If you’re not first, you’re worst: Winnipeg Jets’ struggle is real
The Winnipeg Jets enter 2026 on the other end of the NHL standings from where they were beginning 2025.
Not only are the 2024-25 Presidents’ Trophy winners not in a playoff spot, but the Jets are last in the Central Division, the Western Conference and the entire NHL.
It’s like they’re taking the Presidents’ Trophy curse to another level, because their struggles have worsened since getting eliminated in the first half of last post-season.
They’re like the New York Rangers, which won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24 with 114 points but won 16 fewer games last season and missed the Stanley Cup playoffs altogether.
It’s difficult to see how the Jets can salvage their season and not end up like last season’s Rangers. Flipping a switch in the second half of the season and clawing their way past eight teams in the West to earn a playoff berth is a tall task.
Now, it’s true Winnipeg is only seven points behind the Los Angeles Kings, which sit in the second wild-card spot. Crazily enough, the Jets have only one fewer victory than the Kings, but L.A. has earned five more overtime losses. So in theory, the Jets could get back into the thick of the playoff race with a strong stretch of play.
But it’s less the points deficit than the teams in front of them that’s the problem. The rest of the playoff-chasers will continue to pick up points, and even teams that only have four wins in their past 10 games – the Utah Mammoth and St. Louis Blues – have at least four more points than Winnipeg.
Given that Winnipeg is 1-6-3 in its past 10 games entering Thursday’s New Year’s Day matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs, you can see why there’s reason for pessimism about the Jets’ chances of turning things around anytime soon.
Without 2024-25 Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck for three weeks, the Jets went 2-8-1. Even when their starting goalie returned, the Jets have gone 1-4-3 since then, with Hellebuyck recording a .894 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average.
At this time last year, the Jets had the third-most goals per game, the fewest goals against per game and the NHL’s best power play midway through 2024-25.
Now, the Jets rank 23rd in goals-for per game, 16th in goals against per game and 16th in power-play percentage. Their penalty kill percentage is also 18th, and they’re 1-11-1 when trailing after the first period and 4-7-2 when tied after the first.
If you’d said at the start of this season that Winnipeg could have the best odds at winning the NHL’s draft lottery and selecting phenom Gavin McKenna, Jets fans would’ve laughed in your face. But here we are, and that’s exactly what’s happening so far.
Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is no doubt happy he held onto his first-round draft pick this year, and adding a generational talent like McKenna or Ivar Stenberg would ease the sting of the Jets’ collapse. That said, Winnipeg fans have grown accustomed to being a year-in, year-out playoff team, qualifying for the post-season in seven of the past eight seasons. So it must be quite the shock for them to look at the standings and see the Jets slumming it at the bottom of the league.
The trip from Presidents’ Trophy-winner to the basement of the NHL is something no team expects, but it goes to show you that the parity of the league is a very real thing. One year could be a feast for a team, and the following year could be a famine. And Winnipeg’s unanticipated woes this season have them in a position they’re going to have extreme difficulty recovering from.
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