Winnipeg Jets offseason forward targets: Sean Monahan, Martin Necas and more

The Winnipeg Jets signed one of their pending free agents on Tuesday, locking up Dylan DeMelo for four more years at a cap hit of $4.9 million.

The team’s next moves could be more dramatic, with Nikolaj Ehlers on the market and a Rutger McGroarty trade expected before this weekend’s NHL Draft.

Looking ahead to July 1, which free agents make the most sense for the Jets? How might Sean Monahan stack up with Elias Lindholm, who’s likely headed for a bigger UFA payday, or prairie product, Chandler Stephenson?

If they acquire Martin Necas from the Hurricanes, what kind of player are they getting? And what are a few other options for Winnipeg on the trade market?

Before we get started, consider this look at the forwards as things stand.

The Jets have veterans like Dominic Toninato and youth like Rasmus Kupari, Brad Lambert and Nikita Chibrikov who might yet make an impact on next season’s roster, but here’s a snapshot of the moment:

The Jets could use some more “hard to play against” in their forward group even if they’re able to bring Monahan back and find a way to retain Ehlers. Without them, Winnipeg needs upgrades.

Where might they look?

UFA

Sean Monahan, C

Age: 29

Contract projection, via Evolving Hockey: Four years, $5.3 million AAV

Usage: Second line at five-on-five, first unit PP

Production: 26 goals, 33 assists, 59 points in 83 games

Possession impact, via Hockey Viz: Neutral

Monahan continues to create offence — particularly on the power play, where quick reads and soft hands make him a high-end bumper player. This gets lost in the Jets’ season-long struggles with the man advantage but Winnipeg’s power play hummed when he and Gabriel Vilardi were both in the lineup. I’ve written this before but Monahan looked less overwhelmed than some of his teammates in the playoffs; the Jets got half the goals and roughly half the scoring chances with him on the ice against Colorado.

The questions about re-signing Monahan are about the size and term of his contract versus his age (30 in October), footspeed (below average) and roster construction. His presence makes Winnipeg better but could impact the team’s ability to play at speed or serve to limit the minutes of younger centre options like Vilardi, Cole Perfetti or even Lambert. Durability could also be a concern, given that multiple injuries and surgeries were the source of Monahan’s decline from a surefire 60-point player to a reclamation project. I believe Monahan has received an offer from the Jets and is considering his options as July 1 approaches.

Elias Lindholm, C

Age: 29

Contract projection: Seven years, $7.9 million AAV

Usage: Second line at five-on-five, first unit PP, first unit PK

Production: 15 goals, 29 assists, 44 points in 75 games

Possession impact: Negative

Lindholm spent the majority of his career as a completely viable tough-minutes centre before falling off in a big way when Calgary traded Matthew Tkachuk to Florida. He still helps on both special teams but wasn’t a dominant five-on-five player in recent seasons. Winnipeg was keenly interested in Lindholm before Calgary traded him to Vancouver. Now that Lindholm is coming off a celebrated playoff performance (10 points in 13 games while playing against Edmonton and Nashville’s best players) he should have plenty of suitors as free agency approaches.

I’d be leery of a seven-year contract, to be clear, but Lindholm’s best work is still good work. On the cheaper end in Vancouver, left-shooting Teddy Blueger won a pile of faceoffs and scored 28 points from a middle-six role.

Chandler Stephenson, C

Age: 30

Contract projection: Four years, $6.1 million AAV

Usage: Second line at five-on-five, first unit PP, second unit PK

Production:16 goals, 35 assists, 51 points in 75 games

Possession impact: Negative

Stephenson is a prairie product who punished Winnipeg for its 2023 playoff mistakes, scoring four goals and four assists in the Golden Knights’ five-game win. I suspect that kind of production on the way to the Stanley Cup will inflate people’s impression of Stephenson. He’s not a point-per-game player like he was that series, although he’s been a consistent 60-point scorer. The concern? Stephenson has been described to me as the beneficiary of Mark Stone’s elite two-way play more than a driver in his own right — and his underlying numbers bear it out.

I’ll be fascinated to see what kind of contract Stephenson gets compared to Monahan and which player has a bigger impact. Monahan has stronger impacts on shots and expected goals, but Stephenson’s two Stanley Cups probably shine brighter — in the minds of teams and fans alike.

