shown is that a player empowerment era could be upon us. Just how wide that movement is something many observers are curious about — and it’s certainly not going to be limited to Winnipeg or the remaining six Canadian teams either.

2. Do you think there’s any chance the Jets make a trade to move up in the first round of the draft and get Manitoban Carson Carels? BRIAN

MCINTYRE: My heart says yes — I would love to see it happen for reasons I’ll explain below — but my head says “probably not.”

I recently spent a full day with Carson and his family on their cattle farm in Cypress River, and all of their eyes lit up when the conversation of potentially being drafted by the Jets was raised by me.

That was a couple weeks before Winnipeg fell from No. 7 to No. 8 in the draft, which lowered the odds of Carels still being available when Kevin Cheveldayoff gets set to make his pick from remote to extremely unlikely.

That’s too bad. Carels is a great kid, and what a story it would be to get a homegrown franchise defenceman in the fold.

It was interesting to hear that the Jets met with Carels last week at the Draft Combine in Buffalo. Teams are generally not looking to waste time at these things, so they obviously had their reasons. Do they really think he could fall? I don’t believe so. So that raises the point in your question, whether they could be looking to move up.

From my perspective, the only reason to pay the price necessary to move up this year would be to draft one of the three top forwards — Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg or Caleb Malhotra. Up front is where Winnipeg’s most pressing need is. Trading up to pick a blue-liner, even one as tantalizing as Carels, would seem like a risky move considering there’s likely going to be a few high-end defencemen still on the board at No. 8.

It’s certainly an intriguing storyline to follow leading up to draft night.

3. Multiple teams have indicated they’re willing to move their top-10 pick. Is there a pathway towards the Jets acquiring a second pick in the top-10 without giving up eighth overall? There isn’t an ‘elite’ prospect in this draft but the first 11 or 12 picks will yield a very good prospect that will almost certainly factor into the top of the roster at the NHL level. I’m not really interested in spending premiere assets to move up because I don’t believe there’s enough difference between Alberts Smits, Viggio Bjorck or Tynan Lawrence and say Chase Reid or Carson Carels, but if we can get another top-10 pick I think that this is a great time to do it with so many teams looking to get better now. MATT

WIEBE: I will apologize in advance, but I remain skeptical that these picks are actually available.

Sure, anything is available for the right price but the price of acquiring a Top-10 or Top-5 pick is exorbitant — and I don’t expect that to change.

In saying that, the fact the Florida Panthers are choosing ninth overall could complicate matters when you consider they’re a win-now team with two recent Stanley Cups (2024 and 2025) that is a candidate to be more aggressive than some of the teams like the San Jose Sharks (second overall) or the Chicago Blackhawks (fourth overall).

For as much as Mike Grier or Kyle Davidson would like to hit fast forward and accelerate the next steps forward, the chance to grab another impact player on an entry-level deal is only going to improve their respective rosters in both the short and long term.

I certainly don’t see Morrissey being on the move this summer

To answer your original question, it’s hard to envision a scenario where the Jets could move up to either second or fourth overall without including Connor Hellebuyck or defenceman Josh Morrissey in the deal and that would be a massive blockbuster. I certainly don’t see Morrissey being on the move this summer and it still seems unlikely the Jets are going to be seriously entertaining offers for their franchise netminder either. That’s the level of player that those teams are likely asking for in order to move into either the Top-5 or the Top-10.

4. Is there any confirmation on Shane Doan signing in Winnipeg either as a new GM or assistant yet? And is he or will he be hired to fill Chevy’s position in the next year or two and will Chevy move up to vice president of hockey for the Jets. @C4RM4N73

MCINTYRE: Nothing yet on a situation that continues to simmer in the background.

I am intrigued by the prospect of bringing Doan into the organization — and not because it’s a cool story given his 1.0 roots. Doan is viewed as a rising star in the NHL executive ranks, and I think he might be able to bring a fresh voice and some much-needed new perspectives to an organization that has been remarkably stable (and small) over the years.

My belief is Doan would be targeted for an assistant GM position

The fact the Jets are entertaining the thought of hiring Doan suggests they’re willing to at least tweak their approach, which I think is a good idea.

My belief is Doan would be targeted for an assistant GM position, perhaps with the idea of eventually moving up the ranks. Although there’s nothing to indicate Cheveldayoff is going to be moving on — either by force or by choice — that’s going to happen at some point.

A succession plan is certainly not the worst idea. Whether that could be Doan, or someone else, remains to be seen.

5. What are the chances the Jets trade their 1st round pick for someone who can play in the lineup next season? @NHLTradeAlert

WIEBE: To me, the answer to this question still falls under the category of unlikely (though technically not impossible).

