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Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets (Photo by Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images)

3 Questions Facing the Winnipeg Jets in 2025-26

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Marc Sautter | Last updated Aug 4, 2025 2:15 PM ET

For the last two years, the Winnipeg Jets have faced many questions heading into the regular season, only to dominate from pillar to post and prove everyone wrong. This offseason feels no different. Teams like the Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, and Edmonton Oilers have had consistent regular-season success like the Jets have had, yet Winnipeg always seems to have doubters.

The Jets won 56 games last season, won the division, and won the Presidents’ Trophy. They were third in the league with 275 goals scored, and first with 190 goals allowed. Their power play (PP) was also first with a 28.9% success rate, and their penalty kill (PK) was 13th, ending the season at 79.4%.

In 2023-24, the Jets won 52 games, ranked fourth in the NHL in points, and finished second in the division. Their offensive production was down, ranked 15th in the league with 259 goals, but it was the first of two consecutive seasons where they allowed the fewest goals with 198. Their PP was 22nd, and the PK was 21st.

Winnipeg has been a great team for two seasons in a row, yet there are still questions up and down the roster.

Which Jets Will Score Goals?

Given the Jets’ lack of depth, who, besides Kyle Connor, will score goals this season? After 63 points walked out the door in the form of Nikolaj Ehlers, it’s a fair question to ask. But, not including Ehlers, the Jets had three players score 27-plus goals, and 11 players score double digits last season.

Connor is also one of the most underrated scorers in the NHL. Since 2017-18, he has scored less than 31 goals once, and that was in the shortened 2020-21 season, when he scored 26 goals in 56 games. In that stretch, he has scored over 40 goals twice, including last season, when he scored 41. Over the last two campaigns, Connor has scored 75 goals, including 34 in an injury-shortened 65-game season in 2023-24. He is one of the most consistent scorers in the NHL, and there’s no reason to think that will change in October.

Connor’s playmaking skills also fly under the radar. In 2024-25, he scored a career-high 56 assists, most of which contributed to Mark Scheifele’s 39 goals. Connor’s previous high in assists was in 2022-23 when he had 49, which also happened to be the season that Scheifele scored a career-high 42 goals.

These two will be linemates once again, as they continue to prove they are lethal together. Scheifele, in particular, has scored less than 25 goals twice since the 2015-16 season, and has hit 32-plus three times in that same stretch. Newly extended Gabriel Vilardi had a career-high 27 goals last season, which marks his third straight campaign with 22-plus goals.

Now, all three of those players are projected to be on the Jets’ top line this season, according to The Hockey Writers’ very own Declan Schroeder. That makes for a top-heavy lineup, but there is plenty of promise on the rest of the roster. Cole Perfetti should continue his upswing with 37 goals in his last two seasons, including 18 last season when he played all 82 games for the first time in his career. Nino Niederreiter might not be the consistent 20-plus scorer he was in the first decade of his career, but he still hit 18 and 19 in the last two seasons.

It’s hard to know exactly the type of production the Jets will get from players deeper in the lineup, like Vladislav Namestnikov, Alex Iafallo, Gustav Nyquist and, of course, Jonathan Toews, who might be the feel-good story of the summer. However, these are all terrific two-way players who still have offensive upside. Winnipeg isn’t the only team with production issues in the bottom half of its lineup. However, with their consistency at the top, the Jets should, once again, be just fine.

What Can We Expect From Jonathan Toews?

The 37-year-old Toews is making a comeback after missing the last two seasons due to lingering health issues and playing only 53 games in 2022-23. However, over 15 seasons, he scored 372 goals, 883 points, and won three Stanley Cups. He also has two Olympic gold medals and six other gold medals across five different tournaments. Toews is a legend, and decorated like one. The upside is there, but unfortunately, the downside is also staring us right in the face.

Toews was never an elite offensive producer. It was his consistency and two-way game that made him one of the best players in the league for over a decade. In the first 12 years of his career, Toews scored between 20 and 35 goals every season, and between 48 and 81 points. His 48-point season was in 2012-13, when he played 47 games.

Over the last two seasons of his career, however, his totals started to dip dramatically. In 2021-22, Toews scored 12 goals and 37 points, and 15 goals and 31 points in 2022-23. Now, those Chicago Blackhawks teams were dreadful, but he was very clearly not the same player.

Jonathan Toews (Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports)

As of now, Toews is projected to be the second-line centre, which would put him between two very good wingers in Niederreiter and Perfetti. Over his career, he has an exceptional 57.3% win-rate in the faceoff circle and 229 power-play points, which should make him valuable if he can find his game.

The plain and simple fact is that we just don’t know what Toews is going to bring. If things go the way everyone hopes, he will be an excellent addition to the top-six and will put the bottom-six players like Namestnikov in their proper place. But if it doesn’t go well, then the middle of the ice will be exposed to some pretty concerning depth issues. We will all hope for the best. But we just don’t know.

What Would be a Successful Season for the Jets?

Finally, what minimal outcome would make this season successful for the Jets? Winning one round? Two? Three? Or, do they have to raise the Stanley Cup? The playoffs are the floor for Winnipeg, but what is the ceiling? The Jets should have little trouble making the playoffs in general, but based on their trajectory over the last two seasons, that simply isn’t good enough.

Anything less than a Western Conference Final appearance would be a disappointment. The Jets have made it to the playoffs in seven of the last eight seasons and have made it past the first round twice. In 2017-18, the team made the Conference Final, and last season, they squeaked past the St. Louis Blues before losing to the Stars in six games. Teams like the Stars, Hurricanes, Panthers, Oilers, and Vegas Golden Knights are Stanley Cup Final or bust. I don’t think the Jets are quite there, but they are getting close.

The Central Division and the Atlantic Division duke it out year after year to claim the hardest division in the NHL, and it’s only getting harder. We know the Stars and the Avalanche, but the Blues and the Minnesota Wild are coming and should be better this season. The Utah Mammoth are on their way up, and the Nashville Predators have no choice but to be better after an abysmal season in 2024-25.

However, the Jets are slowly running out of excuses. If they are eliminated in the first two rounds of the postseason, there’s no, “Ah, well, they faced a difficult Avalanche team”, or “Sure, they lost to the Stars, but the Stars are the Stars!” It’s Final Four or bust for Winnipeg, and we’ll see how it all comes together.