Brossoit comes aboard, but 'evolving' Jets stay quiet on opening day of free agency

WINNIPEG - The last time he was in the building, Laurent Brossoit was serenaded with chants that were appropriate for the opposition goalie.

Let’s just say the tune - and the tone - will be changing quickly as the goalie who helped the Vegas Golden Knights capture the Stanley Cup this past spring is returning to the Winnipeg Jets on a one-year deal that will pay him $1.75 million.

The plan, for now, is for Brossoit to share the crease with Connor Hellebuyck, though his situation remains a tad unsettled, along with top-line centre Mark Scheifele.

Brossoit, 30, dealt with some hip issues during the past several seasons but after getting healthy, he was excellent for the Golden Knights - going 7-0-3 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage in 11 games before starting the first 11 games of the Stanley Cup playoffs before he was sidelined with an injury.

“LB is someone that when we signed him several years ago, I think a lot of people didn’t know much about him,” said general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. “I thought (Jets goalie coach) Wade Flaherty did a great job in helping him grow. He went off to another situation for a period of time. But the opportunity to come back and work with Hellebuyck was something that appealed to LB as well. I think they’ll be a good tandem. LB has grown in the goaltending department as well. He’s a different goaltender than he was when he was here the first time, which is going to benefit the organization.”

Bringing Brossoit and retaining the services of versatile forward Vladislav Namestnikov were the two most notable moves of the opening day of free agency for the Jets, who also added forward depth and toughness in Jeffrey Viel on a one-year, one-way deal worth $775,000, and some additional goalie depth in Collin Delia, who will be No. 3 on the organizational depth chart after inking a one-year, one-way deal for the league minimum.

Splashy moves?

Not at all, but two of those already happened for the Jets recently with the trade of centre Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings and the departure of former captain Blake Wheeler after the final year of his contract was bought out.

Saturday’s action was more about continuing along the path Cheveldayoff has been on this offseason.

While there’s been plenty of chatter about the direction of the hockey club, Cheveldayoff made it clear he’s got a word other than retooling to describe what is taking place under his watch in what is his 13th season in the GM chair.

“I think that’s the word right there. Evolves,” said Cheveldayoff. “That’s really what it’s all about. If you look at our organization, we have to evolve. We have to make some changes. We didn’t get to where we wanted to go, but that doesn’t diminish the good things that happened along the way. And the good people that were part of it.

“We got to a certain point, we kept on pushing, pushing, pushing to try to see if we can continue to do it with the group that we had. And now we’ve got an opportunity with that trade to have some really good young players come in, with room to grow.”

No matter what you call it, the Jets intend on being competitive.

Cheveldayoff was asked numerous times about the future of Scheifele and Hellebuyck and he ultimately left the door open not just to start the season with the Jets, but that a contract extension for both players remains a possibility.

“The narrative is one that’s not necessarily always the truth and the reality of things. Again, we’re excited. I think I said in my media at the draft that Scheif and Helly are big parts of our organization. We have lots of good pieces here,” said Cheveldayoff. “I don’t think the door is closed for an extension. I still think there’s opportunities for extension. And, again, I think there has been a little bit of a taken-out-of-context narrative with Mark Scheifele’s situation. When I met with his representatives at the combine, he was open to anything. That was his mantra from the beginning. I told him, ‘Look, you’re probably going to see your name out there. It’s just simply that time of the year.’

“But it didn’t mean one thing or another when it comes to the outlook. When a guy who has signed one extension or signed something in the organization and gets to a point of unrestricted free agency, you want them when they make that next choice to be sure, because that next choice might take them to the end of their next contract. We went through it with Blake Wheeler when we gave him this last extension and we talked about all the different things and we even talked about this might be a situation that happens (buyout) in the end. Again, these players played hard for us and have played hard and are going to continue to play hard for us moving forward.” 

With these additions and the contracts required for the six remaining restricted free agents, Cheveldayoff said the Jets will continue to be a team that will be close - if not at - the salary cap ceiling.

Cheveldayoff is encouraged by how things are coming together in what has already been a busy start to the off-season.

“You addressed some of your needs right now. You get a good pick in next year’s draft. I do want to say that I would like to extend my most heartfelt thank you to Blake Wheeler and his family for all of the years that he put into this organization, what the family has put into the community and the player that he was,” said Cheveldayoff. “He bet on us several times and, unfortunately, we got close but just not close enough. He was a tremendous part of that. In some ways, it was good for both of us, just to be able to to part ways where both sides are on an amicably-speaking, good type of relationship. And I’m happy he found a good situation for himself today. But real thankful for all of the things he’s done for our organization.

“That being said, we’ve changed quite a bit of different aspects and avenues of our organization, so I am real comfortable with where we’re at right now. The summer’s long. Who knows what happens. But I’m excited about this group that sits in front of me.”

Wheeler signed a one-year deal with the New York Rangers on Saturday, centre Kevin Stenlund ended up with the Florida Panthers and goalie David Rittich landed with the Los Angeles Kings.

The Jets look mostly set in goal and up front, though the blue line remains a tad crowded, with 10 blue-liners competing for the seven or eight spots.

The expectation is that the Jets will look to move a couple of D-men, but it’s also possible the team might be looking to change up the mix?

Two interesting right-handed shot blue-liners that could fit the criteria for the Jets are Matt Dumba and Ethan Bear.

“There might be a couple things we’re still kicking around. There were some intriguing things that we’ve talked about. We’ll see how things come together,” said Chevleldayoff. “From a cap perspective, obviously we have some RFA situations to deal with. They all have potential arb, but you’re hoping to get to those points and come to conclusions and agreements before it gets to that, and they should.

“You have those things to take care of and once you go through all that, we’re going to be pretty tight to the cap. But that’s the reality. That’s what we’ve always committed to. So we’ll see, but there might be some other depth things we’ll talk about doing or some tweaks around the side.”

Winnipeg Jets offseason work-in-progress depth chart:

Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Gabe Vilardi

Cole Perfetti-Vladislav Namestnikov-Nikolaj Ehlers

Alex Iafallo-Adam Lowry-Nino Niederreiter

Morgan Barron-Rasmus Kupari-Mason Appleton

Jeffrey Viel-David Gustafsson-Jansen Harkins/Kristian Reichel

Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo

Brenden Dillon-Neal Pionk

Dylan Samberg-Nate Schmidt

Logan Stanley-Kyle Capobianco

Ville Heinola-Declan Chisholm

Connor Hellebuyck

Laurent Brosssoit

Collin Delia

Oskari Salminen

Thomas Milic