The Winnipeg Jets off-season needs should be fairly short, but possibly hard to fill. By deciding to expose Tobias Enstrom to the Vegas Golden Knights. They also exposed forward Marko Dano amongst other forwards and defencemen. Who gets picked will have an impact on the Jets off-season plans.
If Enstrom gets picked it is imperative that the Jets pick up a top four defenceman to supplement the trio of Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, and Josh Morrissey. The Jets need to make sure that they will enter the season with a fourth defender who can play in the top four. Furthermore, it would be ideal that they have a third pairing that is only made of good players and not players who are on the team because they are good veterans. Even if Enstrom gets picked, adding a defenceman or two should be something that they Jets do.
If Dano gets selected the Jets will be able to decide if they want to have space available in the lineup for young players or not. They can decide to sign players to contracts that can be buried in the AHL and give Jack Roslovic and Kyle Connor a shot without guaranteeing a spot. If the Jets decide to go this route they have to remember that pre-season is short and there are many times where teams are not playing at full strength. However, it seems as those Connor’s time in the AHL helped him and Roslovic also found success there. It may finally be time for the Jets to have a skilled third line and a fourth line that checks.
Outside of these two players, the Jets stand to lose Ondrej Pavelec, Chris Thorburn, and Paul Postma to unrestricted free agency and have to qualify Brandon Tanev, Andrew Copp, and Ben Chiarot if they want to retain them. Other than that, the Jets should have a relatively quiet off-season on all fronts.
