The Montreal Canadiens asked Carey Price to waive his no-movement clause so they could expose him to the Seattle Kraken and then his wife has heavily implied there is a plan going forward between him, the Habs, and the Kraken. The Winnipeg Jets did nothing as smart as this.
The Jets have protected exactly who we thought they would protected: Blake Wheeler (NMC), Andrew Copp, Kyle Connor, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers, Adam Lowry, Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, Logan Stanley, and Connor Hellebuyck.
The Jets went for the safe and obvious list. They could have exposed Copp and protected Mason Appleton who is the better player for a team close to the salary cap. The should have protected Dylan DeMelo over Logan Stanley.
The DeMelo vs. Stanley issue is an interesting one. DeMelo has a team friendly contract, can elevate players he plays with, and is in general really useful. Stanley is who we thought he is at his high end. Sure, he scored two goals in game four against the Habs in the playoffs, but he does not do that often. Stanley has probably hit who he is going to be and that is a third pairing defenceman. Do the Jets really need to protect that over DeMelo?
The Seattle Kraken will most likely take Appleton who is a useful middle-six forward if the Jets have a side deal with them over DeMelo or else the Kraken are taking DeMelo and laughing their heads off. But the Jets exposed Toby Enstrom to the Vegas Golden Knights and had a deal that had Vegas taking Chris Thorburn. We shall see how this all works out on Wednesday.
