Latest news with #NikolajEhlers
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CONFIRMED: 2029 IIHF World Championship Goes To Slovakia
At its annual congress in Stockholm on Friday, the IIHF awarded the 2029 World Championship to Slovakia – specifically Bratislava and Košice. According to the website of the Slovak Ice Hockey Association, 99 percent of the delegates at the congress approved the bid from Slovakia. Exact figures are not yet known. As far back as February, the 2029 Worlds going to Slovakia was a near certainty as it was the only remaining applicant to host. Previously, there had also been applications from Hungary and Great Britain, which both withdrew, although both countries have expressed interest in hosting at some point in the future. Advertisement An obstacle for both Hungary and Great Britain is that neither country plays in the top division frequently enough for one to be confident that they would qualify for the 2029 World Championship on their own merits. A host country automatically qualifies but the IIHF tries to avoid that situation – the last time it became an issue was 2010, when host Germany played (and finished fourth) despite its 15th-place finish in 2009, which should have relegated the Germans. At this year's Worlds, France was relegated and will play next year in Division I Group A, although France is already qualified for the 2028 World Championship as host. Bratislava and Košice have already co-hosted the IIHF World Championships in 2011 and 2019 at Ondrej Nepala Arena and Steel Arena. Previously, Bratislava also co-hosted the Worlds in 1959 and 1992 as part of Czechoslovakia. With the awarding of the 2029 tournament, the hosts of the next four elite-level World Championships are now known: Advertisement 2026 – Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland 2027 – Düsseldorf and Mannheim, Germany 2028 – Paris and Lyon, France 2029 – Bratislava and Košice, Slovakia Photo © George Walker IV-Imagn Images Nikolaj Ehlers: Denmark Beating Canada 'One Of The Biggest Things I've Done In My Career' Nikolaj Ehlers: Denmark Beating Canada 'One Of The Biggest Things I've Done In My Career' 'I don't have any words for this,' Nikolaj Ehlers said after the game, almost in disbelief. 'To beat Canada at home and go through is one of the biggest things I've done in my career, so it's amazing.'
New York Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
What would it take to put the Winnipeg Jets over the top? 5 potential paths
The Winnipeg Jets' season was spectacular but it ended in Round 2. The Jets won the Presidents' Trophy and have finalists for the top goaltender, most valuable player, coach of the year and GM of the year awards. They are a good hockey team and should remain one, with or without Nikolaj Ehlers, but there is also an enormous question facing them in the years ahead. Advertisement How do the Winnipeg Jets get over the top? What can they realistically do to augment the group that beat the St. Louis Blues in seven games and then lost to the Dallas Stars in six? There's no Connor McDavid, Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini on the way. The Jets are too good to pick No. 1 and are on track to avoid the top 10 for years to come. Top UFA targets like Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad are unlikely acquisitions, too; even with stable ownership, cap space to burn and a Stanley Cup-contending roster, the Jets have never been a top UFA destination. It's remarkable, then, that the Jets finished No. 1 in the regular season standings at all. They're Cup contenders, pending Ehlers' future (or their attempt at his replacement) and they've done it through a combination of savvy trades and by developing their own players — despite trading away a ton of draft capital in the name of winning. In this way, the Jets' poor UFA track record hurts them twice — by keeping top end talent out of Winnipeg on July 1 and by incentivizing trading first-round picks in search of No. 2 centres. That said, it also helps them by keeping Winnipeg away from albatross UFA contracts. But this isn't a case of a team running roughshod over the NHL, making it to the Stanley Cup Final and getting beaten by a fluke in Game 7 OT. The Jets are doing their best to maximize every avenue of talent acquisition and haven't made it as far as the third round since the Vegas Golden Knights beat them in 2018. That team believed it had the cavalry coming in the form of top young players maturing into bigger roles. This one is led by Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey — all on the wrong side of 30. The window to win depends on that trio maintaining elite performance before inevitable age-related decline. Elias