The NHL summer off-season continues to roll on, and it’s now just over 74 days before opening night. The Jets appear to be done making moves “for now” (they just have 2 pending restricted free agents left to re-sign) before they begin assembling their roster at training camp. The Jets prospects will get a chance to showcase themselves at the “Young Stars Classic” in Penticton, BC in mid-september.

Before all that happens, I thought that today would be a good day to do some predictions for next season. It’s too early for me to try to predict exactly how the Jets as a team will do next season, but I have a few early predictions in terms of scoring production. Taking a look at the Jets projected 2024-25 lineup provided by Daily Faceoff, there’s a few players that I think will “pop” and “drop” this season.

By “pop”, I mean stand out, and I believe that player will eclipse their career best point total. By “drop”, I’m not saying the player will have a bad season, I just think that they’ll be helping the team out in other ways, which may result in them finishing with a slightly lower point total. The 2 players that will “pop” in the Jets 2024-25 season are Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Perfetti, and the 2 players that will “drop” are Dylan DeMelo and Adam Lowry. Again, this is purely in terms of scoring production, and I have my reasons for each of the players mentioned.

Beginning with Gabriel Vilardi, who I believe will have a stand out year for the Jets in the 2024-25 season. Vilardi is currently projected to play on the wing of the Jets top forward line with Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele. Last season, injuries limited Vilardi to only 47 games, but he still managed 36 points, 5 shy of his career best. Vilardi turns 25 in a few weeks, and I feel as though he’ll have the opportunity to succeed this upcoming season. The Jets 1st line will likely be the top powerplay unit as well, giving Vilardi even more chances to score. In a full 82 game season on the top line, I predict that Vilardi will reach somewhere between the 55-60 point mark if he can build off his successful shortened 1st season with the Jets.

The 2nd player that I think will “pop” this season is Cole Perfetti. He might still be waiting for a contract extension, but once a deal is reached, he’ll be focused on his 3rd full NHL season. Projected to play on a 2nd line with Nikolaj Ehlers and Vladislav Namestnikov, Perfetti should have a great opportunity to stay in the top 6 throughout the season. I’m not sure about how Namestnikov will fair as a 2nd line centre, but regardless, I think Perfetti takes another step forward in the 2024-25 season. In 71 games last season, Perfetti reached 38 points, with the majority of the points coming in the 1st half of the season. Consistency will be the key for Perfetti, but I could see him reaching a total of around 50 points by the end of the season.

Moving on to the players that I think will “drop” in terms of scoring production next season. Dylan DeMelo is the 1st player I think will have a slight dip in points. Again, I’m not saying he’s going to have a bad season or anything, I just think that in the case of DeMelo it’s his defensive skills that have always stood out. DeMelo will naturally get some points if he’s on the top pairing again with Josh Morrissey, but I think 31 points will be difficult for DeMelo to pass. I would say that with an increased focus on his already great defensive game, DeMelo puts up 25 points in the 2024-25 season.

Last but not least, Adam Lowry. The reason why I think there will be a slight drop in his point production is more because of his linemates. Lowry, just like DeMelo, is more known for his defensive game. The projected 3rd line for the Jets is Nino Niederreiter, Adam Lowry, and Mason Appleton, who appeared to hold great chemistry together throughout last season. The trio got 36 (Appleton), 35 (Lowry) and 34 (Niederreiter) points last season. I still think this line will work great in the 2024-25 season, but I just have this feeling inside that last season went a bit “too good” for them, so I think Lowry will finish with close to 30 points.

I may be entirely wrong about all 4 of the players mentioned above, but that’s part of the fun of making predictions about the upcoming NHL season. I will have more in-depth predictions about the Jets and the players closer to opening night, but for now, we all just have to get through the next few months of off-season before hockey is back.