Record:37-28-6, 80 points
Playoff position:First wild card into Stanley Cup Playoffs from Western Conference, two points ahead of Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks
The outlook for the Winnipeg Jets was not rosy, given the roster turnover at defenseman, but they have remained in or near a playoff position all season.
Jacob Trouba was traded (New York Rangers), Tyler Myers (Vancouver Canucks) and Ben Chiarot (Montreal Canadiens) signed elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent, and Dustin Byfuglien was granted a personal leave of absence on the eve of training camp.
The Jets had to rely on a revamped group of defensemen led by Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk, who arrived in the Trouba trade. Dylan DeMelo (acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 18), Dmitry Kulikov, Tucker Poolman, Nathan Beaulieu, Luca Sbisa, and Anthony Bitetto have played significant minutes for Winnipeg, which is 10th in the NHL at 2.83 goals allowed per game.
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Some credit for that goes to goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who is 31-21-5 with a 2.57 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and leads the NHL with six shutouts. He has faced the most shots (1,796), has made the second-most starts (56, two behind Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens) and is second in wins (four behind Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning).
Winnipeg went 13-3-2 from Nov. 1-Dec. 10 but sagged to 3-8-1 in January, including five straight losses when injuries began to pile up.
The Jets have lost 324 man-games to injury (which does not include Byfuglien), but when injured players returned in February, including Beaulieu (14 games missed, lower body), Poolman (12 games, lower body), forward Adam Lowry (20 games, upper body) and forwardMathieu Perreault (16 games, upper body), the Jets were 12-5-2 from Feb. 1 until the pause.
Forwards Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor lead the Jets with 73 points each. Scheifele has 29 goals and 44 assists in 71 games and is bidding for a fourth straight season as a point-per-game player. Connor leads the Jets with 38 goals, already his NHL career high and his third straight season with at least 30.