Salomonsson, Brayden Yager and Brad Lambert are good prospects but don't match the superstar potential of 2011-2016 first-round picks Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor, Ehlers, Morrissey, Jacob Trouba and Scheifele. Advertisement So how do the Jets maximize this window? What can they do to take the next step in the playoffs before it's too late? These are bigger questions than typically get asked of first-place teams, but the urgency is real. The Jets' best players are still great but on the downswing of their aging curves. The next wave — Dylan Samberg, Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Perfetti — is entering its prime. What could come next that would lead Winnipeg to the Stanley Cup? This section is up there with 'draft Connor McDavid' as far as helpfulness goes, but there is a common thread that connects most of Winnipeg's recent trade targets. Whether it's Brandon Tanev, Luke Schenn, Alex Iafallo, Vladislav Namestnikov or Nino Niederreiter, the Jets have clearly tried to supplement their stars with players who are a pain to play against. Ideally, Winnipeg's star players would be a pain to play against in their own right. It's just not realistic to expect Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi to play on the edge like Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett or Brad Marchand do. The Panthers didn't draft any of those players, nor did they draft Sam Reinhart, but they've been aggressive on the trade front, putting themselves first in line whenever a highly talented, playoff-ready curmudgeon becomes available. It's not Niederreiter or Namestnikov's fault they're not Tkachuk, but there's clearly a difference in outcomes when the truculence comes attached to a point-per-game star player. Winnipeg's solution may be to identify targets who are closer to the middle class — more impactful than Tanev or Namestnikov, more likely to be available than Tkachuk. Andrew Mangiapane is a pending UFA, for example. Tanner Jeannot was once thought to have offence in his game. As rare as it may be for a Tkachuk, Marchand or Tom Wilson-type player to become available, they could certainly add a valuable dynamic to the Jets. Dustin Byfuglien was perhaps even more rare as a defenceman than Matthew Tkachuk is as a forward (and didn't have a heavy-hitting little brother in the league). He's not fair to invoke as a trade target or UFA signing, but useful to us as a symbol. Wouldn't Josh Morrissey have done better than getting outscored 6-2 if he had a massive, mobile, puck-moving force to help him clear the crease and get pucks up ice against St. Louis and Dallas? Advertisement That's the score Winnipeg picked up in the playoffs with the Morrissey/Dylan DeMelo pairing on the ice at five-on-five — a huge disappointment after they'd won their regular season minutes 51-36 while controlling 55 percent of expected goals (via Evolving Hockey). Watching them get pounded on each puck retrieval vs. St. Louis — and then watching Morrissey get hurt, twice — should have been a call to arms for the Jets. They've heavily invested in Morrissey, DeMelo and Neal Pionk and are about to heavily invest in Dylan Samberg. This makes for a smart, talented top four defence corps, but one that's more likely to take punishment than to dole it out. Add that disadvantage to Hellebuyck's woes fighting through traffic (and acknowledge that bigger D-men like Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley didn't help on this front) and the symbol of Byfuglien lives on. Aaron Ekblad isn't quite it, nor is Ekblad a realistic UFA target. Vladislav Gavrikov plays an effective, physical style, but is well-liked in Los Angeles. It's easy to understand why past versions of the Jets were so interested in Jamie Oleksiak, although he's not a top-four solution anymore. Adam Lowry had hip surgery on Tuesday. His recovery is expected to take five to six months, taking until the end of October or November. The Jets needed help at centre before Lowry's surgery and tried to acquire Brock Nelson at the trade deadline. As I wrote in March, the Jets believed they had a deal done for Nelson at that time. There are some wonderful UFAs available, Nelson included, but free agency isn't typically kind to the Jets. They're not going to sign Sam Bennett or John Tavares this offseason, although players of that caliber would clearly go a long way toward putting Winnipeg over the top. Could the Jets trade for a centre instead of signing one? Andrew 'Hustler' Paterson put the idea to me on this week's Winnipeg Sports Talk and it's an easy idea to run with. Winnipeg sent three first-round picks away from 2018 to 2024 for pending UFA centres (Paul Stastny, Kevin Hayes, and Sean Monahan) who