Winnipeg’s Neal Pionk is one of three Jets players poised to breakout while entering the final year of his contract
The Jets have a slew of players that will be entering a contract year next season and will look to make a case for a pay raise. It will be the team’s first full season with Scott Arniel as bench boss and should make some players motivated to show their new coach what they have to offer.
We looked over three players already that should possibly break out this season but we look to examine three more players that are entering a contract season that will make the most impact.
Kaapo Kahkonen
The Finnish netminder looks like one of the best cases to breakout this season as he will get the season to spend time with one of the NHL’s best development systems with goaltending.
Kahkonen was in a tough situation playing in San Jose as he received no help and had his numbers significantly diminished as he recorded a 3.71 goals against average and a .892 save percentage in 79 games. When playing elsewhere he has seen much better numbers like a 2.89 goals against average with the Wild and a 2.51 average with the Devils.
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Since the 2017-18 season, the Jets are top-four in team goals against average at 2.77 and have helped develop quality goaltenders during that time like Connor Hellebuyck, Laurent Brossoit, David Rittich, Ondřej Pavelec and Eric Comrie.
Kahkonen is likely a rental for the team as high-end prospect Thomas Milic is still developing. He can use this one year in the Jets system to help put together a very solid season and go out into free agency next offseason and find a longer-term deal with a pay raise.
Neal Pionk
The 28-year-old Minnesota product is entering a crucial contract season as he will look to play well enough to earn himself a deal that he can ride for likely the remainder of his career.
Pionk was undrafted originally and has had to work for everything he’s earned in his career which should make a new contact no different. He’s been a 30-point producer from the blue line for five straight seasons and plays key minutes on the Jets second defensive pairing.
He lost his partner in crime Brenden Dillon to free agency and will need to find a way to hit his stride with new partner Dylan Samberg. The duo were cooked in the first round of the playoffs for a -2 rating when playing with each other but did moderately well in the regular season.
They played an estimated 151.2 minutes together last season and had an average of 0.4 goals against per 60 minutes according to Moneypuck line stats.
Samberg is also entering a contract season which means the duo can help each other out and play at another level this season.
Dylan Samberg
As one of the youngest members of the Jets back-end (Ville Heinola), it’ll be tough for the team to bring Samberg back if he has a great season. The 25-year-old Hermantown native could force the issue with a breakout season as the Jets already have just over $17 million put aside annually for their top three defenceman.
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Samberg hasn’t been much of a point producer so far in his career but has been a solid defensive contributor with a +26 rating over the past two seasons, which ranks third-best on the team.
If he can put together a third-straight solid defensive season while increasing his point total to somewhere around 30 points with the help of Pionk, he should see a pay raise of two to three million next offseason.