56-22-4, 116 points (1st Central, 1st overall)
3.35 GF/GP, 4th; 2.32 GA/GP, 1st
28.9 PP%, 1st; 79.4 PK%, 13th

Key losses: C/RW Mason Appleton, LW/RW Nikolaj Ehlers, LW/RW Brandon Tanev

Key additions: C Jonathan Toews, LW/RW Gustav Nyquist, LW Tanner Pearson

Expected lineup:

Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Gabriel Vilardi
Cole Perfetti – Jonathan Toews – Gustav Nyquist
Nino Niederreiter – Adam Lowry – Alex Iafallo 
Vladislav Namestnikov – Morgan Barron – Cole Koepke

Josh Morrissey – Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg – Neal Pionk
 Haydn Fleury – Luke Schenn

Connor Hellebuyck – Eric Comrie

5-on-5:

The Jets were weirdly good, and I mean that as a compliment. For much of the season, asides from Connor Hellebuyck’s outstanding play that really drove the bus, the Jets were more than the sum of their parts.

They were 14th in percentage share of shot attempts and 11th in expected goals at 5-on-5. You don’t have to be perfect to be good, but you do need to get a little lucky sometimes. The Jets didn’t generate a lot of chances, but they were very good at getting high-quality looks using their speed and converting them. That was a big part of the recipe for the Jets’ success and a massive turnaround from ranking 15th in goals for per game and 22nd on the power play in the previous season.

Per NHL EDGE, the Jets were in the 90th percentile in both top skating speed and shot speed, and in the 83rd percentile in distance skated. In other words, they were fast and they covered a lot of the ice very quickly. When it came to shooting, there were bare above average in total shots on goal (51st percentile), but ranked in the 74th percentile in high-danger shots on goal, 93rd percentile in high-danger goals and 96th percentile in high-danger shooting percentage.

The Jets’ top five scorers all had really high shooting percentages with Mark Scheifele and Gabe Vilardi both clearing 20 percent. The Jets were the only team to have two players who scored at least 20 goals and shot at least 20 percent (Josh Norris and Ryan McLeod did so for the Sabres, but Norris spent part of the season with the Sens), and this 20-20 mark has only been accomplished 63 times in the cap era.

This also doesn’t look like a fluke; among players with at least 200 goals in the cap era, only Leon Draisaitl and Brayden Point are more efficient than Scheifele. Vilardi’s sample size is much smaller with only 90 goals in 270 career games, but likewise has an astonishing 18.2 career shooting percentage. Put them together on the same line and it’s like they never miss.

The Jets were very much carried by the incredible efficiency of their top line. When the Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi line was not on the ice, the Jets actually posted better possession numbers at 5-on-5. The difference, however, was that when their top line was on the ice, the Jets shot 11.48 percent, and a measly 7.93 percent when they weren’t. Clearly, possession numbers never tell the entire story.

Even with the dominance of their top line, we cannot underestimate the Jets’ depth. Vladislav Namestnikov put together a fine season despite being underqualified as a No. 2 center, helping Cole Perfetti set a career high with 50 points and Nikolaj Ehlers scored at the highest point-per-game pace in his career. Their checking line with Adam Lowry flanked by Nino Niederreiter and Mason Appleton was also one of the league’s strongest with good possession numbers, and for most of the season, head coach Scott Arniel kept his top three lines intact. That was key for building chemistry.

More will be discussed in the outlook, but it’ll be interesting to see if the Jets can repeat what they did last season. Their PDO was league-high 1.025, indicating they were on the right side of lady luck when it came to both shooting percentage and save percentage. More importantly, losing Ehlers and Brandon Tanev robs them of some of the speed that made their offense so dangerous, and only Niederreiter remains from their checking line with Lowry injured to start the season and Appleton now with the Red Wings.

Power Play:

It was the same story on special teams where the Jets were just frighteningly efficient. They ranked 17th in expected goals and 11th in expected goals per 60 minutes on the power play but, guess what, they ranked third in high-danger goals for and second in shooting percentage.

I never expected Josh Morrissey to develop into one of the best offensive defensemen in the league, and I feel he’s still underappreciated, but he’s a big reason for their success. I thought he was good in major junior but saw somewhat inflated point totals playing with Draisaitl, and his offense didn’t really blossom until his sixth season. Over the past three seasons, however, he’s only one of six defensemen to have at least 200 points and ranks ninth with 69 power-play points.

I’d be a little surprised if the Jets finished with a top-five power play in 2025-26, but with Morrissey at the point and Scheifele and Vilardi being so efficient, it definitely still has the makings of a very good unit. I just think it’ll be really hard to replicate what they did last season because everything seemed to go their way.

All stats courtesy of naturalstattrick.com, moneypuck.com, hockeyviz.com, allthreezones.com, hockey-reference.com, eliteprospects.com unless otherwise noted.