To say that the make-up of the Winnipeg Jets has changed since the Free Agency period began on July 1 would be a fairly big understatement. Not including the re-signing of Jets Captain Andrew Ladd (who was a Restricted Free Agent and re-signed for 5 years/$22 million on July 5th), GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and Assistant GM Craig Heisinger have brought in nine new players via free agency or trade.
Firstly, let’s recap all the moves that have been made since Canada Day. (The player’s former team is listed in parenthesis)
July 1
Jets sign UFA Defenseman Derek Meech (Detroit Red Wings) to a 1-year, two-way contract- $700,000/$105,000.
Jets sign UFA Forward Tanner Glass (Vancouver Canucks) to a 1-year contract- $750,000.
Jets sign UFA Forward Aaron Gagnon (Dallas Stars) to a 2-year contract (details not available).
July 2
Jets sign UFA Defenseman Randy Jones (Tampa Bay Lightning) to a 1-year contract- $1.15 million.
Jets sign UFA Forward Rick Rypien (Vancouver Canucks) to a 1-year contract- $700,000.
Jets sign Defenseman Mark Flood (Manitoba Moose) to a 1-year contract (details not available).
For more Jets moves and a look at the depth chart after the jump.
July 7
Jets sign UFA Left Winger Jason Gregoire (Drafted by the New York Islanders in 2007, 3rd Round, 76th overall) to a two-year, two-way deal (details not available)
July 8
Jets acquire RW Eric Fehr from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a 4th round pick in 2012 & forward Danick Paquette (Drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2008, 3rd Round, 64th overall)
July 9
Jets acquire LW Kenndal McArdle (Drafted by the Florida Panthers in 2005, 1st Round, 20th overall) from The Florida Panthers for C Angelo Esposito (Drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007, 1st Round, 20th overall).
So we now present to you Illegal Curve’s Updated Winnipeg Jets Team Depth Chart based on where we think Winnipeg’s new players will slot in:
| Left Wing | Center | Right Wing |
| Andrew Ladd | Bryan Little | Blake Wheeler* |
| Evander Kane | Alex Burmistrov | Nikolai Antropov |
| Tanner Glass | Patrice Cormier | Eric Fehr |
| Jason Gregoire | Jim Slater | Chris Thorburn |
| Carl Klingberg | Rick Rypien | Spencer Machacek* |
| Kenndal McArdle* | Ben Maxwell* | Aaron Gagnon |
| Tim Stapleton | Akim Aliu | |
| Riley Holazpfel* | ||
| Left Defense | Right Defense | |
| Dustin Byfuglien | Tobias Enstrom | |
| Johnny Oduya | Zach Bogosian* | |
| Mark Stuart | Ron Hainsey | |
| Randy Jones | Derek Meech | |
| Brett Festerling* | Paul Postma | |
| Arturs Kulda* | ||
| Andrey Zubarev | ||
| Mark Flood | ||
| Goaltenders | ||
| Ondrej Pavelec | ||
| Chris Mason | ||
| Peter Mannino | ||
| Edward Pasquale |
*denotes RFA status
As you can see, Winnipeg’s Depth Chart is fairly extensive and the forward and defense lines remain far from being finalized. Jets Head Coach Claude Noel will have most of the summer to analyze and re-analyze all the players the Jets currently have in the system so it will be interesting to see who ends up cracking the opening day roster on October 9th versus the Montreal Canadiens.
