Winnipeg Jets Urged To Submit Offer Sheet To Top Restricted Free Agent

The Winnipeg Jets need to improve this offseason significantly, particularly if they're going to keep all-world goaltender Connor Hellebuyck happy. After the season, he called the team's performance this year "unacceptable" and he's now become a trade target for some hopeful teams this summer.

One of the Jets' most urgent needs is a top-six scorer, and to that end, Murat Ates of The Athletic says that a controversial, yet legal, route might be their best option.

We’ve scoured the NHL for Winnipeg Jets upgrades through unrestricted free agency, the trade market, and the Jets’ options at No. 8 in the draft. It was difficult.
But do not give up hope. There is another way. A dark way. A perfectly legal, though seldom used, often unsuccessful but sometimes brilliant way of signing top, young players. We’re talking about offer sheets.

And to that end, he urges the Jets to make a big pitch to Vegas Golden Knights' star pending RFA Pavel Dorofeyev.

Dorofeyev, 25, is still two seasons away from UFA eligibility. Whereas a short-term contract might typically cost close to $7 million, a long-term deal that bought UFA years could reach closer to $9 million...
The Golden Knights appear to be in a bind. (Winnipeg offering) a two-year, $10 million AAV contract that walked Dorofeyev to free agency might be enough money to make it worth it for the player and untenable for the team.

The Golden Knights have only a projected $4.6 million in cap space for next season, per PuckPedia, which will not be enough to get Dorofeyev signed, short- or long-term.

The Russian winger followed up his breakout 35-goal season of 2024-25 with an even better one this year, with 37 goals and 64 points in 82 games. And don't get us started about his postseason run this spring. His nine goals to lead the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Any offer sheet of $10M AAV costs two 1st-Rd picks, a 2nd, and a 3rd

The downside for Winnipeg, however, would be the onerous draft compensation that would be due, based on the league's newly announced Offer Sheet Tiers.

Would the Jets be willing to give up two first-round picks, a second-round pick, and a third-round pick if such an offer sheet were accepted?

As Ates notes, giving up even one first-rounder "might be a scary thought for a team that finished 2025-26 with the seventh-worst record in the NHL."

But as they say, you gotta give something to get something. And the Jets definitely have to 'get something' this offseason to improve their outlook for 2026-27. Or they could also be facing a goalie problem, as we mentioned at the outset.