Adam Proteau discusses the Maple Leafs shoring up their defense group, the Winnipeg Jets slumping and the possibility of Marc-Andre Fleury returning for one more season.
Welcome back to Screen Shots, an ongoing THN.com feature in which we tackle a few hockey topics and analyze them in a few short paragraphs. Regular readers know the deal by now. Let’s get to it:
The Toronto Maple Leafs followed up an impressive 5-1 win over Washington Thursday by announcing they’d signed defenseman Simon Benoit to a three-year contract extension valued at $1.35 million per season. Benoit earned the new deal with his solid, if unspectacular, play in 54 games, averaging 16:54 of ice time while providing a physical edge the Leafs aren’t famous for.
Slowly but surely, Toronto’s defense corps is coming together for next season and beyond.
Although the Leafs will be tight to the salary cap in the immediate years ahead, getting Benoit on a team-friendly deal is a coup for Buds GM Brad Treliving. He now has veterans Morgan Rielly, Timothy Liljegren and Jake McCabe signed for a combined $11.95 million next year. The money the Leafs are saving on ‘D’ will help them bring back key secondary forwards, such as Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi – or it will allow Treliving to pursue a top-four D-man, such as Carolina’s Brett Pesce.
At this point, the biggest question surrounding Toronto’s back end is the status of veteran TJ Brodie. His game has slipped notably this season, and at a $5-million cap hit, he will be squeezed into accepting far less money, or he’ll move on to another franchise. But finding cheap options on the defense corps is crucial, and Benoit getting locked down for another three seasons is a significant win for the Leafs’ management team.
After impressing for most of the current season, the Winnipeg Jets have hit the skids, with five straight losses dropping their record to 44-23-6.
The Jets currently are third in the Central Division, but if they don’t stem the bleeding soon, they could be overtaken by the Nashville Predators. The Preds currently sit four points behind Winnipeg, and the Jets may slip into a wild-card slot. They'll already likely face either Colorado or Dallas at third in the division, but if they fall into a wild-card spot, Vancouver is in the mix as well. It's not ideal, to say the least.
The Jets had been one of the NHL’s better defensive squads before their current slump. Now, in their losing skid, they’ve been outscored 21-8. Star goalie Connor Hellebuyck hasn’t been able to steal wins for them, but he hasn’t received much support from his teammates.
Winnipeg has games left against Ottawa, Los Angeles, Calgary, Minnesota, Nashville, Dallas, Colorado, Seattle and Vancouver. If they’re going to hang on to third spot in the Central, they’ll almost certainly need to win six of those games. That’s no small feat, but the Jets haven’t helped themselves lately.
For the second straight year, they could be fumbling toward the playoffs. That’s a bad harbinger of what could be ahead for them, but that’s the reality of their situation. All the good they’ve done this year will quickly be forgotten if they lose in the first round again.
Finally, Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury told NHL.com's French site he’s open for a return to the Wild next season.
"The door is more open today for a return than it was in September or October," Fleury said in that interview earlier this week.
Fleury explained that he’s not interested in joining a new team when he becomes a UFA this summer, so it’s the Wild or retirement for him.
That brings to mind the question – how good does he think that Wild team will be? This writer made it clear before the season began that it wasn’t likely Minnesota would be a playoff team this season. Absent some stunning run to season’s end, the Wild will be firmly in the mushy middle, on the outside of the playoffs looking in. We can see that happening yet again next year, so Fleury is going to have to be more in love with hockey itself rather than being all-in about winning.
Like thousands of fans, we’ve got a soft spot in our heart for Fleury. But in the cutthroat NHL, nobody will do the Wild and Fleury any favors. Unless its young players take a major step forward, Minnesota is just not deep enough to be a true Stanley Cup contender.
Getting one more season out of Fleury will be good for the game, but let’s not pretend there’s a happy ending coming for Fleury and the Wild. Far more probable is another disappointing end to the year, but you can’t fault a veteran like Fleury for wanting to experience as many more NHL games as he can.