A team that finished atop the NHL standings last year just put together the worst quarter of a campaign imaginable. With 41 games to go for the Winnipeg Jets, there’s nowhere but to go but up. Sadly, there’s also less hope by the night that the team is capable of moving in that direction.
The Jets were finishing up a respectable first quarter of the season when they won their 19th game of the year on Nov. 18 to give themselves a 12-7-0 record. Maybe Winnipeg was never going to repeat the heights of last season — the club won its first-ever Presidents’ Trophy on the strength of 116 points — but the Jets were well positioned to track down one of the eight playoff spots in the Western Conference.
Then the big prairie sky collapsed.
A team that lost 26 times all season in 2024-25 dropped 19 of 22 games while posting a 3-14-5 record in the second quarter of this campaign. The result is a squad that begins the second half of the year staring up at every other club in the league thanks to its NHL-worst .427 points percentage.
“Didn’t necessarily see it coming,” said Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff on Monday, 24 hours before his club blew a third-period lead versus Vegas and lost for the 10th straight game. “But if you look at all the different things, it’s a tough league to win in and certainly the situation that we’re in, be it one-goal games, be it not maybe playing to the defensive structure that has become our signature for the last couple of years, all of a sudden you find yourself in this predicament.”
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Listen, nobody gets to where the Jets are without some bad luck, especially a squad that was so consistently good a relatively short time ago.
Connor Hellebuyck — the reigning league MVP and winner of the Vezina Trophy in 2024 and 2025 — had knee surgery on Nov. 22 and returned (ahead of schedule) on Dec. 13. The Jets won 5-1 in his return and have not registered a victory since.
The one-goal games Cheveldayoff referenced have certainly gone against the Jets; eight of the 10 losses Winnipeg has endured on its current slide have been by a single goal, with four of those defeats — including Tuesday night against Vegas — coming in extra time.
Still, the thought that this club — which played with such pristine structure last year under coach Scott Arniel — could go from the penthouse to the cellar is stunning.
That’s why, on the same day Cheveldayoff was holding a press conference about the club’s bleak results at the halfway point, Arniel was answering queries after practice about keeping his position behind the bench.
“I’m not thinking about that,” he said. “I’ve just got to do my job.”
When you’re in as bad a spot as Winnipeg is right now, it’s fair to question everything.
Key Stats
Record: 15-21-5 (8th in the division, 32nd in the NHL)
Goals per game: 2.85 (23rd in the NHL)
Goals against per game: 3.15 (19th in the NHL)
Power play: 18.8 per cent (19th in the NHL)
Penalty kill: 77.4 per cent (25th in the NHL)
Best surprise
It’s slim pickings here, so let’s go with the fact Gabe Vilardi has not missed a game this season. The 26-year-old has been plagued by injuries for what feels like his entire NHL career, which now features two-plus seasons in Manitoba. Not only is Vilardi healthy, but he’s also producing at a career-best clip that could result in a 75-point season. Put that output in a six-foot-three frame and you can see why Winnipeg locked this player up on a six-year contract last June.
Biggest disappointment
You could certainly take this in any number of directions, but it has to be the complete and utter lack of scoring support for the first line of Mark Scheifele between Vilardi and Kyle Connor. The top trip has totalled 57 goals this year; everyone else on the roster has combined for 60.
The likes of Nino Niederreiter (six goals), Vlad Namestnikov (six goals) and certainly UFA signing Gustav Nyquist (zero goals in 31 games) have not produced the way the club banked on. And while it was obviously optimistic to think Jonathan Toews could step into a second-line role at age 37 after two years away from NHL hockey, his three tallies represent a big disappointment. (For what it’s worth, Toews does have four points in his past six outings).
Cole Perfetti — who did find the net versus Vegas on Tuesday — has just nine points in 27 games following a promising 50-point campaign in his second full NHL season last year.
To say the scoring falls off a cliff after the top line is an understatement.
Big question for the second half: Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg?
Joking, not joking.
Winnipeg is locked into its core. There’s not going to be any fire sale from a last-place team. By the same token, the Jets have been buyers for several years now and Cheveldayoff acknowledged they’re “paying a little bit of a price for that right now” in terms of the futures they’ve sacrificed in the name of unsuccessfully chasing a title.
The GM certainly didn’t sound like a guy who was ready to push more chips in to save a sinking ship. Even if Winnipeg makes hay the rest of January — when it plays eight of its next 10 games at home — how realistic is making the playoffs for this club? And, if there, what are you doing against Colorado in Round 1?
As noted, Winnipeg’s best players are signed to long-term deals. In 2025 alone, defenceman Neal Pionk, two-thirds of the top line (Vilardi and Connor) and captain Adam Lowry inked big pacts to remain with the team. And, to be clear, having so many good players under contract at team-friendly cap hits is still a good thing for this franchise.
Especially if it can inject a big dose of talent before next fall.
There’s not a lot Winnipeg can do to steer into the skid because it doesn’t really have any pending UFAs who would command much in return on the trade market. Still, there’s nothing wrong with trying to collect a third- or fourth-round pick here and there while staying near the bottom of the standings and praying for lottery luck.
Nobody planned on a gap year in Winnipeg. But could you imagine running this team back next October with the updated plan for secondary scoring being the likes of a McKenna or Stenberg, two extremely touted offensive prospects for the 2026 NHL Draft who could be ready for the world’s best league — at least in a support role — by next fall?
Maybe it’s a pipedream, but Jets fans need some kind of hope glom onto right now.
