How will Jets deploy Cole Perfetti after signing bridge deal?

WINNIPEG — We’ll never know exactly how Cole Perfetti’s deal came together, but odds are it was along the lines of the player telling his agent to 'just get it done.'

The 22-year-old inked a two-year $6.5-million contract with the Winnipeg Jets on Monday evening, ending a stalemate that held him out for the first five days of training camp. Considering that Perfetti’s camp was reportedly eyeing closer to $4 million, the 10th overall selection in the 2020 draft caved on his original ask. 

“No one wants to miss time, no one wants to miss camp,” Perfetti said. “From the get-go, I’ve always wanted to be a part of it from Day 1 and obviously that wasn’t the case. I just tried to get it done in a good time and just make sure I'm not missing too much, that was the biggest thing for me. I wanted to be back with the guys. I wanted to be in the room with the group, you know, you wait all summer for that and you have to wait a couple extra days. It was nice to walk into the rink today and have that feeling kind of gone and just focus on hockey.”

The stress of the contract negotiation may be done, but the real work starts now for the five-foot-11 forward. He’s got lots to prove to a Jets team that he hopes to be with for the long term. But as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said in an appearance on the Kenny and Renny Show, the Jets never offered Perfetti a long-term deal. 

“A bridge deal is all about, I wouldn’t say betting on myself, I would say I have two years to go prove what kind of player [I am]. What [I] can do for this organization,” Perfetti said.

After two seasons cut short by injuries, Perfetti completed his first full NHL season last year, recording 19 goals and 38 points in 71 games. But he struggled in the second half of the year — recording just nine points in his final 41 games — and was scratched for four of Winnipeg’s five playoff games. Coming into this year though, new Jets coach Scott Arniel made it clear that he views Perfetti as a top-six forward for the team. The question now is where will he play? Or rather, how can the Jets maximize his talents?

For starters, it appears the Jets are putting a pause on developing him as a centre. This time last year, the Jets seemed gung ho on trying Perfetti down the middle. While Perfetti bulked up this summer — telling reporters that he’s up to around 193 pounds —  he’s not the fastest skater and Arniel pretty much insinuated that was a deciding factor in him staying on the wing. 

“The hardest part for a centreman in the NHL is that you have to go from your defensive corner — you're in the battle, 90 per cent of the time you're the low forward — and you’ve got to get out of the hole and you’ve got to get in the rush and get to the other end of the rink,” Arniel said. 

The Jets' bench boss went on to say that he liked what he saw from Perfetti on the wing, noting that the left-shot forward is capable of playing on either the left or right side. 

“He was actually good on the walls. It kind of got the puck in his hands a lot because he wasn’t coming out of the hole from the corners,” Arniel said of Perfetti’s abilities as a winger. “He was actually getting the puck either first or second touch and now he’s going from blue line to blue line, being able to make plays that way.”

But how can the Jets maximize Perfetti’s talents? It’s all about how they deploy him. 

Assuming that Perfetti plays on the team’s second line as Arniel said, here are three optimal line combos that could help get the most out of Perfetti.

Option 1: Nikolaj Ehlers — Vladislav Namestikov — Cole Perfetti

This is the safe option, so to speak. There’s some familiarity with this trio, who remained largely intact during Perfetti’s strong first-half showing last year. The bread-and-butter of Perfetti’s game is facilitating and finding seams to set up teammates and this scenario would weaponize his ability to set them up in transition, as he’d have a lightning-fast Nikolaj Ehlers skating on the opposite flank.

Option 2: Cole Perfetti — Brad Lambert — Gabriel Vilardi

We’re operating under the assumption that Brad Lambert will make the team out of camp and that Arniel will be comfortable taking Vilardi off the top line. If the stars were to align, this could be an excellent second line for the Jets and do wonders for Perfetti. Lambert’s got the speed to drive this line in transition. Vilardi’s got the forechecking and puck-protection ability to be an asset on the wall. And Perfetti’s I.Q. and passing ability would complement these two well, be it by finding Lambert in the neutral zone to facilitate a zone exit or by dishing it off to Vilardi down low in the offensive zone — where he scores the majority of his goals.

Option 3: Kyle Connor — Vladislav Namestnikov — Cole Perfetti

This might be the most unlikely scenario, given that the Jets have been reluctant to separate Connor and Mark Scheifele. But Connor and Perfetti looked good together during short stints together — additionally, Ehlers-Scheifele-Vilardi posted a 57.1 per cent expected goals for last year while Connor was sidelined with an injury, (according to Moneypuck.com) — and their games complement one another well. Like Perfetti, Connor is a cerebral player who’s easy to read off of and Perfetti can set up the lethal sniper in optimal spots.