32 Thoughts Podcast | “The nicest contract dispute ever” is how Winnipeg Jets & Cole Perfetti situation described

With training camp coming up fast there is continued wonder as to why the Jets and unsigned RFA Cole Perfetti do not yet have a deal. We spent quite a bit of time this past weekend on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show discussing the situation between the two sides.

Last week the Ontario product represented the Jets at the NHL Media Tour in Vegas despite the fact he was without a new deal from Winnipeg. That was something that was noted by quite a few people including Elliotte Friedman who spoke about it on Friday’s 32 Thoughts Podcast saying he wasn’t certain he could ever recall that happening before. He did indicate “I still was under the impression there was a bit of a gap still to solve. Always reminding people that this could change with one phone call.”.

Three days later and no phone calls have changed the situation.

Today, a new 32 Thoughts Podcast has dropped with Friedman speaking about Shane Pinto’s deal with the Senators as a comparable. This is what he had to say about that and also how one person described the contract dispute between the two sides as “The nicest contract dispute ever”.

“Pinto’s deal. Like Cole Perfetti’s numbers are pretty comparable to Pinto’s but I just don’t think Winnipeg wants to go quite to where those numbers are. I got a call on the weekend from someone after our last podcast dropped and they were kinda laughing about the point about Perfetti being the only guy maybe ever to go to that tour without a contract. Well I believe on the weekend he was at like a fishing charity event for the Jets and this person called this ‘the nicest contract dispute ever’. Perfetti and the Jets haven’t made a deal yet and he’s representing them at charity events, at the media tour but again I still think that one will be a bridge. But to this point they haven’t gotten it done.”

For those curious to compare the career numbers between the 2019 and 2020 draft picks:

Cole Perfetti: 140 GP 29G 46A 75PTS
Shane Pinto: 140 GP 30G 40A 70 PTS

Ottawa signed Pinto to a two-year $7.5-million contract which has an average annual value of $3.75.

Camp for Winnipeg gets underway with physicals and testing on Wednesday and then with players being available on Thursday.