Cole Perfetti signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. It has an average annual value of $3.25 million.
The 22-year-old forward was a restricted free agent and had been absent from training camp, which opened Thursday. He set NHL career highs in goals (19) and points (38) in 71 games last season.
“It’s nice to get that done," Perfetti said Tuesday. "It’s nice to be back in camp and with the guys. ... Now it’s just time to focus on hockey, so it’s a great feeling.
"I think obviously it’s the business and my first time through it all, so I was kind of learning as we went along. I think just trying to find a number that’s going to work for both sides, that both sides are happy, I think we found that.”
Despite putting up career numbers last season, Perfetti said he has something to prove after having one goal and two assists during a 26-game stretch from Jan. 11-March 26.
“Obviously, I wasn’t too pleased with how it went personally for me down the stretch," he said. "Last year, all things considered, was still a pretty decent year. I started off really strong and proved that I can produce in this league. Obviously it didn’t go like that the whole year, but I’m just going to use that as motivation, take the good from it and take the learning curve and try to be the best that I can be.
"I’m trying to get better every day and take what happened last year and just build off it and just try to be the best player.”
Selected by Winnipeg with the No. 10 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Perfetti has 75 points (29 goals, 46 assists) in 140 regular-season games, and no points in one Stanley Cup Playoff game.
Jets first-year coach Scott Arniel said the lines of communication were open with Perfetti throughout the summer.
"He’s called me a couple of times with questions," Arniel said. "It was just more building off last year. ... he put together a real good, solid season and he’s got to back that up again and be consistent and do that on a nightly basis.
"I think he recognizes now how he needs to play. He knows now that he's facing the other teams’ top defensemen and their top forwards. Whether it’s with the puck or without it, he has to do things in a quick level, at a high level, and he has the hockey smarts to do that. He’s excited about where he’s going to be.”
Arniel said though Perfetti can play center, the plan is for him to play wing on the second line.
“The hardest part for a centerman in the NHL is that you have to go from your defensive corner -- you’re in the battle and 90 percent of the time, you’re the low forward -- and you’ve got to get up out of the hole and get into the rush and get to the other end of the rink on the offense," Arniel said. "And he showed last year playing on the wing, I thought he was real good. He can play both left and right side.
"He was actually good on the walls. It kind of got the puck in his hands a lot because he wasn’t coming out of the hole from the corners. He was actually getting the puck either first or second touch, and now, he’s going from blue line to blue line, being able to make plays that way.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Darrin Bauming contributed to this report
