The Winnipeg Jets continue their off-season as the NHL gets closer to the final four teams in the playoffs. The 2026 IIHF World Championship starts on Friday, where five Jets players (and one Jets prospect) will be in action on the opening day of the tournament. Just like previous seasons, here at Jets Nation we will begin our “year in review” series in early June, giving you a detailed look at the seasons of each (most) Jets player in the 2025-26 season.
Before we get to June, there’s time to look back at the Jets as a team. There’s several reasons why this season was a disappointment, whether it’s the 11 game losing streak, the lack of depth scoring, or just an overall dip in production from all parts of the team. The focus for today is the Jets lack of depth scoring, a problem that affected this team throughout the entire season. Was this just a matter of the Jets not addressing certain needs in the off-season, or does the problem go deeper into certain players performance?
Looking back to the Jets 2024-25 regular season, almost everything went perfect. The Presidents’ Trophy was earned by the Jets because of a well-rounded team who produced on a nightly basis. Did Connor Hellebuyck’s Vezina and Hart worthy season help? Of course it did, but there were several other Jets player who really rose to the occasion when it mattered most.
A shocking difference between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 Jets teams was the amount of players who reached 30 points in the season. This number isn’t everything in terms of how to highlight depth scoring, but it’s a good benchmark number to monitor at the end of a season. The 2024-25 Jets had ELEVEN players who reached the 30 point mark on the season, which is a great sign of scoring production for defencemen and forwards throughout the lineup. I’ll get to the 2025-26 Jets soon, but in terms of pure scoring production this made a huge difference in the Jets success that season. Kyle Connor led the way with 97 points in 82 games.
Fast forward to the 2025-26 season, where the Jets had all of those eleven players who had 30+ points in 2024-25 back in the lineup except for Nikolak Ehlers, who went to the Hurricanes in free agency after tallying 63 points. The Jets failed to properly replace their 3rd leading scorer in the off-season, and there was no one who was able to “step up” to the level that Ehlers produced even while some players got more ice time as a result.
It’s normal to expect some regression from a team who had their best regular season ever in 2024-25, but some of the Jets players in 2025-26 didn’t just regress, they put up career or near career lows for points. Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi were of course the exception, led by Scheifele who had an amazing 103 point season. Connor almost matched his career high in points from the 2024-25 season, and Vilardi set career highs across the board even while splitting time between the 1st and 2nd line.
After this elite trio, there was only TWO Jets players who reached 30 points in the 2025-26 season. Josh Morrissey regressed slightly, only getting 55 points after three straight seasons with 60+ points. Morrissey gets a pass since he’s a defencemen, but the rest of the Jets forwards have some explaining to do. Cole Perfetti was the other Jet who reached 30 points on the season, but he only collected 32 points in 68 games after being projected to have a breakout 50+ point season.
Alex Iafallo, who was on the 1st line at times, finished with 29 points, and Jonathan Toews (who hadn’t played in two seasons) also had 29 points in an overall decent return to the NHL while playing all 82 games. After these two, the lack of depth scoring really begins to show throughout the rest of the Jets lineup. Morgan Barron did record a career high in points with 23, but there were greater expectations for Barron as he was given an elevated role in the lineup at times when there were injuries.
After Adam Lowry returned from injury, he could never seem to catch his stride in terms of scoring, finishing the season with only 5 goals and 21 points. Nino Niederreiter almost set a career low in points, and despite being one of the “better” free agent signings, Cole Koepke finished the season with 8 goals and 17 points. Vladislav Namestnikov had probably the biggest “drop off” of Jets forwards, getting only 14 points after a career high 38 points last season.
The final group of players who finished with fewer than 14 points include inexperienced players and free agency signings that went wrong. Gustav Nyquist scored a career low 1 goal, and the rest of the Jets forwards who appeared in at least 5 games (seven players) combined for a total of just 9 goals. You can give some leeway to the rookies and players who were new to the NHL, but you still need to expect some level of production from these replacement players at some point in the season.
The lack of depth scoring from the 2025-26 Jets was a big reason why they failed to reach the playoffs. There’s no “magical” fix for this, but the Jets need to add a few scoring forwards in free agency. Part of the Jets roster is aging, but part of the upcoming Jets roster appears ready for the NHL, which will hopefully lead to a rejuvenated Jets lineup. The depth scoring will improve with the right additions and line combinations, and it will contribute to what will hopefully be a return to the playoffs for the Jets in the 2026-27 season.
Up Next
Mark Scheifele, Dylan DeMelo and Gabriel Vilardi kick off their IIHF World Championship with Team Canada on Friday, May 15th. Ville Heinola (Finland) and Nino Niederreiter (Switzerland) will also be in action on the tournament’s opening day. Canada takes on Sweden (who features Jets prospect Sascha Boumedienne, Finland takes on Germany, and the host Swiss take on USA to open the round robin.
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