On today’s 32 Thoughts Podcast Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman were discussing the shifting landscape for defence in the NHL. As part of the discussion Friedman said this with respect to the Jets:
“You talk about the shifting landscape. Like at the beginning of the year one team told me if we’re going to need defence, know where were going to be looking at? We’re going to be looking at Winnipeg because Winnipeg on the UFA defence they have (Brenden) Dillon, they have (Dylan) DeMelo. Logan Stanley is not a UFA, he’s a restricted free agent with arb rights, but it’s a situation there where the player wants to play more and I think at different times Winnipeg has explored the market for him. But now you’re looking at the Jets, they’re going pretty well, they’ve got a couple of wins now after they were on a bit of a downstreak and all of a sudden their players who were UFAs might not be available so the market shifts on you a little bit. That’s kind of what you’ve got here.”
You can listen to the comments here which starts at 18:34.
It’s been an interesting situation with the backend for Winnipeg as they’ve been rotating three players for that 6th spot right now between Logan Stanley, Declan Chisholm and Nate Schmidt.
Adding to the space conundrum on the backend will be Ville Heinola who is slowly getting back to health as he recovers from the ankle surgery he had on October 9th. We saw him on the ice in skates for the first time this week. He remains a aways away according to head coach Rick Bowness and will likely have a stint with the Moose but eventually he’ll need to be added back to the mix.
Of course despite the fact that Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo are UFAs there is almost no chance those two are dealt with this Jets club battling for top spot in the Central. The team would have to fall off a cliff before trade deadline for that to be considered, I suspect, by Winnipeg. More likely they are both to be considered “own rentals” by the team if they are not/or choose not to sign them during the season.
