Gabriel Vilardi Gets Brutally Honest About Reasons Free Agents Avoid Signing in Winnipeg

Newly signed Jets' Gabriel Vilardi got brutally honest about why free agents avoid Winnipeg, and he said the cold weather makes players not want to explore it.

There is always speculation with professional players about who they'd love to play for and who they'd love to avoid.

In the National Hockey League, most coveted destinations generally came with balmy climates, limited media exposure, and a winning culture. To most on the outside looking in, the Winnipeg Jets don't provide much of that.

In spite of a decade of consecutive strong regular-season play, Winnipeg is one of the least-populous markets in the league and one of its coldest.

Add a string of exciting key players leaving the team in recent years, and more actively turning away from it in free agency, and the Jets unfairly attained a reputation for being a place no one wants to play for. That assumption isn't true for all people.

Despite the city of Winnipeg's 'bad reputation', Gabriel Vilardi loves it

Winnipeg forward Gabriel Vilardi recently re-signed with Winnipeg with a six-year deal that will keep him with the club through 2031.

A four-year Los Angeles Kings member, Gabriel Vilardi was quick to point out a lack of big-time spotlights in Winnipeg compared to L.A.'s rowdier environment, but somehow loves it, despite the cold weather and dark days.

'I think the perception (of Winnipeg) is tough,' Vilardi told reporters. 'For me, for example, when I played in L.A. and you come to Winnipeg, you're staying on Portage, you don't really leave that downtown area and it's freezing cold. So you're like, 'wow, this is kind of dark.' It's not something that you're looking forward to going out and enjoying a dinner, kind of thing. But once you get to Winnipeg and you leave the downtown area and go to your neighbourhoods in River Heights and Tuxedo whatever it is. For me, personally, it feels like home. I like that.'

'On the outside for guys looking in, you have to figure out what you want. Do you want to go live in a warm climate and maybe play on a worse team, or do you want to come to Winnipeg and, sure, it's minus-30, but you're going to be on a good team. At the end of the day for me, it's about hockey. I want to win, I want to be a good player. That's my top priority in life. So it's easy to overlook the cons and look at the pros for me.'