Every NHL team needs players who provide good value for money or outplay their salaries, and the Winnipeg Jets are no exception. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has locked up quite few players locked up to relatively team-friendly deals and has no albatross contracts (at least compared to some other clubs) hindering him.
Here, we’ll dive into the three best contracts on the team’s books for 2025-26 as they attempt to follow up their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season with another strong one.
3: Gabriel Vilardi: 6 Years Remaining on 6-Year Deal, $7.5 Million AAV
Cheveldayoff pulled off a tidy bit of work last month in locking up Vilardi to this six-year extension. With the deal, the Jets locked up a unique talent budding star through the majority of his hoped-for prime years at a very reasonable price that’s $2.1 million below his $9.6 million market value, as per The Athletic.
Last season — his second with the Jets since being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in June 2023 as part of the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade — the 25-year-old right winger set new career highs in goals (27), assists (34), and points (61) in 71 games and added one goal and three assists in nine playoff games. He played mainly on the first line alongside Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele and they were one of the league’s most productive lines in combining for 245 points.
Related: Jets Get Excellent Value in Vilardi Signing
The Jets have not had a player quite like Vilardi in 2.0 history, and there perhaps is not another player quite like him in the NHL. While he is not the fastest skater or a sniper, he is an extremely efficient scorer — almost all his goals come from within a few feet of the net — and has outrageous hands. While he produced 36 points at even strength, it’s on the power play where his unique and heady skillset is on display most prominently.
His wizardry around the net and his puck-handling ability in tight — Adam Lowry said last season Vilardi can stickhandle in a phone booth — make him a huge threat as a “facilitator” from the net-front position and his presence there was key to the team’s league-best 28.90 power-play efficiency last season. He finished with a team-high 12 power-play…
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