Sure, the full value of that eighth overall pick doesn’t fully resonate with the core group, unless that player earns a roster spot this fall, but the job of the organization is to make the decision that makes the most sense for both the present and the future — not just the present.

So unless Cheveldayoff is blown away by an offer, the expectation is that the pick will be made at eight.

For the sake of providing some additional context, a Top-10 pick has only been moved 11 times in the salary cap era, according to an article by Daily Faceoff. One of the memorable deals for a high first-rounder has a local connection, as former Manitoba Moose netminder Cory Schneider was traded by the Vancouver Canucks to the New Jersey Devils for the ninth overall pick in 2013. That cleared a path to Schneider becoming a No. 1 goalie and with the draft pick, the Canucks used the pick to choose centre Bo Horvat, who eventually became the team captain until he was dealt to the New York Islanders.

More recently, the Ottawa Senators sent the seventh overall pick in 2022, a 2024 second-rounder and a 2024 third-rounder to the Blackhawks for high-scoring winger Alex DeBrincat. This deal also represents the last time a Top-10 pick was moved on draft day.

6. With players opting to play in US colleges from juniors, will that give them more leverage to pick the NHL team they can go to when drafted? ‪@buffin65.bsky.social

MCINTYRE: There’s no question college kids seemingly have all the power these days. We’ve seen that up close here in Winnipeg with regards to Rutger McGroarty, and similar scenarios have played out in other organizations (Cutter Gauthier being the most high-profile example).

So, yes, on the surface, this would seem to give them more leverage. Teams, especially once like the Jets, are likely to be more gun shy than ever to pull the trigger on drafting a college player, especially if they are of American descent.

Gavin McKenna, for example, likely wants to jump right into the NHL next year

Still, I don’t see it as risky when the player is viewed as a can’t miss, nearly NHL-ready prospect. It’s simply not in their best interests.

Gavin McKenna, for example, likely wants to jump right into the NHL next year. He’s probably not wanting to play the long game of staying in college for a few more seasons, refusing to sign with the team that drafts him and forcing them to either trade him or let him become a free agent.

But for players who are going to need some more development time? Absolutely, especially ones are who are late-bloomers and might suddenly have a market for their services they weren’t originally sure might exist. A little patience might eventually pay off for them — and cause some pain to the team that ultimately wasted a draft pick on them.

7. With the upcoming draft almost here, what importance is it of drafting by positional need as opposed to best available? I would prefer 1) centre and 2) right-hand D-man as priorities. Saying we can trade for positional need after drafting the best position available seems like it doesn’t go so well for the Jets, given all of the no-movement clauses. VERN

WIEBE: The Jets have been vocal about not drafting by passport in the past and like most NHL teams, they lean into the idea of choosing the best player available because depth charts can change by the time those players are ready to graduate to the pro level and eventually make it to the NHL.

Given where the Jets are, as a team with its key core players ranging in age between 29 to 33, the philosophy could be tested somewhat later this month when you consider they hold a Top-10 pick for the first time since Cole Perfetti went 10th in 2020.

Since the Jets currently hold the eighth selection, one might argue it’s the best chance to attack the aforementioned second-line centre job. Depending on what happens in the first seven picks, it just might be. The emergence of Viggio Bjorck makes it possible that the Jets do just that, provided he’s still on the board. Never mind the five-foot-nine, 180 pound frame, Bjorck is a tenacious player that isn’t going to let size prevent him from being an impactful player — and that was evident at the recent IIHF men’s world championship.

If Bjorck is picked earlier, the Jets figure to have one of the top-ranked blue-liners in this range, including a right-handed shot in Prince Albert Raiders D Daxon Rudolph, who recently made it to the WHL championship final and enjoyed a prolific offensive season. As for the left-handed D, Latvian Alberts Smits and Malte Gustafsson also project to be top-four calibre players.

So even though the right side might need a boost when you consider lefties like Sascha Boumedienne and Alfons Freij are in the system, handedness won’t likely be a distinguishing characteristic that gets a ton of consideration here either.

As for additional centres, Tynan Lawrence is an intriguing option, but eighth overall seems a bit high for him to go. Chances are high the Jets will stick to the best player available mantra, especially when you consider the long-term ramifications.

8. What do you think it would take to get Shane Pinto out of Ottawa?? A top candidate for our 2nd line centre position? Coming here, he moves up a line and more opportunity for offense,potential top line centre in a couple years. VERN

MCINTYRE: Shane Pinto is an interesting player. He’s 25, locked up for four more years at a fairly reasonable US$7.5 million, yet might be miscast a bit as a third-line centre with the Senators behind Tim Stutzle and Dylan Cozens, who would seem to have the top six locked down for years to come.

