Heading into draft weekend, there was little to no knowledge of what Jets General Manager planned. After surging up the standings and finishing second in the NHL’s regular season with a total of 114 points, there wasn’t much Kevin Chevaldayoff could do to improve the product he already had on the ice. It was also expected that the Jets would be hard-pressed by the salary cap. Without a first round draft pick, it seemed plausible that they might try and move a player in order to acquire one.
That didn’t happen. The Jets stood pat, making no trades. This isn’t extremely surprising, but for a GM who has drafted and developed his entire team practically from scratch, creating a juggernaut in the process, one may have thought moving out some money to make room for a possible Paul Stastny return would be extremely helpful, as the general consensus among most Jets fans around the city is “We want Stastny back.”
And why shouldn’t they? In 17 playoff games, the 32-year-old veteran centre put up 15 points, including three points in game seven of the Western Conference semi-finals against the Predators to help propel the Jets to their first-ever Conference Final. But there’s only so much money to be given out each season, and with a total of eight restricted free agents, the kind of money needed to keep a guy like Stastny around might not be there.
On June 25, it was reported that there was indeed mutual interest between the Jets and Stastny for a possible return, but the report also stated that the Jets would have to move some money around. As the second-best centre ready to hit free agency this offseason, there are certainly some teams that will pay much more than what the Jets are able to offer to acquire the services of the Quebec City native.
Prior to any dominoes falling, the Jets have $25 million in cap space to work with. For Chevaldayoff, the contracts of restricted free agents Connor Hellebuyck, Jacob Trouba, and Josh Morrissey should be his top priority, but getting those deals done before Stastny hits the market on July 1 seems unlikely. Furthermore, each of those guys is likely to command between $5–$6.5 million on their new deals.
So the 25 million you started with quickly reduces to just 7.75 million dollars, and you still have five other restricted free agents to sign. Thus, Chevy’s best option is to move the contract of an existing player to create some extra cap space—that is, if keeping Stastny is also on his to-do list.
So who could be on the move? Well, on paper the three guys I would try and move are goaltender Steve Mason ($4.1 million through 2018–19), defenseman Tyler Myers ($5.5 million through 2018–19), and winger Matthieu Perrault ($4.125 million through 2020–21). Moving all three of these guys should not be his goal, but moving any one of them would create some much-needed short-term cap relief.
Some Jets fans may also include lifelong Thrasher/Jet Bryan Little on their potential trade list, but in a league where it’s so important for winning teams to be built up the middle, Little should be viewed as a hot commodity, one whose production was hurt thanks to low power play time and being placed on the third line following Stastny’s arrival.
Moving Mason and Perrault may be the hardest, as Mason may have health issues and a steep salary next season, while Perrault is already an aging forward with a high cap hit. If it came down to moving Myers or Perrault, I could make a much better case for a Perrault return versus a Myers one in a single sentence: you should not be paying a third-pairing defenseman $5.5 million.
Should the Jets find a suitor for the 28-year-old defenseman prior to July 1, they’ll have around $30.5 million to work with.
At the end of the day, one question needs to be asked: is keeping Stastny worth it? In the short term, there’s a compelling reason to believe he is—but the cap restraints you could face even a year down the road could be locker-room-altering. Next year, the Jets have the contracts of instrumental forwards Blake Wheeler and Patrik Laine to deal with.
All in all, while a lack of action, or the inability to re-sign Stastny, may be the biggest takeaway for some Jets fans this offseason, there is one glaringly overlooked positive: after this offseason, the Jets will have a large part of their core locked up for at least the next three seasons. Should the restricted free agents remain with the team, the Jets will be rolling out Trouba, Scheifele, Ehlers, Morrissey, Byfuglien, and Hellebuyck for at least the next three years. And that’s something to get excited about.
