The Winnipeg Jets got enough from their top end in 2025-26. The problem was what came after that.
As the team’s season review winds toward the finish line, the story with the remaining regular forwards is pretty clear: too many depth pieces didn’t deliver enough offense, and a few of the bets the Jets made last summer never really paid off. Injuries played a role in several cases, but the production drop across this group was hard to miss.
Cole Perfetti was the biggest name left on the list, and his fourth NHL season was interrupted by an upper body injury. He played 68 games and finished with 12 goals and 20 assists for 32 points.
His numbers slipped, and the season never really found a rhythm for him. One reason could have been the absence of a true second-line forward to replace Nikolaj Ehlers.
Perfetti bounced around with different linemates all year, and that made it tough for him to build momentum. He’s now a restricted free agent and is headed to arbitration for his next contract after carrying a previous cap hit of $3.25 million.
His career high remains 50 points from 2024-25.
Nino Niederreiter also took a noticeable step back. He missed time because of an injury that required surgery, but the struggles started before that.
In 61 games, he posted 8 goals and 11 assists for 19 points. Like Perfetti, he spent time moving around the lineup, and that kind of shuffling can make it difficult to settle in with any one group.
Niederreiter sits on 499 career NHL points and is entering the third and final year of his current deal with the Jets at a $4 million cap hit.
Vladislav Namestnikov’s season was another rough one. After back-to-back years of 37 and 38 points, he dropped to 8 goals and 6 assists for 14 points in 60 games.
Injuries were part of the picture, but the bigger issue was the broader lack of depth scoring from the Jets, and Namestnikov was one of the players who couldn’t repeat his recent form. The 33-year-old is heading into the second and final year of his contract at a $3 million cap hit, and it’s still unclear whether the Jets will try to keep him when he reaches free agency in July 2027.
The Jets also took swings on short-term free agents that didn’t land the way they hoped. Tanner Pearson came in after a solid season with the Golden Knights, but he couldn’t reproduce that kind of output in Winnipeg’s bottom six.
In 52 games, he scored 7 goals and 6 assists for 13 points. He was later traded to the Sabres for a 7th round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, then played only 4 games for Buffalo and added 2 assists.
Pearson was a healthy scratch in the playoffs and is now an unrestricted free agent.
Gustav Nyquist fits the same category. After a surprising 75-point season with the Nashville Predators in 2023-24, his production dipped with the Predators and Wild last season, and the Jets were hoping he could give them depth scoring on the third line.
That never happened. Nyquist struggled all year, was sometimes a healthy scratch, and finished with just 1 goal and 11 assists for 12 points in 51 games.
His $3.25 million cap hit didn’t return the kind of value Winnipeg needed, and the 36-year-old is also an unrestricted free agent.
Cole Koepke was the one bright spot among this group. He was one of the better Jets free-agent additions from last July, even if his role was mostly limited to the fourth line.
It was only his second full NHL season after spending much of his early career in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch. In 66 games, Koepke scored 8 goals and 9 assists for 17 points.
The Jets already kept him around, re-signing him in April to a two-year deal with a $1.45 million cap hit.
With the 2026 NHL Free Agency period still moving along, the Jets’ offseason picture keeps taking shape. The next installment in the year-in-review series will cover the remaining defensemen, followed by a final look at the players who were traded during the season or appeared in only a small number of games as call-ups.
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