Inside look at Winnipeg Jets

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Winnipeg Jets.

The Winnipeg Jets feel they are heading in the right direction despite an early exit from the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Jets equaled the winningest season in their history in 2023-24, finishing 52-24-6 to match their victory total in 2017-18, but were not able to parlay that into postseason success, losing to the Colorado Avalanche in five games in the Western Conference First Round.

They hope to remedy that this season under new coach Scott Arniel, hired May 24 to replace Rick Bowness, who retired May 6. Arniel was Winnipeg's associate coach the past two seasons.

“We’re excited about Scott Arniel coming in and getting a chance to be the head coach here,” Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said. “He’s developed a great relationship with a lot of the players on the team. We added several new assistant coaches that will have specialties in the power play and the penalty kill, but there’s a lot of the same in some respects, because we really didn’t want to change what we had.”

Cheveldayoff said he wanted to maintain continuity after a successful regular season.

“It’s not like we fired a coach and needed to switch the pendulum from one side to the other so to speak,” Cheveldayoff said. “With ‘Bones’ [Bowness] retiring, it was a great natural progression for ‘Arnie’ [Arniel]. Having said that, he had to earn that right and went through a different kind of interview process that we did with ‘Bones,’ but we went through an interview process. Arnie had the lead because of all the relationships he had built, so we’re excited about that.”

Arniel inherits a talented roster led by center Mark Scheifele and forwards Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Nino Niederreiter. On defense, Winnipeg returns Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk and Dylan DeMelo. Connor Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina Trophy Award winner voted as the top goalie in the NHL, heads into the first season of a seven-year, $59.5 million contract ($8.5 million average annual value) signed Oct. 9, 2023.

“We were in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy so if you look at the whole year, I think we made some great progress," Niederreiter said during the NHL European Player Media Tour on Aug. 21. “And I think we had a good team and whenever you have a chance to reach 100 points it’s good, because it’s really hard to do.

“When it comes to playoffs, our first-round opponent was either Vegas [Golden Knights] Dallas [Stars] or Colorado [Avalanche] and that’s a tough matchup. Now it’s a matter of how can we get over that hump.”

The Jets did lose unrestricted free agent forwards Sean Monahan (five years, $27 million with Columbus Blue Jackets) and Tyler Toffoli (four years, $24 million with the San Jose Sharks), and will look to make up the lost offense by committee.

“What we did (last) year was special,” Arniel said at his introductory media availability. “Two years ago, we started to build a foundation on how we wanted to look and how we wanted to play, how we wanted to go about our daily business and this year a lot of it came to the forefront. We had 52 wins, 110 points, which is obviously a great accomplishment in this league, but it’s something that we need to strive for every year. We want to be an elite team always.”

Winnipeg has qualified for the playoffs in six of the past seven seasons and built the core of its roster through drafting and development, which has proven a successful model.

A year ago, with Scheifele and Hellebuyck each heading toward unrestricted free agency, it was unknown whether the Jets would be able to keep their competitive window open. However, Scheifele signed an identical seven-year, $59.5 million contract ($8.5 million AAV) to Hellebuyck on Oct. 9, 2023, keeping the two cornerstones of the team in Winnipeg and setting the direction for the franchise.

“We have a core of players that have developed together and one thing that is abundantly clear is they want to win together and that’s a good thing,” Cheveldayoff said. “Last year going into training camp, there was lot of uncertainty about Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck, but we were fortunate to be able to lock up two key pillars of our organization and we can build off that.”