Looking At The Impact Of A Nic Petan Signing

The Winnipeg Jets have signed Nic Petan to a new deal as Cheveldayoff continues to work his way through the list of RFA’s. This new contract is a one year, two way deal which means Petan will have a different salary when playing for the Moose compared to the Jets. The salary is $874,125 in the NHL compared to $70,000 in the AHL.

For the Jets, this deal has extreme value. If Petan is playing in the NHL, he is making near the league minimum and any offensive production would come at a cheap cost. Considering Petan has 21 points in 95 games, there is opportunity for Petan to make an impact on a budget. On the other hand, if he is playing for the Moose, he is only making $70,000 which is extremely cheap for the organization considering Petan had 52 points in 52 games with the Moose last year.

While this deal has extreme value from the Jets point of view, the one issue is that Petan will now have to clear waivers when being sent to the AHL. Most players that sign two way contracts expect to be splitting time with the NHL and AHL because they are cheap to send to the minors compared to any player on a one way deal.

Take Marko Dano for example. Him and Petan have both been bubble players for the Jets over the last couple seasons. If there is no room in the NHL and the team needs to send one of them down, they would choose Petan. The reason being is that Marko Dano is making $850k in the NHL, but he is also making $850k in the AHL so there are no savings if he is playing with the Moose.

Petan on the other hand would only be making $70,000 in the AHL compared to $874,125 in the NHL so the organization is actually saving $800k if they choose to send Petan to the Moose instead of Dano.

The nature of Petan’s deal has made some fans worry that Petan won’t clear waivers if the Jets are trying to send him to the AHL. A young, highly skilled forward like Petan could be valuable to other organizations that don’t quite have the same depth as the Jets do.

While some people fully expect Petan to get picked up off waivers, I am not entirely certain someone would take that chance. First of all, if Petan plays well enough to stay on the team for the start of the regular season, they will not need to send him through waivers at all. If he continues to play well he has the potential to stay on the Jets all season which would solve the waivers issue.

Conversely, if Petan has a terrible training camp and gets sent down, teams probably wouldn’t jump at the chance to take him, especially if he looks out of form and not ready for the season. Similarly, if Petan makes the Jets but has difficulty scoring like last season where he only had two points in 15 games, a lot of teams would pass because the production just isn’t there.

That being said, there is still a large risk if the Jets choose to send him down which makes the start of this season very important for Petan’s future.

The last thing to mention about this signing is that it is only for one season. The Jets still aren’t sure what they are going to get from Petan so they didn’t want to commit long-term. Petan likely didn’t want to commit long-term either because his value is low right now, but he has the potential to raise it by playing well this season. Petan has the ability to score 20 or 30 points this year which would definitely earn him a raise next summer. Given Petan’s history and the uncertainty about his role on the team, a one year deal is probably in the best interest of both parties.