Might Ottawa be looking to shake up its core — not unlike Winnipeg — by making a deal from what they view as a position of strength to shore up another area? It’s certainly worth exploring if you’re the Jets, for the reasons mentioned above.

Ottawa is essentially entering “win now” mode in an extremely difficult division, so I doubt they are interested in any type of futures (such as the eighth overall pick, for example, unless they were to flip it for something else).

I’d have to think Cole Perfetti would be an obvious part of any return, but I’d imagine the Senators would want something else to balance the scales in their eyes, especially when trading a young centre for a young winger.

Pinto is coming off his best offensive season with 46 points (23 goals, 23 assists) in 72 games. Perfetti’s best year so far was 2024-25 when he had 50 points (18G, 32A) in 82 games.

Their career numbers are very close, too — Pinto, who is from New York, has 153 points (74G, 79A) in 282 games. Perfetti, who is from Ontario, has 157 points (59G, 98A) in 290 games

9. With the seemingly impossible task of finding a scoring or elite defensive 2C, who would be some middle-6 types of players that the Jets could target (either in trade or free agency) in order to bring them back to the suffocating type of team play they had two seasons ago? LEE

WIEBE: It’s another off-season where the Jets will be looking to upgrade their depth down the middle and what that looks like remains to be seen.

Lowry, who turned 33 in late march, is a good bet for a bounceback season

In watching what Jordan Staal is doing for the Carolina Hurricanes during these Stanley Cup playoffs at the age of 37, it should provide ample hope that Jets captain Adam Lowry could return to the form that made him a dominant shutdown centre that can chip in offensively. Lowry, who turned 33 in late March, is a good bet for a bounceback season and one of the ways to improve the efficiency of that checking line is to put Morgan Barron on the wing beside him. It’s easy to envision Barron playing a similar role to what Jordin Martinook plays alongside Staal. Even though Barron has done a great job as the 4C, he can contribute more by being given an enhanced role.

Now, that still means the Jets are going to need to add some two-way players that can produce. For me, the guy at the top of that list is pending unrestricted free agent winger Bobby McMann — the former Maple Leaf who was a fantastic fit with the Seattle Kraken. Now, given the shallower pool of top free agents, it probably means raising the offer and providing an extra year of term on the contract offer to McMann, who will certainly attract a number of suitors given his scoring potential and feisty style of play.

Another player who has my attention is Ducks pivot Mason McTavish, who was the third overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. McTavish saw his offensive numbers dip to 17 goals and 41 points in 75 games last season and he was a healthy scratch on multiple occasions during the playoffs. McTavish’s underlying numbers weren’t great either, but he’s someone who might benefit from a change of scenery. He would bring cost control to a critical position as he’s about to enter the second year of the six-year pact he signed last fall that carries an annual average value of US$7 million.

McTavish’s underlying numbers weren’t great either, but he’s someone who might benefit from a change of scenery

McTavish doesn’t have trade protection either, so that’s not a hurdle the Jets would have to overcome. Now, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek isn’t going to give McTavish away and the cost of acquisition would still be relatively high. I don’t see the eighth overall pick being in play here for either team, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the Ducks asked for pending restricted free agent forward Cole Perfetti, who is also a Top-10 pick. I see Perfetti as an important piece of the next core for the Jets and a prime candidate for a 55-65 point season if he can stay healthy, but it will be interesting to monitor how his contract negotiations go and if McTavish ends up being a target or not this summer.

Another guy I could see on the Jets’ radar is Utah Mammoth centre Barrett Hayton, who plays a steady two-way game but might be pushed by some of the prospects in their system like Caleb Desnoyers and Tij Iginla that are ready to compete for the spots down the middle behind Logan Cooley and Nick Schmaltz.

10. What does the organization think of the fact that for the first time in ages, there seem to be a dozen high-end centre options available via trade, but they all have movement protection and are almost certainly unavailable to the Jets who seem to have spent the last several years acquiring assets specifically so they could sell the farm to get a premiere centre. MATT

MCINTYRE: A dozen? I’m not so sure about that.

There are certainly a few names out there, but we can immediately cross Dylan Larkin off the list. And the Jets have company, as it sounds like 27 other NHL teams are on his “no way” list as well.

Robert Thomas was rumoured to be on the market, but recent reports out of St. Louis suggests he’s staying put. So what does that leave?

Vincent Trocheck, 32, who can submit a 10-team no-trade list as of July 1 (and 12 teams prior to that). Are the Jets on it? Perhaps.

Mason McTavish, 23, has no trade protection.