signed elsewhere on July 1. It seems as though Nelson may have signed elsewhere even if the Jets had acquired him at this deadline, too. Would it not make sense to trade for a younger centre with years of team control instead of waiting until the trade deadline to go after pending free agents? Let's say the Minnesota Wild put 60-point RFA centre Marco Rossi on the market — a distinct possibility, given the 23-year-old's unhappiness with his usage. It's unlikely that a 5-foot-9, 182-pound centre is the solution to Winnipeg's playoff dreams but Rossi's skill is undeniable and he's not UFA eligible until 2029. Advertisement The example may not be ideal but the concept is strong. The Jets are going to keep throwing assets at their second-line centre hole until the position is filled. A younger option with team control would give Winnipeg long-term stability, while freeing up deadline day assets in the pursuit of other upgrades. Cole Perfetti is alone among current Jets with NHL experience, draft pedigree and enough youth to project a continued upswing. Dylan Samberg and Gabriel Vilardi have established themselves, but they'll each be 26 years old by the start of next season. Logan Stanley just turned 27; the Zdeno Chara dreams are history now. In 2018, the Jets' great hope was that Laine, Ehlers, Connor, Morrissey and Trouba would develop into great players while Blake Wheeler, Scheifele and Byfuglien were still at their peak. It seemed realistic, based on the sheer volume of high draft picks and their early returns: the 2017-18 Jets got more than 100 goals from players who were 21 years old or younger when the season began. Perfetti may strike closer to a point per game — especially if he replaces Nikolaj Ehlers on the first-unit power play — but there's only one of him. Lambert scored seven goals and 35 points in the AHL this year. Yager has yet to play at the AHL or NHL level, while Colby Barlow's playoffs offer long-term hope after a pedestrian 20-year-old season in the OHL. This leaves Winnipeg with two shots at stunning star turns: Perfetti, 23, and Elias Salomonsson, who turns 21 in August. Salomonsson is Samberg-esque in his defensive intelligence, while skating better and achieving elite AHL results at a younger age than Samberg did. That doesn't mean he's a surefire NHL player this season — there isn't a lot of room at right defence — but it bodes well long-term. The Jets' defence corps is all right if Salomonsson peaks early enough and at a high enough level while Morrissey and Samberg are still excelling in their roles. Perfetti took an exciting step forward this season. The Jets would do well to look at a long-term extension this summer before power-play opportunity raises his price for a second time. Ideally Winnipeg would have two or three players in his position — or a lottery pick, which isn't in the cards — or even more promising signs from Lambert, Barlow and Yager relative to their age. This is the easy way out of the thought exercise. One way for Winnipeg to make it to the third and fourth rounds of the playoffs is for Hellebuyck to shake off his recent playoff misery. Hellebuyck could carry the Jets that far himself with a string of performances like Game 2 or Game 5 against Dallas — or, more spectacularly, like Round 1 against the Edmonton Oilers in 2021. Advertisement To watch Hellebuyck get shelled against St. Louis and then start to question himself — just as he did against Colorado last season — is to think Winnipeg needs to do a better job of insulating him from crease-crashing playoff brutality. Hellebuyck has been the best regular-season goalie of the past several years because of his reads and his positioning — but through processing power, not acrobatics. We've seen multiple teams bully the Jets in the slot now, taking Hellebuyck's sightlines away from him such that he's left to scrap for positioning. He's gotten off his game, confessing last year that he tried to put too much on his own shoulders and this year that he started to doubt his own process as the goals piled up. It's a tempting, easy out as far as projecting Winnipeg's success goes. Snap your fingers, give Hellebuyck league-average results, and Winnipeg is dealing with Edmonton in Round 3 right now instead of sorting out its offseason. And it's entirely possible that he gets hot at the right time, or finds a better way to manage net-front chaos against his Central Division rivals. I think the Jets' best play at helping him do that comes in the form of that mythical Byfuglien figure discussed above. In a playoffs where Winnipeg lapped the field in terms of giving up goals on screens, part of the solution must come from Hellebuyck and part of it must come from what happens in front of him.
