Five trade targets for Winnipeg Jets to solidify Stanley Cup contender status

Kevin Cheveldayoff, assistant GM Larry Simmons and several Winnipeg Jets scouts are gathered in Florida. Their purpose? Determine the Jets’ deadline approach in a season which could become the best in Jets 2.0 history.

It’s not hyperbole. This season’s Jets are tracking ahead of the 2017-18 team that traded for Paul Stastny, finished with 114 points and went to the Western Conference final. While there are differences in strengths, weaknesses and roster construction, this year’s team has earned more points per game and given up fewer goals than the 2017-18 model.

The Jets are doing it while playing sustainable five-on-five hockey — the biggest determinant of long-term success in a difficult-to-predict sport — and they’ve been building up cap space, too. CapFriendly projects the Jets to be able to add $5.4 million worth of contracts on deadline day, although Winnipeg will hold back some of that space in anticipation of as much as $850,000 in entry-level contract performance bonuses for Cole Perfetti. This is a quibble; the point is that the Jets have a good team, a GM that’s been aggressive in the past and the cap room to make it better.

It would be a phenomenal position to be in for any team. For Winnipeg, there’s a unique wrinkle: The Jets have scarcely gotten to see all of their existing stars align. In October, Gabriel Vilardi was injured in Winnipeg’s third game of the season. Kyle Connor was kneed by Ryan Strome during Vilardi’s fifth game back in the lineup. On Tuesday night in Winnipeg, when Connor made two great defensive plays en route to scoring the empty net goal that sealed the Jets’ 29th win, star centre Mark Scheifele watched from the sidelines.

Scheifele could play as soon as Saturday in Ottawa. The Jets could come out of the All-Star break at full health, steamrolling to the March 8 deadline with a roster full of impact players and a series of tough decisions to make about who to send to the AHL. If they do, it would be easy to make the argument that the Jets have earned the right to be seen as a cohesive, quality club that needs no more than minor tweaking — faceoff help here, gritty PK help there.

The most exciting thought about the Jets’ deadline is their projected cap space. If Cheveldayoff, Simmons and company can find just the right fit, they will be fully empowered to go out and bring that player to Winnipeg. They’re on a brilliant run from trading Andrew Copp to the New York Rangers in 2022 through acquiring Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov last season and, of course, the PL Dubois Vilardi blockbuster in June.

Who’s out there, then? And how might those players fit?

Elias Lindholm, Flames, C

Age: 29

Contract: $4.85 million cap hit, UFA 2024

Usage: Second line at five-on-five, first PP, first PK

Production: 8 goals, 21 assists, 29 points in 44 games

Possession impact: Negative

Lindholm is listed at No. 1 on The Athletic’s trade board, in part, because of his manageable cap hit and his lack of trade protection. His offence has dropped off since Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau were his linemates but he can still produce; Lindholm is on pace for 54 points this season while playing big minutes in all situations for the Flames.

My guess is that Boston and Colorado emerge as the front-runners for Lindholm’s services but a right-handed centre of his quality playing between Nikolaj Ehlers and Perfetti would give Winnipeg a simply overpowered second line. (I’m assuming that Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi run things up top.) My read is that Scheifele and Adam Lowry’s lines are Rick Bowness’ known entities and are likely to get the most important playoff matchups. If that’s the case, then Perfetti and Ehlers need a centre who wins faceoffs in a way that Namestnikov does not; it could be the difference between secondary minutes and fully earning the coach’s trust.

Sean Monahan, Canadiens, C

Age: 29

Contract: $2 million cap hit, UFA 2024

Usage: Middle six at five-on-five, first PP, second PK

Production: 11 goals, 14 assists, 25 points in 43 games

Possession impact: Negative

Monahan had a torrid start to his career in Calgary, scoring 363 points before his 24th birthday. At 29, some observers have written him off because he doesn’t put up points like he used to but Monahan is a middle-six calibre player — a quality third-liner on a Cup contender. He’s a big, strong, left-handed centre who has won 56.9 percent of his faceoffs over the past two seasons. His underlying numbers are not strong, particularly defensively, but defensive metrics tend to be a team stat. My belief is that the Jets’ defensive structure is better than Montreal’s and that Monahan plays well enough in the “guts” of the ice to fit in well in Winnipeg.

