NHL Rumors: Jets Ready to Shake Things Up Amid Stunning Slide

Friday, January 09, 2026
Winnipeg Jets players talk power play strategy during 2025 game.

The Winnipeg Jets aren’t waving the white flag, even with the season sitting in a brutal place. 

After a year that ended with the Presidents’ Trophy, they’ve hit the halfway mark in total freefall, parked at the bottom of the NHL standings with 34 points and a 15-22-5 record through 42 games, while riding an 11-game skid (0-7-4) that has the fan base boiling. 

What’s made it sting even more is how close so many of these losses have been, with eight of the 10 defeats coming by a single goal, the kind of stretch that can break a team’s confidence if it doesn’t get stopped fast.

GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has openly acknowledged the club didn’t see this coming and admitted he’s already working the phones with other managers for short-term and potentially longer-term fixes, with the priority being scoring help. 

Jets are dead-last in the NHL, but not giving up

The problem is the one every team runs into at this point of the year. Impact scorers with term rarely hit the market, which is why Winnipeg is reportedly scanning every lane, from a younger upside piece to a bigger roster-for-roster shakeup if the right situation appears. Cheveldayoff also admitted the Jets have felt the “opportunity cost” of dealing draft picks in recent years, which complicates how aggressive they can be now, but he's made sure to emphasize they’re not punting this season.

The on-ice issues are easy to spot. The top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi has carried most of the offense, while the secondary scoring has dried up in a way that’s hard to survive. 

Gustav Nyquist has gone 32 games without a goal, Vladislav Namestnikov is stuck at 29, Jonathan Toews is at 25, and even younger pieces like Cole Perfetti have hit a 17-game drought, with Nino Niederreiter at 16. 

Special teams have slipped too, with the power play sitting 17th at 19.1 percent and the penalty kill 21st at 78.3 percent, a major drop for a team that built its identity on structure and defending.

What can they do to turn the season around?

Scott Arniel isn’t campaigning for job security, either. The coach has said he’s focused on doing the work daily, and the organization is hoping a heavy home stretch can be the reset point, with nine of the next 11 games at Canada Life Centre and a five-game homestand starting right away. 

The Jets still have core stars in their prime and a Vezina-level backbone in Connor Hellebuyck, and that’s exactly why the front office is pushing to flip the script now instead of letting the season quietly die. 

With the March 6 trade deadline looming, Winnipeg’s next few weeks could decide whether this becomes a salvage job or the start of a bigger teardown.

Photo Credit: James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images

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