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Winnipeg Jets prioritize Nikolaj Ehlers choice and long-term contracts for Gabriel Vilardi, Dylan Samberg
Winnipeg Jets (via Getty Images) With the Winnipeg Jets preparing for a decisive 2025 NHL offseason, clarity on forward Nikolaj Ehlers is now the organization's number-one priority. The path of Ehlers' future will heavily dictate the team's direction, particularly with important restricted free agents such as Gabriel Vilardi and Dylan Samberg also needing long-term attention. The Winnipeg Jets seem to have a summer of defining moments that can solidify their Stanley Cup ambitions or set up a window of doubt. Winnipeg Jets' offseason rides on Nikolaj Ehlers, Gabriel Vilardi and Dylan Samberg decisions Will Nikolaj Ehlers stay with the Winnipeg Jets? While the Jets can give Nikolaj Ehlers a contract in the $8.5–$9 million per-year range — on par with forward Mark Scheifele's salary scale — the Danish winger could choose to pursue a different option, with teams such as the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes reportedly watching his situation. Should Nikolaj Ehlers walk, the Jets will need to redirect their cap space strategically. Veterans Brock Boeser and Brock Nelson, who have been on Winnipeg's list in the past, might be targets to add depth up front. Winnipeg has not fared well with unrestricted free agents, so internal development or trade solutions proactively might be more feasible. Winnipeg Jets end of season media availability: Gabriel Vilardi Gabriel Vilardi and Dylan Samberg locked up multi-year deals is the next step that makes sense. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Egypt: New Small Electric Car For Seniors. Prices Might Surprise You. Electric Cars | Search Ads Undo Vilardi, who scored 61 points playing in 71 games last year, might take a short-term contract to wager on a cap boost in the future, while Winnipeg might balance that with his injury history before committing long-term. Samberg, on the other hand, provides stability on defense and adds intangibles with his connections to the local community. At 26 years old and with free agency eligibility in 2026, signing him now might avoid complications next summer. Winnipeg Jets end of season media availability: Dylan Samberg Strategic planning for Kyle Connor and other 2026 free agents Aside from the immediate contract negotiations, Winnipeg also needs to set the foundation for 2026 free agents like Kyle Connor, Adam Lowry, and Cole Perfetti. Connor's extension will be the most expensive and one that will have long-term cap consequences, so early projecting is critical. Perfetti, who can expect a top power-play opportunity soon, might be an astute early extension option before his price goes up. Winnipeg Jets end of season media availability: Kyle Connor Plugging the second-line center position is still a priority The Jets' consistent failure to find a surefire second-line center remains an area of weakness. Previous trade rentals, such as Sean Monahan and Kevin Hayes, haven't panned out in the long term, and the organization can no longer continue to give away first-round draft picks searching for Band-Aids. Internal alternatives such as Brad Lambert and Cole Perfetti have questions around them, so this is a position that might again need outside help—perhaps in free agency, should the right man present himself. Winnipeg Jets need to balance grit and skill for playoff success Rosters like the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers emphasize roster balance between toughness and skill. While additions such as Nino Niederreiter and Alex Iafallo have brought some edge to the Jets, perhaps a physical player or two with scoring potential would serve the team well. Without overcorrecting, the Jets need to keep looking for players who are a combination of intensity and offense. Also read: Nikolaj Ehlers faces a big summer career decision as his current season shows strong form A summer of make-or-break decisions is looming for Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are facing one of their most critical offseasons in recent history. With cap space, a core unit on the verge of contract decisions, and playoff aspirations still within reach, the course the organization takes with Nikolaj Ehlers, Gabriel Vilardi, and Dylan Samberg will dictate the direction for seasons to come. If the Jets can make these moves smartly, they'll be confident Stanley Cup contenders heading into the 2025-26 season, but a wrong move will jeopardize all they've gained. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Winnipeg Jets offseason priorities: Get clarity on Nikolaj Ehlers, seek term with RFAs
