The Calgary Flames have put Connor Zary on waivers, and that opens the door for a team like the Winnipeg Jets to take a hard look.
Zary was the 24th overall pick in 2020, and he carries a $3.775 million cap hit this season and next. For any club willing to claim him, the price tag is straightforward: a forward with NHL production already on his résumé, and no asset cost beyond the contract.
Winnipeg makes sense as a possible landing spot because the organization’s prospect pipeline is thin and the group up front could use another scoring option. The Jets had trouble generating offense last season, finishing with the eighth-worst attack in the NHL at 2.79 goals per game.
There’s also a clear fit in terms of risk and reward. If the move doesn’t work, Zary would only be on Winnipeg’s payroll through the end of next season, and the rising salary cap makes that deal easier to carry. If it does work, the Jets would be adding a player who has shown he can help offensively at the NHL level.
In his first full NHL season, Zary put up 34 points in 63 games. Over a full 82-game schedule, that pace would have landed around 45 points. At his cap hit, that kind of output would make him a useful piece in the lineup.
There’s even a path for him to matter quickly. If Isak Rosen doesn’t produce on the second line with Viggo Björck and Cole Perfetti, Zary could be an option to slide into that top-six role.
The concern, of course, is health. Zary dealt with a knee injury during the 2024-25 NHL season after a knee-on-knee collision, and the source material notes that Flames fans have seen the elite skating he once had take a hit. That decline may be part of why his play has slipped and why he’s now on waivers.
So the question for Winnipeg is simple: with a forward group that was only lightly altered this offseason, including the addition of Björck, is it worth taking a flyer on Zary and seeing whether the player he was before the knee injury is still in there?
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