I think there is a realism to Monahan as a Jets trade target. There’s a parallel here to Stastny in 2018 — not the same level of offence, mind you, but the idea that the Jets have first and third lines that they trust and a “second” line that’s good enough but which would become a luxury with the upgrade. Winnipeg owns the Canadiens’ second-round pick by virtue of the Dubois trade; perhaps there is room for a reunion here.

Chris Tanev, Flames, RHD

Age: 34

Contract: $4.5 million cap hit, 10-team no-trade list, UFA 2024

Usage: Second pair at five-on-five, first PK unit

Production: 1 goal, 7 assists, 8 points in 41 games

Possession impact: Neutral

Tanev is a shutdown defenceman whose fierce, determined style of play looks good by the eye test and analytics alike. For me, it’s particularly fun to imagine the physicality of Tanev paired with the same qualities in Brenden Dillon or even on the third pair alongside Dylan Samberg’s defensive acumen. His $4.5 million cap hit would be manageable and, while Tanev does have a 10-team no-trade list, one suspects Tanev’s younger brother Brandon would have plenty of kind words to say about Winnipeg if the need arose.

I’ll admit that my instinct when it comes to the team that’s given up the fewest goals in the NHL is not to say it’s desperate for a shutdown defenceman. In Tanev’s case, that defenceman is good enough, physical enough and unique enough compared to the Jets’ roster of right-side defenders, then the truth is I get intrigued. If the pro scouts like him, I could see Tanev’s style of play treating Winnipeg well on a deep playoff run.

Adam Henrique, Ducks, C/LW

Age: 33

Contract: $5.83 million cap hit, 10-team no-trade list, UFA 2024

Usage: Top six at five-on-five, first PP, second PK

Production: 11 goals, 13 assists, 24 points in 43 games

Possession impact: Neutral

Henrique is probably not the ideal first-line centre who plays big minutes in all situations, as Anaheim often asks him to do. He does have a track record of providing quality top-six minutes, though, and has managed to deliver quality minutes for a Ducks team struggling through injuries and a lack of depth. His faceoff numbers are good, he can play up and down the lineup at centre or wing, and he has enough special teams experience to contribute on those fronts if the Jets were to acquire him. His cap hit is more prohibitive than some of the other players on this list and his 10-team no-trade list should be noted as well.

Sean Walker, Flyers, RHD

Age: 29

Contract: $2.65 million cap hit, UFA 2024

Usage: Second pair at five-on-five, second PK

Production: 4 goals, 11 assists, 15 points in 44 games

Possession impact: Positive

Walker is having a career year in Philadelphia and earning plenty of hype as the trade deadline approaches. I don’t immediately see a trade fit for the Jets, given Walker’s lack of size and the way he generates most of his value off the rush, but it’s possible that I see “redundant” where Winnipeg could see “a good player for a blue line that consistently gets the green light to attack.” Scott Arniel recently called the Flyers a carbon copy of the Jets, stylistically, and it may be that Walker’s run of success in Philadelphia could be repeated if he were traded to Winnipeg.

Consider the following sequence of Jets lineups, for entertainment purposes.

Projected lines (healthy)

Projected lines (with Monahan, as one example)

Projected lines (with Tanev and Monahan, as another example)

The intention is to provide examples, using players believed to be in play, and project realistic Jets lineups. Your mileage may vary and you may not be wowed but the roster you see is cap compliant, assuming two demotions, and also assuming that Ville Heinola and Kyle Capobianco remain in the AHL.

All contract data from Cap Friendly and PuckPedia; puck possession data from Evolving Hockey

(Photo of Sean Monahan and Kyle Connor: Darcy Finley / NHLI via Getty Images)