The Winnipeg Jets begin the 2025 offseason with a high-profile, homegrown UFA to sign — or an abundance of cap room to go shopping with. Once it has Nikolaj Ehlers' future sorted out, it has Dylan Samberg and Gabriel Vilardi's long-term futures to prioritize. But what next? In what order? How much cap space do the Presidents' Trophy-winning Jets have to work with — and how do Kyle Connor, Adam Lowry, and Winnipeg's other 2026-27 free agents impact what the Jets do this summer? Advertisement This offseason has the power to cement the Jets as perennial contenders, solidifying their roster and addressing their playoff shortcomings — or leave them behind as they take their next steps toward the Stanley Cup. We'll dig deeper into each of these in the coming weeks but for now, here are the Jets' eight biggest offseason priorities: This incomplete version of the 2025-26 Winnipeg Jets would have $26.4 million to work with, highlighting the team's flexibility as the offseason begins. Winnipeg gets out of Blake Wheeler's buyout, leaving only $1.6 million from Nate Schmidt's buyout as dead money on the cap. While there is the potential for upheaval via Nikolaj Ehlers' departure — and Winnipeg's efforts to replace him, if he does sign elsewhere — there's a lot of roster stability on defence and in goal. RFA forwards: Gabriel Vilardi, Morgan Barron, Rasmus Kupari RFA defence: Dylan Samberg How much does $26.4 million get you in 2025? There are still two forward jobs available once Vilardi, Barron, and Kupari have signed. Ehlers could take one, if the Jets do manage to sign him. Perhaps more likely, there is the possibility of signing a centreman — I can't shake Winnipeg's interest in Jonathan Toews, if he's ready — and then promoting whichever of Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, or Parker Ford is most NHL-ready. Samberg's contract would give Winnipeg eight NHL defencemen under contract, necessitating movement. This could be as simple as waiving Ville Heinola at training camp, given how little they used him, or it could involve an offseason transaction that preemptively clears that room. The Jets can afford to sign all three of Ehlers, Vilardi, and Samberg if they make $23 million or less collectively. Winnipeg is not blindsided by Ehlers' UFA uncertainty. Cheveldayoff's two-hour meeting with Ehlers' agent should leave the Jets with clarity on Ehlers' contract hopes — including how likely he is to be a free agent on July 1. It's not that the Jets can't afford to sign Ehlers, mind you: Cheveldayoff said last week that he's prepared to offer Ehlers a 'Jet for life' type of contract. Advertisement How might that look? I believe the Jets could sign Ehlers to big ticket money without upsetting their existing contractual hierarchy. Mark Scheifele is Winnipeg's highest-paid forward, earning $8.5 million per season — 9.66 percent of the 2024-25 cap — but that contract was signed toward the end of the flat cap era. The new $95.5 million cap maximum changes things: the same percentage Scheifele signed for would earn him $9.2 million contract in today's dollars. Put another way: Winnipeg could sign Ehlers to Scheifele's same $8.5 million — or any $8.x million number — without it being a statement that Ehlers is worth more than Scheifele is to the team. It may be that Ehlers is simply prepared to move on. Perhaps he's ready for a new opportunity. His promotion to the Jets' top power play unit helped him play the fourth-most all-situations minutes among Jets forwards this season — closer to his value — but there may be teams that can afford to play him in an even bigger role. New Jersey, Carolina, and Washington come to mind as markets with cap space, ambition, and room for another top winger. (Montreal, a frequent fan-suggested landing spot, won't have the cap room and is already well-stocked in skilled forwards.) If the Jets find themselves without Ehlers, they'll have his $8.x million projected cap hit available to spend on other players. The UFA market hasn't traditionally been kind to Winnipeg but does include players the Jets have been interested in before. There's Brock Nelson, who the Jets worked to acquire at the 2025 deadline, and Brock Boeser, who they were keen to draft in 2015, for starters. There are also players who balance truculence and skill — a combination Winnipeg could use more of — including Sam Bennett, who seems at home in Florida, and Andrew Mangiapane, whose ice time and output dipped in Washington. Advertisement It's hard to know what to project from Toews, if he's healthy enough to play, while equally famous options like John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and Brad Marchand seem like unrealistic points of discussion. The only UFA signings on Winnipeg's everyday roster last season were Eric Comrie and Colin Miller, each of whom had prior experience with the Jets. It's Winnipeg's job to know their options — with Ehlers and without him — and one expects they've been assembling contingency plans for months, if not longer. The sheer size of his potential cap hit makes clarity on Ehlers No. 1 in the order. Samberg is 26 years old; Vilardi turns 26 in August. Winnipeg would do well to sign both players for as many years as they're able to budget, but arbitration rights and the desire to see how the new cap affects UFA prices — plus the outcome