Winnipeg’s expensive extensions a big deal
Acouple of surprising strokes of the pen and, voila, the clouds cleared over Western Canada, palm trees sprouted at the corner of Portage and Main, and hockey had its best day in Winnipeg since Bobby Hull barreled into town with that WHA flag flying from his pickup with Illinois plates.
OK, there’s a bit of hyperbole there. No one’s serving up pina coladas on the permafrost, but the Jets are basking in the warmth and bonhomie of the mega-contract extensions surprisingly signed by center Mark Scheifele and goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
Scheifele and Hellebuyck, each 30 years old and Jets by birthright, were considered sure goners at or before the start of free agency. Instead, their extensions (each seven years at $8.5 million per) could see both still on the job there until the spring of 2031. Though keep in mind, both deals allow the Jets to trade the franchise centerpieces by the summer of 2027.
The message in the two signings? “We can win now,” coach Rick Bowness told the Winnipeg media, the ink yet to dry on those Scheifele and Hellebuyck signatures.
General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff kidded that it didn’t matter which of his two stars signed which deal because terms were identical, including the $5 million bonus that each will collect prior to the start of next season.
The deal elicited disappointment from some Boston fans because the 6foot-3-inch right-shot Scheifele projected as a perfect fit into the Bruins’ No. 1 center spot (currently the domain of Pavel Zacha).
Rumors persisted over the summer that the Bruins could trade for Scheifele or Calgary’s Elias Lindholm, 28, also a right-shot No. 1 center. Lindholm remains on an expiring deal with the Flames, so he’s still on the board. For the moment.
But both Scheifele and Hellebuyck stayed put in a small-market Canadian city, where the winter weather is, shall we say, challenging, and the social scene is (checks Google Maps) 1,655 miles to the northwest of Times
Square. Not that New York City guarantees anything beyond traffic and high taxes, but from a live-life-to-its-fullest perspective, a long stay in Winnipeg generally does not rate high on players’ dance cards.
“It’s the place,” noted one longtime GM over the summer, “that shows up on every guy’s no-trade list.”
Well, that changed, with Scheifele and Hellebuyck, as to be expected, expressing their love of city, team, and their chance of bringing Jets fans their first Stanley Cup. It’s a feel-good story for all involved, especially everyone in the Jets’ dressing room.
“Now,” noted Bowness, “we don’t have one player in the room who has one foot out the door.”
Left largely unsaid here is the fact that the July 2023 free agent market, the one that then-Bruin Tyler Bertuzzi
figured would deliver his giant payday, was more fizzle than sizzle. What just happened in Winnipeg, with two franchise stalwarts staying in place, reflects legit concern among the upper-crust rank and file that the July ’24 UFA market again might not provide the bountiful paydays of the past — even with the cap expected to bump up by some $4 million per club.
This past July, the 28-year-old Bertuzzi, an effective deadline add for the Bruins, anticipated the market would bring him something like what Scheifele and Hellebuyck just pocketed. But big deals were few and far between, with Bertuzzi left to scurry for a oneyear deal with the Maple Leafs for $5.5 million.
Bertuzzi had company in the brotherhood of the disappointed. Fellow UFA Bruin Dmitry Orlov squeezed out only a two-year deal from the Hurricanes, albeit for a hefty $15.5 million total. Penguins winger Jason Zucker landed only a one-year deal ($5.3 million) in Arizona. Slick defenseman John Klingberg, who departed the Stars a year earlier for $7 million in Anaheim (later dished to the Wild), managed only one year at $4.15 million with the Maple Leafs. Max Domi, a hot commodity after a strong playoff run with Dallas, grabbed a one-year $3 million spacer in Toronto.
Granted, Alex DeBrincat hit big, nearly $32 million over four years with the Red Wings, and Alex Killorn did mighty fine with his four years for $6.25 million per in Anaheim. But again, not seven- or eight-year deals, and also not with viable Cup contenders. Bottom-feeders generally have to pay more to land top-shelf talent.
So, yes, Scheifele and Hellebuyck, the ex-UMass Lowell standout, could have played out the string in Winnipeg and tested the open market for something better. The Bruins, for one, would have loved Scheifele at that ticket and with that trade flexibility.
The two Jets also could have been a couple of 31-year-olds, hat in hand next summer, able only to secure overall guarantees of, say, $40 million apiece. The July ’23 market had to be whispering in their ears, along with the fact that the Jets, while hardly Cup favorites, remain respectable contenders.
It came down to playing the old risk-reward game, just months after the market delivered a mixed message, and Hellebuyck and Scheifele decided they’d stick to the game, and city, they know best.