Screen Shots: Jets' Vintage Jersey Love, NHL Labor Uncertainty, And Bruins An Underdog Vs. Leafs?

Adam Proteau discusses love for the Jets' classic look, how some contracts account for labor uncertainty and David Pastrnak painting the Bruins as underdogs last year.

Now that the Boston Bruins played their hand, what is Jeremy Swayman worth on a contract extension?

Welcome back to Screen Shots, a regular THN.com feature in which we break down a few hockey stories and analyze them in a few brief paragraphs. Let’s get to it:

Winnipeg Jets fans are like many hockey fans in that they’ve got a soft spot in their hearts for vintage jerseys.

Recently, in a team Instagram post asking fans for their favorite Jets jersey, a sizeable number called on the team to go back to the classic look from their games in the NHL’s Heritage Classic games from 2016 and 2019, which The Hockey News' Winnipeg Jets site delved into.

If the Jets did bring back the throwback jerseys, they’d be following in the footsteps of the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, which went back to the future this year by reinventing popular jerseys from their past.

To that end, the Jets should be more than happy to build on their history, re-adopt their classic jerseys and give fans what they want.

It’s another way to sell more merchandise, and given Winnipeg’s difficulty selling enough season tickets of late, it should be pursuing every avenue to listen to the fans

Changing jerseys isn’t a necessity, of course, but as the Jets attempt to chart a new, more successful on-ice course, a nod to the past can’t hurt at all.

The last thing you probably want to hear about in the dog days of summer is the possibility of labor strife in the NHL. But TSN's Travis Yost reports players are preparing for labor uncertainty, with the collective bargaining agreement being due for renewal in 2026.

To be sure, NHL player agents have had a potential lockout or strike on their radar for years now, as evidenced by the lockout-protected contracts many NHLers have signed in recent years. As Yost noted using PuckPedia data, the percentage of contracts with terms extending into the 2026-27 season jumps at the time the CBA expires.

Getting teams to pay the majority of contracts as signing bonuses is one way to protect players from potential labor wars. It’s hard to fault players for recognizing potential downfalls and guard against the possibility whenever and wherever possible.

It’s difficult to envision a CBA stance that would justify another lockout or strife. The league has said business has never been better, so it would be a stretch, to say the least, that another labor battle is in any way necessary. That said, Yost mentioned a slowdown in year-over-year growth since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that could lead to negotiations about hockey-related revenues.

Agents clearly believe in the “better safe than sorry” approach, so you should expect more free agents to sign similar deals as negotiations for a new CBA draw nearer.

Finally, it was a little bit amusing to see Boston Bruins star winger David Pastrnak say his team beat a better team on paper in defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We proved a lot of people wrong,” Pastrnak told Sportsnet at the NHL’s European player tour media event last week. “Last year, we were not even supposed to make the playoffs. We beat a better team on paper (in Toronto).”

Now, it’s definitely true some NHL observers didn’t peg Boston as a playoff team last year. But after a terrific regular season that saw the Bruins finish second in the Atlantic Division – seven standings points ahead of the third-place Leafs – it’s an exaggeration to suggest the B's were underdogs against the Buds.

Boston had clearly better goaltending in Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, and unlike Toronto, virtually all of the Bruins’ key players were able to suit up for the team’s games against the Leafs.

Players like to position themselves as underdogs whenever possible, but this was not a David vs. Goliath situation. If anything, it was a case of the Bruins winning a series they should’ve won, and Pastrnak’s revisionist history isn’t going to change that fact.

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