of Ehlers' future — could push the timeline deeper into summer. Samberg's case seems like the more straightforward of the two. The Jets defence corps is rock solid with him and Josh Morrissey playing on the left side and problematic without him. Samberg shares his hometown, his agent, and his offseason lake with his defence partner, Neal Pionk, while his wife — Dr. Destiny Samberg — has started her dental practice in Winnipeg. It helps the Jets' case that Samberg has delivered top flight top-four minutes for one season, instead of several, or that the best-in-class shutdown defenceman, Jaccob Slavin, starts his eight year, $6.4 million AAV contract next season. It helps Samberg's case that he's UFA-eligible as soon as 2026 — in fact, all he'd have to do to fast track a Winnipeg departure is file for arbitration, take the one-year award it creates, and then walk next summer. (I don't expect that kind of hardball. If Samberg files for arbitration this summer, I don't expect it will be done with the intention of cutting off long-term contract discussions.) Vilardi's situation is similar to Samberg's: He has arbitration rights and he hit a new plateau last season. Vilardi's earliest UFA eligibility is 2027, though, giving him a few options: While he can't fast-track UFA status by filing for arbitration, he could decide to bet on himself by signing a one year pact. The cap maximum will increase from $95.5 million in 2025-26 to $104 million next season; Vilardi could earn himself a bigger payday just by repeating his 71 game, 61-point season — and more power to him if he continues to improve. Both parties will need to weigh their feelings about Vilardi's injury history. There may be incentive for the player to lock down guaranteed long-term money, despite the opportunity to pursue an 82-game 2025-26 season and improve upon his point totals. There may not be as much incentive for a max term deal on the Jets' part as is typical of a 26-year-old with such a dynamic offensive toolkit. They haven't seen him drive five-on-five play away from Connor and Scheifele and may want to see that happen before committing to a more expensive, long-term contract. Advertisement Given the rising cap and a belief in Samberg and Vilardi as quality players, I expect the Jets' best outcome includes long-term contracts for both players. We'll keep this section short but rest assured: Winnipeg is going to put in long hours this summer to prepare for Kyle Connor, Adam Lowry, and Cole Perfetti's contract extensions. Connor is at the front of that line, given the dollars in play, and his projected contract — which would start in 2026-27 — will impact this summer's long-term thinking. Lowry won't command the same kind of money and may wait until September or beyond to finalize a deal but, like Connor, he's also in line for an extension as soon as July 1. Perfetti's bridge deal is half over and the Jets may do well to sign him long term before he's played a full year on the top power play unit (assuming Ehlers signs elsewhere). It helps that the cap is increasing to $104 million in 2026-27 and that the Jets will be free of Schmidt's buyout by then, too. Rest assured that these future contracts — Connor's in particular — are already part of Winnipeg's thought process. Vladislav Namestnikov is versatile, tenacious, a pain to play against, and a good stylistic complement to Winnipeg's finesse-first forwards. He's not an ideal second-line centre, nor have the Jets treated him as one: Winnipeg traded for Sean Monahan in 2024 and then tried to extend him last summer. It made Nelson their top target at this year's trade deadline, then watched as Nelson arrived at his preferred destination in Colorado. Winnipeg has traded three first-round picks for second line centres that didn't stay in Winnipeg: Paul Stastny (2018), Kevin Hayes (2019), and Monahan (2024). It also traded Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic for Pierre-Luc Dubois, although Dubois' departure worked out in the form of Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a second-round draft pick (Alfons Freij). The asset drain is continuous — and would have continued this year had Winnipeg landed Nelson — and it will continue until the hole is plugged. Vilardi, Perfetti, and Brad Lambert are internal options (although Vilardi and Perfetti lack footspeed, while Lambert seems to have taken a step back in the AHL this season). The Jets need to know that one of their own players can fill the role, sign someone this summer, or run the risk of trading more assets away for a centre at the 2026 deadline. It's hard to be a draft and develop organization that sends draft capital out the door to fill the same hole every season. This priority may be difficult to pin down but it must be part of Winnipeg's assessment all the same. Florida and Edmonton seem to be on a crash course to repeat as Cup finalists; watching the Oilers drives home the importance of generational talent, while watching the Panthers shows the power available when elite