The Winnipeg Jets consider themselves in “win-now mode” but were not able to advance past the first round in either of the past two playoffs. Is their roster really good enough to contend for a Stanley Cup? Let’s check in and find out.
Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic has created a “Stanley Cup Checklist,” and here we will take a look at his list to see which boxes the Jets tick and which they don’t.
With research stemming back to the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup championship team, Luszczyszyn has tracked the positional trends each Stanley Cup champion had on their roster and how many impactful players they had. The list he has created has 10 items as follows:
- An elite first-line centre
- An elite first-line winger
- Two more top-line-calibre wingers in the top six
- One more top-line-calibre centre for the second line
- Two more top-six-calibre forwards in the middle six
- An elite No. 1 defenseman to play in the top pair
- One more No. 1-calibre defenseman to play behind him
- A top-pairing-calibre defenseman for the second pair
- Another top-pairing-calibre defenseman for a soft-minutes third-pair
- A top-10-calibre starting goaltender
(from “The Athletic, “Cup Checklist: Analyzing the rosters from the last decade of champions,” The Athletic, September 21, 2020)
An Elite First-Line Center – ✅
Starting up the middle, Mark Scheifele is obviously an elite first-line centre. The now 31-year-old is a staple up the middle for the team, has seven point-per-game-plus seasons in his career, and 717 points in 797-career games.
His defensive play and effort had been suspect prior to last season, but he really committed to improving his play without the puck in 2023-24 under now-retired head coach Rick Bowness. He is a more well-rounded and viable player for that and is locked up for another seven years.
An Elite First-Line Winger – ✅
Kyle Connor, Scheifele’s frequent line mate (for better or for worse) fit the bill of an elite first-line winger despite some defensive deficiencies.
One of the league’s most dangerous snipers and also an underrated passer, the 27-year-old has 243 goals and 242 assists for 485 points in 531-career games and has potted as many as 47 in a single season. It’s a marvel to watch him blow shots by goaltenders and generate dangerous chances out of nothing. He has the ninth-most goals in the league since 2017-18, his first full NHL campaign.
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