Winnipeg Jets winger Cole Perfetti has the makings to produce a breakout season with new line additions and more minutes expected.
The Winnipeg Jets are heading into next season with the question on everyone's mind being the offence. Defence and goaltending have been the strength of the team in recent memory and with the loss of top six winger Nikolaj Ehlers, people are wondering how they will recover with mild adds like Gustav Nyquist and Tanner Pearson.
Adding Jonathan Toews was certainly a strong start, but he will be lining up alongside Gustav Nyquist, who is coming off the worst season of his career, and 23-year-old Cole Perfetti, who is looking to build on a breakout postseason. Perfetti captured national attention with one of the most unforgettable goals in both team and NHL history, tying Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues in the final seconds of the first round.
With a noticeable gap in the lineup, someone will need to rise to the occasion. While some are looking to the veteran Nyquist, now 35 years old, to bounce back, Perfetti may be the more likely candidate. The Whitby native has shown steady progress over his first three NHL seasons, finishing last year with a career-high 50 points. According to the latest Fantasy Hockey rankings and projections from Yahoo, Perfetti is expected to match that total this season with 18 goals and 32 assists, placing him 160th in the overall rankings.
It appears that Perfetti may be in a similar situation to last season, potentially without Ehlers on his opposite wing. However, the addition of a player like Jonathan Toews should be a clear upgrade over Vladislav Namestnikov, who typically produces around 35–40 points per season. Toews has regularly posted between 50–65 points in most years and Nyquist could also help offset the loss of Ehlers’ production, especially considering he’s just one season removed from a career-high 75-point campaign.
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Perfetti’s line is also expected to take on a larger workload, as the Jets previously deployed their second and third lines with similar ice time. Last season, Perfetti and third-line center Adam Lowry both averaged around 15 minutes per game. With Lowry now sidelined long-term due to a hip injury, those minutes are likely to be redistributed. He’s also expected to feature on the top power play unit alongside the team’s top forward line, with superstar Kyle Connor likely shifting back to the blue line.
With an increased role and a projected bump in ice time to around 17 or 18 minutes per game, along with stronger linemates, Perfetti should find himself in an improved position to build on his recent success. He has been hopefully working hard in the offseason to build off a great close to the season, when he recorded 25 points over his final 33 games. That total ranked third on the Jets during that stretch and placed him alongside players like Detroit's Dylan Larkin and Carolina's Sebastian Aho, while finishing just one point behind Chicago’s Connor Bedard. He also added six points in 13 playoff games, continuing his solid play into the postseason.
Perfetti was a top ten pick during the 2020 NHL Draft and is just waiting for a season to explode and land closer in the 65-70 point range and prove to be a breakout star for the team next season.
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