How a 21-Year-Old Can Propel the Winnipeg Jets in a Critical Season
Cole Perfetti is the front-runner to replace Pierre-Luc Dubois as the Winnipeg Jets' second-line center. Jacob Stoller has more on how it could pay off – if everything goes right.
The Winnipeg Jets’ second-line center spot appears to be Cole Perfetti’s to lose.
“We’re going to give him every opportunity to play center,” Jets coach Rick Bowness told reporters on Wednesday.
After losing Pierre-Luc Dubois this summer, Winnipeg has a gaping hole in the 2C slot. It’s not like Perfetti is the only option — as it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Gabriel Vilardi or Vladislav Namestnikov start camp in that role. The 21-year-old isn’t the safest option, either, per se — having been limited to just 69 NHL games in his first two NHL seasons after suffering season-ending injuries in consecutive years.
But Perfetti — the 10th overall selection in the 2020 draft — undoubtedly has the most upside. This is a player who recorded 41 points in 49 AHL games over two seasons before even turning 20. Since breaking into the NHL during the 2021-22 season, Perfetti has recorded 37 points in 69 games.
Albeit the small sample size, Perfetti has shown flashes of his elite playing ability in the big leagues. Over the last two years, Perfetti has combined for 0.81 5-on-5 primary assists per 60 minutes — which puts him in the 84th percentile of forwards who played at least 500 minutes, according to naturalstattrick.com.
To say he’s treading upward would be an understatement, which is essential for a team with significant pending UFAs who want to win a Stanley Cup. And the best way for Perfetti to really maximize his skill set — highlighted by his elite hockey sense and passing ability — is to put him in his natural position.
“Instead of just being limited to seeing the ice like this, I’m going to be able to have my peripheral, scan both sides and use both sides of the ice,” the left-shot Perfetti said while mimicking holding a hockey stick and looking to the right. “I’m really looking forward to that. That’s one thing I enjoyed playing center my whole life — just being able to go left, or right, or coming up the middle.”
It’s imperative for a player like Perfetti, who lacks raw foot speed, to have more space to work with.
“Wingers sometimes – you’re stuck on the blueline, posted up as an outlet, where centers sometimes are able to keep their speed and come underneath the play and get the puck flying into the neutral zone,” Perfetti explained.
Of course, there’s more that goes into being an NHL top-six center than just stylistic attributes — such as defensive ability, which Bowness admitted Perfetti will have to improve on, faceoffs and general durability. But if Perfetti can figure it out, it could create a positive trickle-down effect for a Jets team that intends to contend this season.
For starters, Perfetti appears to be the perfect player to play alongside Nikolaj Ehlers on the team’s second line. Ehlers, one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, has long been underused by Winnipeg despite being an elite player at 5-on-5. Dating back to the start of the 2020-21 season, Ehlers has recorded the 18th-most 5-on-5 points per 60 minutes among skaters who played at least 700 minutes, according to naturalstattrick.com. There’s reason to believe the six-time 20-plus-goal scorer is capable of more, especially with his ice time due to increase from an average of 17:01 per game over the last three years. Perfetti’s vision could bring the most out of Ehlers, who the Jets will need more from in the wake of Wheeler’s departure.
“He’s so fast that if I can get (the puck) to him in stride, he can make a lot of damage,” Perfetti said.
Perfetti and Ehlers could make for a dynamite combo in transition. Ehlers is elite at generating controlled zone entries during 5-on-5 play. According to Corey Sznajder of allthreezones.com, Ehlers recorded the second-most 5-on-5 controlled entries of any forward during the 2021-22 season (Ehlers was limited to 45 games last season, which produced too small of a sample size to be included in Sznajder’s database). Last season, during 5-on-5 play, Perfetti generated 4.49 entries that led to scoring chances — ranking him 39th among all forwards.
“He can make plays both on their forehand and backhand, which is key for a center,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey told The Hockey News.
Perfetti could also do wonders for the team’s power play. Winnipeg has proven sharpshooters in Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, but the team has struggled over the last two years on the man advantage — ranking 23rd and 17th in the last two seasons — and a lot of that has to do with Blake Wheeler’s decline in efficiency on the power play.
There’s no doubt about his smarts. The 5-foot-11 center’s strength, however? So far, he’s received glowing remarks for how he’s looked coming into camp after his first summer training with Matt Nichol, one of the most highly respected trainers who works with NHL players.
“(He) put on a lot of muscle, put in a lot of work this summer,” said Mark Scheifele.“I gained a lot of respect for the kid for doing that — making some changes and learning and trying to grow.”
Granted, all of this is hypothetical, and a lot of this hinges on Perfetti being able to handle the wear and tear of a full season. And Perfetti is determined to prove just that.
“That’s my goal, to play the whole season,” Perfetti said. “It’s not easy to do, there’s a lot that goes into it, but I want to show that I’m strong enough and big enough and smart enough.”