Age: 29

Contract projection: Five years, $6.8 million AAV

Usage: Third line at five-on-five, second unit PP, second unit PK

Production: 25 goals, 28 assists, 53 points in 76 games

Possession impact: Positive

Teuvo Teravainen is a product of Carolina’s high-energy, high-pressure forechecking system. He consistently scores at a 50-point per 82-game rate (and has surpassed 60 points four times). He’s also a dogged penalty killer who has put in work for new Jets PK coach, Dean Chynoweth, on an aggressive, effective, high-tempo penalty kill that kept the puck moving up ice. There’s a lot to like about a short-term fit, although don’t mistake Teravainen for an elite even strength finisher. His 1.65 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five last season tracked closer to Nino Niederreiter — solid, but not that a top-six forward. Seventeen of Teravainen’s points came on the power play and four came on the PK.

While we’re talking about Hurricanes free agents forwards, consider Jordan Martinook. Renowned for being hard to play against, Martinook was born in Brandon, Man., and still has Manitoban roots. He’s a left winger who tends to score about 30 points a year from the middle of the lineup.

Bryan Little, C

Age: 36

Nostalgia impact: Sweet

I have no sourced information that leads to Bryan Little’s inclusion on this list. I just can’t help myself from thinking Winnipeg could do Little a great honour of signing him as a UFA such that he could retire as a Jet — if he’s even interested in such a thing. Wayne Simmonds signed a ceremonial one-day contract with Philadelphia in April to be honoured by his longtime club. Perhaps there is a similar route available here.

If you’re interested, Guelph Today recently published an excellent piece about Little’s triathlon pursuits. In it, Little says his heart stayed in Winnipeg even after his contract was traded to Arizona.

Trade targets

Martin Necas, RW/C

Age: 25

Contract: RFA 2024, with arbitration rights and 2026 UFA eligibility

Usage: Second line at five-on-five, second unit PP

Production: 24 goals, 29 assists, 53 points in 77 games

Possession impact: Positive

Necas creates a lot at both ends of the ice, generally helping more than he hurts, and he’s probably ready to be counted on as a second-line scorer. Making sense of him as a player takes an understanding of Carolina’s unique forward usage: Necas got the second most five-on-five minutes per game Teravainen placed 10th, and only two minutes separated the two of them. The distance between second and 10th in Winnipeg was closer to four minutes.

What does it all mean? Necas played second-line minutes for Carolina, mostly on the wing. His faceoff numbers are miserable, making him an unlikely center in Winnipeg. Still, there are those who believe that the right-shooting forward is on his way to becoming a higher-end top-six scorer, using his size and heads-up play in transition to generate offence at five-on-five.

I wonder if the Jets are able to make something work around Ehlers.

Age: 27

Contract: $2.95 million, UFA 2026

Usage: Third line at five-on-five, second PP, first PK

Production: 11 goals, 24 assists, 35 points in 72 games

Possession impact: Negative

Ottawa made a big trade to acquire Linus Ullmark and could use the cap relief of moving on from a player like Mathieu Joseph.

Joseph is a left-shooting forward who plays either wing with plenty of competitiveness and forechecking energy. He’d be a luxury on Winnipeg’s fourth line or perhaps an upgrade on Mason Appleton playing on his off-hand side on the Jets’ third line during Appleton’s colder streaks. He’s an aggressive penalty killer who tends to pick up a short-handed goal or two in most seasons. At five-on-five, he’s a low event player but was associated with more scoring chances against the Senators than for them.

Joseph’s contract should make him a cheap acquisition if the Jets want more sandpaper in their bottom six.

Age: 27

Contract: $2.665 million, UFA 2025

Usage: Third line at five-on-five

Production: 7 goals, 7 assists, 14 points in 55 games

Possession impact: Positive

For a little while early in his career, everything that Tanner Jeannot touched turned into a goal. He scored on 20 percent of his shots as a rookie in Nashville, leading to 41 points in his first full season. Add in the physicality, the 200-plus hits per season and a general sense of being annoying to play against and one begins to understand why Tampa Bay threw so very many draft picks — a first-, second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round pick, to be exact — at the Predators to acquire Jeannot in 2023.

The year he scored a ton of points was a wild outlier. Jeannot is not Milan Lucic in his prime, but now I wonder if the market has started to undervalue Jeannot based on the way his shooting percentage (and point totals) have crashed down to earth. He continues to play a truculent brand of hockey and creates as much chaos in the offensive zone as he does in his own end. Chris Johnston lists Jeannot eighth on his trade board; he could be an intriguing target.

(Photo: Bob Frid / USA Today)