Jets end stalemate, sign Perfetti to two-year deal

The contract stalemate is officially over.

The Winnipeg Jets and restricted free agent Cole Perfetti found common ground on Monday night, agreeing to terms on a two-year bridge deal that will pay the skilled forward $6.5 million ($3.25 million AAV).

Perfetti will make $3 million in the first year of the deal and $3.5 million in the second.

The 10th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft missed the first four days of on-ice sessions while the two sides continued negotiations.

Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff hinted last week that he would love to increase his offer to Perfetti, but emphasized the machinations of the salary cap made it challenging to do so.

“That’s the hardest part. Personally I’d give these guys the moon. They’re awesome guys and I’d love to have the ability to pay them everything they want and deserve,” Cheveldayoff said last Thursday. “In a salary cap world you have to make business decisions. It’s done through the back and forth, it’s done through comparables. Hopefully, you just try and find something that works for both sides.”

Ultimately, that’s what both sides were able to do, as the Jets raised their offer and Perfetti’s camp lowered the ask.

Perfetti is expected to be on the ice with the second group on Tuesday after completing some testing.

The Jets have four preason games remaining, including Wednesday’s home game against the Edmonton Oilers, so there’s ample time for Perfetti to get acclimated with linemates and settle into his spot on the revamped power play.

In recent days, there were a variety of comparable deals signed by fellow first-round picks, ranging to a three-year bridge for forward Dawson Mercer of the New Jersey Devils (three years, $4 million AAV) and centre Dylan Guenther of the Utah Hockey Club (seven years, $7.143 million on a deal that kicks in next season).

A range of other comparables were brought up during the course of negotiations and eventually, the final term and number – which represents an increase from the entry-level deal Perfetti completed – was reached.

The AAV for the bridge contact is similar to the numbers reached with previous Jets’ first-rounders Josh Morrissey (two years, $3.15 million AAV in 2018) and Jacob Trouba (two years, $3.06 million AAV in 2016) agreed to in their second contracts.

The most important development is that a deal with Perfetti was reached before the stalemate dragged on deep into training camp, as was the case with negotiations between Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor back in 2019 when both players missed all of the preseason.

Trouba’s stalemate lasted the longest, stretching into early November before the aforementioned contract was signed.

Neither the Jets nor Perfetti were interested in a lengthy standoff, so efforts were made to close the gap and reach a deal.

There has been plenty of debate over whether the Jets would have been better off to offer Perfetti a longer-term deal, perhaps one similar to the one signed by Quinton Byfield with the Los Angeles Kings (five years, $6.25 million AAV) earlier this summer.

That debate is sure to rage on and history has shown core players coming out of a bridge deal are often in line for another significant raise, but this outcome is one which will allow both sides to be in a much better position to establish Perfetti’s long-term value.

Perfetti is coming off a season that saw him record career-highs in games played (71), goals (19), assists (19) and points (38), but he went through a scoring drought (zero goals, two assists in 23 games) and lost his job on the second line late in the season.

The lengthy offensive dry spell, combined with Perfetti suffering a pair of season-ending injuries during his first two seasons, may have been part of the reason the Jets were hesitant to go with a longer-term deal.

That isn’t to suggest the Jets don’t view him as a core piece, they just wanted to see a larger body of work before extending him the way that they did with players such as Mark Scheifele (eight years, $6.14 million AAV in 2016) and Nikolaj Ehlers (seven years, $6 million AAV in 2017).

Although Perfetti was open to a deal that included some of his UFA years, this two-year pact should provide him with a glorious opportunity to firmly establish himself as a primary scorer rather than a complementary one.

After averaging 13:35 of ice time last season, Perfetti figures to see that number increase steadily under head coach Scott Arniel, who expressed his appreciation for the forward’s skillset on multiple occasions throughout the offseason.

“The biggest thing with Cole was that he missed a lot of hockey – and I had this conversation with him (this summer),” Arniel told the Free Press at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas. “For me, this is a great building block. He had two years of injury, had the Covid season (with the Manitoba Moose in the American Hockey League) and missed a lot of growth as a young player.

“At the end of the day, he came in, got to play, got some experience and had a heck of a year. Scoring 19 goals is hard to do in this league. Now, it’s (about) the next step and where he goes next year with his game.”

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