The Winnipeg Jets’ training camp begins in less than two weeks, on Sept. 18, and Cole Perfetti has yet to sign a new contract.
Should Jets fans be concerned about the lack of news surrounding the 22-year-old forward — who seems set to be a bigger part of the team than ever before — and that a potentially-damaging holdout situation is looming as the regular season quickly approaches? Let’s explore.
Perfetti Yet to Sign On Dotted Line After Up and Down 2023-24
Perfetti is the last-remaining restricted free agent (RFA) on the Jets’ books, as general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff signed the rest by the end of July. However, the 2020 10th-overall pick was the highest-profile of the bunch by far, so negotiations were always set to be much more complex.
Perfetti’s 2023-24 was up and down. In the first half, he excelled and his play showed significant leaps forward. Through 41 games, he was a key contributor to the Jets’ surprising dominance: as a fixture on the second-line right wing, he had 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists), just one point shy of his season career high with half the season to go.
However, he fell into an extended scoring drought at about the same time the team started experiencing some second-half struggles. He suffered through a 23-game goal-scoring slump from Jan. 11 to March 23, leading now-retired head coach Rick Bowness to bump Perfetti down to the fourth line and into the press box after the team added Tyler Toffoli to the forward group at the 2024 Trade Deadline.
Overall, he spent 11 games as a healthy scratch, but scored five goals and added two assists for seven points in his final 10 regular-season games to end the campaign on a positive note. He also stayed healthy all season for the first time in his three-season career and set career highs with 19 goals and 38 points.
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A deal has obviously not been simple to reach, because if it were simple, it would have been done long ago. While a modest two-year bridge remains a potential solution to give Perfetti a chance to be more consistent, a long-term deal isn’t out of the realm of possibility if the organization really wants to commit to the youth movement seemingly underway under new head coach Scott Arniel. Cheveldayoff has a history of signing similarly-aged RFAs long term: he locked Mark Scheifele up at 23 for eight years in 2016, Nikolaj Ehlers at 21 for seven years in…
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