skill and brutal toughness meet on the same roster. Winnipeg is too good to draft No. 1 overall several times, as the Oilers did, but some amount of emulating Florida seems possible. We've already seen it in the form of the Niederreiter, Namestnikov, and Iafallo acquisitions: There's nothing Matthew Tkachuk adjacent or even Brad Marchand-esque in this group but it's made Winnipeg tougher to play against all the same. Advertisement I'd caution against overcorrecting — the Presidents' Trophy is a difficult trophy to win, even if the road to the Cup is more brutal. But the Jets are built around the Connor/Scheifele duo up front and on Morrissey (and ideally Samberg) on defence. There's not a lot of sandpaper among the Jets' elite; Winnipeg doesn't need to pivot to pure grit but it would do well to stay on top of opportunities to add more talented truculence. What if the Jets' next first-round opponent hits like the Blues but has the top end talent of the Stars? Winnipeg's scouts must be under more pressure than most of their rivals; the Jets' win-now mode, combined with Winnipeg's tough draw as a UFA market, has meant trading picks for veteran players. Perfetti (2020) and Samberg (2017) are the Jets' last two draft picks to establish themselves as either a top-six forward or a top-four defenceman. Part of what seems like a dip in draft efficacy is actually a shortage of picks. The Jets have traded away a ton of draft capital since 2018, including two of its picks at this year's draft in June. Winnipeg has its own picks in the first, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds. It traded its second-round pick to New Jersey for Tyler Toffoli last season and its fourth-round pick to San Jose for Namestnikov in 2023. The Jets got Freij, Kevin He, Markus Loponen, and Kieron Walton out of four picks last year — with particularly good early returns from He and Walton in the OHL — and a little bit more of that magic would be more than welcome. Mason Appleton and Brandon Tanev complicate the cap picture presented above. It's hard to imagine Winnipeg paying Appleton market value ($3.2 million, according to AFP Analytics) and having the room to take a swing at Ehlers while retaining Samberg and Vilardi. Tanev may not cost as much but is coming off a $3.5 million AAV deal. It's not as easy to assume team-friendly contracts for either player as for RFAs like Barron and Kupari. The Jets have more room if Ehlers walks but may also find that Iafallo, Namestnikov, and Niederreiter have Winnipeg's depth jobs covered, while earmarking room on the roster for Lambert or Chibrikov with an eye to the future. I'm not expecting Winnipeg to make early, aggressive swings on Appleton and Tanev. The Jets like both players, but I don't expect they enjoy their projected UFA prices. Dominic Toninato, Haydn Fleury, and Chris Driedger may have a role on next year's club but don't represent urgent priorities at this stage of the offseason. It's easy to assume there's no room for Haydn Fleury. The Jets will have eight defencemen on their NHL roster once Samberg signs — nine if they retain Fleury as a UFA — while they prefer to carry seven on the roster during the regular season. That's not a pressing offseason concern, if we're being honest; it would be easy to bring extra defencemen to camp and then waive them if everybody stays healthy. Advertisement The Jets could proactively try to clear room. If they're done with Ville Heinola, for example, they could try to move him before he becomes a Group VI UFA next summer. It would be easier and more cautious to wait until training camp and make sure everyone is healthy to start the season before risking waivers on Heinola, Fleury, or even one of the established veterans. The Jets signed Fleury on July 5 last summer; whether it's Winnipeg or a different team, it seems less likely that Fleury lasts that long after a strong showing this season. (Top photo of Gabriel Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers: Jonathan Kozub / NHLI via Getty Images)
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ehlers, Danes fall in Bronze Medal Game, Niederreiter, Swiss to Play for Gold
Sunday, May 25 is the final day of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, with the bronze medal and gold medal games taking place from Avicii Arena in Sweden. The host, Sweden, took care of business against Nikolaj Ehlers and Denmark early in the morning hours. The Winnipeg Jets' star pending unrestricted free agent scored once but the Danes' two goals was not enough for Sweden's strong start. Mikael Backlund and Marcus Johanson each scored twice for the Swedes, which also got goals from Lucas Raymond and Mika Zibanejad in the affair. Nino Niederreiter (two gaols) and the Swiss took down Ehlers' Danes on Saturday 7-0 to propel themselves to the final against the United States, which is looking to snap its lengthy curse of 92 years without a gold medal win at the tournament. The gold medal game will take place at 1:00 PM central on Sunday afternoon.
