The Winnipeg Jets’ situation keeps getting louder, and the noise around Connor Hellebuyck’s public trade request has only pushed more attention onto what comes next. Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey have already surfaced in trade chatter, and if Winnipeg truly decides to reset, Kyle Connor has to be part of that conversation too.
That may sound surprising at first, because Connor hasn’t been the face of the rumor mill the way Hellebuyck has. But he’s one of the NHL’s best pure finishers, the kind of scorer teams spend years trying to find. If the Jets are open to a bigger teardown, there may not be a more valuable trade chip on the roster.
Connor’s production tells the story. He has two 40-goal seasons, scored 39 last year, posted back-to-back 90-point seasons, and finished with 92 points in 82 games most recently. He’s 29, still squarely in his prime, and locked in long term through 2033-34 at a $12M AAV that now looks pretty manageable for a player of his caliber.
That contract matters if Winnipeg is leaning toward a youth movement. Connor signed early last season, before the Jets went from President’s Trophy winners with 116 points to seventh-worst in the league at 82 points. He wasn’t signing up for a rebuild, but if the dominoes start to fall around him - Hellebuyck, Scheifele, Morrissey - he may not be eager to wait around for one either.
For Edmonton, this is the kind of swing that makes you stop and look twice. It would be expensive.
It would be messy under the cap. And it would cost a real pile of assets.
But the Oilers have the pieces to make a serious offer.
Matt Savoie and Isaac Howard are the two headliners. Savoie was excellent last season, especially after the Olympic break, and looked like one of Edmonton’s best players. Howard tore up the AHL as a rookie and looks ready to take off at the NHL level.
Then there’s Jake Walman, who could step right into Winnipeg’s top four if Morrissey is moved. Edmonton also has a stash of young defensemen, and the draft capital is more valuable than it might first appear, especially with the uncertainty around Connor McDavid’s future. Picks in 2028 and 2029 would carry real weight.
One possible framework looks like this:
Jets receive: Trent Frederic, Matt Savoie, Isaac (Ike) Howard, Jake Walman, a 2028 first-round pick and a 2029 first-round pick.
Oilers receive: Kyle Connor.
That’s a huge return for Winnipeg. It’s the equivalent of four first-round picks, two NHL-ready players, and a top-four defenseman. And if Edmonton wanted to balance things out further, it could even toss in another young defenseman - Beau Akey, Shakir Mukhamadullin, or Spencer Stastney - with a late pick coming back the other way.
For the Jets, the appeal is obvious. They’d be accelerating a rebuild, adding young talent, and clearing a long-term $12M contract off the books.
They’d also be surrounding Viggo Bjorck with more youth if the sell-off really begins. If Connor is looking for a fresh start too, the fit becomes even cleaner.
For Edmonton, the pitch is just as simple. The Oilers have spent years looking for a true finisher to play alongside McDavid and Draisaitl, and Connor is exactly that.
Edmonton’s stars are pass-first players by nature. Connor is a 40-goal scorer.
Put him with those playmakers, and the matchup problems start immediately.
That’s why this kind of move is tempting even with the steep price. Connor would be getting passes from McDavid or Draisaitl, and that is a frightening thought for opposing teams. At 29, he fits Edmonton’s competitive window and gives the roster the sort of scoring punch it has been missing.
There are recent trade comparisons that help frame the value, too. Brady Tkachuk went to the Panthers for three firsts and a second.
Connor scores more, even if Tkachuk brings a different set of qualities. The Flyers were prepared to go even bigger for Leo Carlsson with an offer sheet that would have included four firsts, though that would have come at an $18 million AAV.
Connor’s deal sits at $12M AAV.
Mikko Rantanen is another reference point. He was younger at the time of his trade and had back-to-back 100-point seasons.
Carolina first acquired him from Colorado for Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a second and a fourth, with a third going to Chicago to retain salary and Taylor Hall included as a throw in. Rantanen was then moved again, this time to Dallas for Logan Stankoven, two firsts and two thirds.
The key difference was that he wasn’t signed and was viewed as a rental before later landing the same $12 million AAV Connor now carries. Edmonton would be paying more than those packages, but it would also be getting the long-term certainty that came with Connor’s contract.
That’s the real push and pull here. Winnipeg gets the kind of return a rebuilding team dreams about: picks, prospects, an NHL defenseman, and immediate youth. Edmonton gets the missing piece its top six has needed for years.
If the Jets start selling, Connor rises near the top of the list. And if the Oilers want to make a true all-in move, this is the sort of deal that fits the moment.
In Other News...
Oilers Linked To A Top Six Winger Worth Watching Closely
Kirill Marchenko has quickly become one of the more interesting names on the winger market, and the Oilers are among the teams keeping close tabs on the Columbus forward. Montreal has been mentioned too, but from Edmontons side the appeal is easy to see. He is a top-six type who can help a contender at a premium position, and any player with that profile is going to draw attention when the trade chatter starts to pick up.
The catch is that Marchenko does not sound like a simple rental situation, which is why this one bears watching rather than assuming. Columbus has plenty of reason to proceed carefully with a young winger like that, especially if other front-office business around the league keeps changing the market. Between Connor Hellebuycks confirmed trade request and the speculation swirling around Winnipeg, the wider NHL landscape is shifting fast, and Edmonton will have to decide how aggressively it wants to stay in the mix if Marchenko ever becomes available. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Face A Core Question As Their Cup Window Tightens
As Edmonton looks for a way to keep its championship window open, the contrast with Montreal is hard to miss. Juraj Slafkovsky recently described the Canadiens mindset as one centered more on winning than on maximizing paydays, and Montreal has backed that up by locking in a growing core with long-term contracts for Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Slafkovsky himself.
For the Oilers, the question is whether they can create that same kind of stability while dealing with a more individualized approach to negotiations. With the window tightening, the challenge is not just finding talent, but keeping enough of it together long enough to turn contender status into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers May Have An Overlooked Prospect Built For A Real Role
Josh Samanski has quietly put together a case that looks different from the usual prospect hype cycle in Edmonton. His AHL work and brief NHL look suggest a player whose value shows up in the details, with a positive influence on his line and enough defensive reliability to stand out in an organization still sorting through names like Ike Howard and Roby Jarventie.
The intrigue is not whether Samanski is going to score at a flashy rate. It is whether his game translates into something more practical for the Oilers, the kind of forward who can handle trusted minutes, help on the penalty kill and hold his own at five-on-five when the margins tighten. For a team always searching for cost-effective depth that can be trusted in real NHL roles, that is a development worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]