And unless I’m missing someone here, that’s about it when it comes to rumoured trades.

As for free agency, will the Jets run into some centres they might want to bring here who balk? That’s certainly possible.

Among the established names available: Claude Giroux, 38; Adam Henrique, 36; Anders Lee, 35; Erik Haula, 35; Noel Acciari, 34; Kevin Hayes, 34; Calle Jarnkrok, 34; Boone Jenner, 32; Scott Laughton, 32; Colton Sissons, 32; Teddy Blueger, 31; Oskar Sundqvist, 32; Jason Dickinson, 30; Sam Lafferty, 31; Alexander Kerfoot, 31; David Kampf, 31; Danton Heinen, 30; Jack Roslovic, 29; and Kevin Stenlund, 29.

Do many/any of those move the needle in a big way? This is certainly not a bumper crop when it comes to unrestricted free agent centres, with the increasing cap allowing more teams to wrap up their own players.

11. Would be interested in your views on Kevin Cheveldayoff’s seemingly unshakeable belief in a core that has accomplished very little playoff success over many years. Is it truly confidence or fear of a rebuild? @Real_Bee_Tee

WIEBE: That unshakeable belief has been a topic of numerous stories going back to 2018 and will continue to be a point of debate until further success is achieved or the core either ages out or moves on to other organizations via trade.

The Jets are one season removed from the best regular season they’ve had since the franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011, but that success didn’t lead to a lengthy playoff run and was followed up by a season of disappointment. The core four: goalie Connor Hellebuyck, defenceman Josh Morrissey and forwards Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor have supplied plenty of reasons for confidence on an individual basis and getting each of those players to commit for the long term was an accomplishment in and of itself.

The Jets are one season removed from the best regular season they’ve had since the franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011

Connor Hellebuyck has won three Vezina Trophies and a Hart Trophy as the league MVP and during his decade-plus career with the club he’s been viewed as one of the best goalies in the world.

Morrissey had three consecutive seasons of being right in the thick of the Norris Trophy discussion, a streak that was interrupted by injury this season.

Scheifele is coming off the most productive campaign of his career — eclipsing 100 points for the first time (with 103), while Connor has delivered consecutive 90-plus point seasons during the past two years.

Those are four franchise pillars, all of whom are still performing at a high level — even if Hellebuyck’s numbers took a dip as the defensive metrics got worse in front of him.

The issue that had the biggest impact during the falloff this past season was that the Jets simply had too many players beyond the core that took a big step backwards in regards to their contributions. Sure, there were steps taken forward by Morgan Barron (who set a career high for goals and points before his season-ending lower-body injury), but the Jets depth that was such a strength during the Presidents’ Trophy winning season simply wasn’t there in 2025-26.

The Jets need more from several internal candidates to regroup next season and also need to upgrade the roster this summer if they want to get back into the playoff mix, let alone add to the four playoff series wins they’ve earned in 15 seasons.

Job security hasn’t been an issue for Cheveldayoff

Job security hasn’t been an issue for Cheveldayoff, so I don’t believe fear factors into the decision at all. Although it wasn’t necessarily viewed as a full rebuild in 2016, the Jets took a clear step back after getting swept by the Ducks in 2015 but their reward for the non-playoff season that followed was moving up to second overall in the NHL Draft lottery and that allowed them to select Patrik Laine. But as has been mentioned in this space before, I don’t see a scorched earth rebuild as a viable pathway forward for the Jets.

It’s convenient to champion the benefits of losing for multiple seasons to accrue Top-5 picks when you see the run the Montreal Canadiens made this spring to the Eastern Conference final and when you see some of the other teams on the rise. But I remind you that this marked the first season the Buffalo Sabres were back in the Stanley Cup playoffs since the Jets returned to the NHL. There have been a lot of dark days for Buffalo since that last appearance in the spring of 2011.

12. Will the Jets ever be a cap team again? @wpgtiger

MCINTYRE: A great question. My answer: Likely not.

It’s not because True North has become cheap. They’ve repeatedly spent to the cap, especially when the championship window has been seen as wide open.

No, the problem now is how rapidly the salary cap is rising — and in U.S. dollars, to boot, making it an even more daunting issue for Canadian teams.

It’s probably never going to reach the levels we see in MLB, with a clear divide between the haves and the have-nots, but there’s no question the potential for a few different tiers of spending may soon exist in the NHL.

That’s certainly a storyline to watch here in Winnipeg, where the desire to fill the downtown rink as close to capacity on a nightly basis may take on even greater urgency — while spending potentially millions less than your closest competitors might make it even more difficult to win back lost fans by building a championship team.

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