The Winnipeg Jets have locked up one of their key young forwards, and they didn’t need an arbitration detour to do it. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Winnipeg has signed Cole Perfetti to a five-year, $30MM contract with a $6MM average annual value, and the team has confirmed the deal.
For Perfetti, it’s the long-term commitment he was after. He had to wait last time around, holding out on a new contract in 2024 until September 23, just days before the 2024-25 season. That ended with a bridge deal, but this time the Jets decided they’d seen enough to go longer.
That wasn’t always an obvious call. When his entry-level contract expired, Perfetti had not yet made the leap from promising scorer to clear-cut top-six piece.
The 10th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft put up 29 goals and 75 points in 140 games during that first stretch with Winnipeg, along with a plus-24 rating and 14:10 of ice time per night. The underlying numbers were respectable, but the production still looked more like that of a strong third-liner than a true top-six fixture.
The bridge years have brought more of the same, only with a little more offense. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Perfetti has posted 30 goals and 82 points in 150 games with a plus-5 rating. That works out to only a modest 0.011 points-per-game bump in scoring, but the Jets have also gotten strong possession and goaltending support at even strength, with Perfetti sitting around a 53.0% CorsiFor and a 90.5% on-ice SV%.
There was also the injury piece. Perfetti missed a chunk of the 2025-26 campaign after suffering a high-ankle sprain in preseason against the Calgary Flames, which kept him out for the first 14 games of the regular season. If he’d been in the lineup from the start, he might have come a little closer to the 50-point season he had in 2024-25.
Even with that missed time, Winnipeg has now committed to him through the 2030-31 season. Had the Jets kept qualifying him, Perfetti would have been on track for unrestricted free agency after the 2028-29 campaign, but this new contract buys out two years of that status.
From the Jets’ side, the price is manageable. The $6MM cap hit will account for 5.769% of Winnipeg’s cap space in 2026-27, and that share will only shrink as the cap continues to rise. The article also notes that a similar percentage of the cap back in 2023-24, when the upper limit was $83.5MM, would have translated to a $4.8MM salary.
And for Winnipeg, there’s a bigger takeaway here than just the numbers. The Jets have done well extending core pieces like Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey, and Connor Hellebuyck, but bringing in outside talent has been a tougher task. Perfetti may not carry the same ceiling as that group, but keeping a player who wants to stay is still a win for the organization.
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Jets Just Made A Major Cole Perfetti Decision
Cole Perfettis long-term future in Winnipeg is now settled, and it comes after the young forward put together the best season of his NHL career. The 24-year-old has spent five seasons with the Jets, and his growth was on display in 2024-25 as he reached new personal highs in points and assists while handling a bigger role than before.
For the Jets, the move keeps a homegrown skill player in the fold at a time when theyve been looking to build around their emerging core. Perfetti has already shown he can contribute on a bigger stage, too, adding to his rsum with international success for Canada, and Winnipeg is betting that his next chapter will bring even more production and responsibility. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Goalie Chase Just Took A Twist Fans Wont Ignore
The Jets locked up Cole Perfetti on a five-year deal and avoided arbitration, a tidy piece of business for a club that has spent plenty of time this summer dealing with bigger-picture uncertainty. Perfetti gives Winnipeg a young core piece to build around, and the move at least settles one important roster question while the rest of the offseason chatter keeps swirling.
Ryan McLeods name has surfaced in the ongoing speculation around Connor Hellebuyck, adding another layer to a situation that already has plenty of moving parts. For Jets fans, the interesting wrinkle is that Perfetti and McLeod know each other well from their days together with the Saginaw Spirit in the OHL, which makes the rumor mill feel a little more connected than usual even as the larger question remains unresolved. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Added A Right Shot Defender Fans Should Watch Closely
Jack St. Ivany is the latest right-shot defenseman to land on Winnipegs radar, and the move gives the Jets another young option to sort through as training camp approaches. He arrived with some offensive promise after splitting last season between Pittsburgh and its AHL affiliate, which is enough to make him worth a closer look for a club that is always weighing depth and fit on the back end.
The catch is that nothing is being handed to him. St. Ivany will have to earn his place on the right side, where a third-pairing job or even the seventh-defenseman role is up for grabs, and the Jets will want to see steady play from him before they commit. His camp performance will matter, because the path to the roster depends on consistency as much as upside. [Read more 🡒]