It's now late August, and Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck are still on the Winnipeg Jets. How much does the salary cap play a role, and is it worth hanging onto them?
Earlier this summer, it seemed only a matter of time until the Winnipeg Jets traded goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and center Mark Scheifele.
Both players are slated to become UFAs next July. Hellebuyck was said to be uninterested in a contract extension if the Jets intended to rebuild, while there remains no indication about Scheifele's intentions.
Having traded away Pierre-Luc Dubois to Los Angeles and bought out Blake Wheeler's final year in late June, Hellebucyk and Scheifele were expected to be quickly shipped out to the highest bidder.
Fast-forward to late August, and with training camp a month away, there's no sign the Jets are any closer to moving either player.
Scheifele surfaced a couple of times in the rumor mill as a potential trade target for the Boston Bruins following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Given the Bruins' salary cap limitations and shortfall of tradeable assets, they don't appear likely to be serious bidders if the Jets put the 30-year-old center on the trade block.
It's been a month since Winnipeg Sun columnist Scott Billeck noted the difficulty the Jets were encountering in their attempts to move Hellebuyck and Scheifele. He cited their respective $6-million-plus cap hits as the main obstacle with so many teams having tight payrolls because of the flattened salary cap.
Winnipeg currently has about $2.5 million in cap space after re-signing RFA defenseman Logan Stanley to a one-year, $1-million contract on Aug. 19, according to PuckPedia. That doesn't leave much space for the Jets to retain salary on either Hellebuyck or Scheifele's contracts while leaving some breathing room for any transactions during the season.
Billeck still believes the Jets can ill-afford to lose Hellebucyk and Scheifele to free agency. Retaining one or both this season risk damaging their trade value if they get hurt or their performance declines. On the other hand, he thinks management will face a difficult decision if both players remain on the team and the Jets are in a playoff spot by the trade deadline.