WWYDW: How Do You Fit Truoba In Long Term?

In amongst the aftermath doom and gloom of a game two Jets loss which also some angst over attendance numbers for both the Playoff Street Party and inside Bell MTS Place itself was one bit of sunshine: Jacob Trouba wants to stay and stay long term.

Huzzah!

Some would say this is a case of “winning cures all” but the truth is Jacob Trouba never had an issue with Winnipeg as a city or even the players on the team, it was simply how he was being used.

Turns out asking your future franchise defensemen to take a regular shift with Mark Stuart on the third pairing isn’t the most ideal way to make him happy.

So JT wants to stay and Jets fans (who were always wanting him to stay and never once said something as stupid as “good riddance” to him, right?) as well as they team themselves should be more than happy to to keep him around…

But how do you make it work out? One look at the Jets salary cap situation going forward over the next couple of seasons suggests that it should be possible to sign Jacob to a long term deal with big bucks, but some decisions will need to be made.

The Jets already have a few contracts that are starting to look like they could be less than ideal issues to have hanging around. Bryan Little’s cap hit is set to be $6.5 million over the next two seasons starting next season. Dmitry Kulikov is a cap hit of $4.3 million over the next two seasons as well. Steve Mason’s $4 million dollar hit next season could be problematic as well.

And then there is of course the expiring ELC and RFA deals coming down the pipe such as Patrik Laine, Josh Morrissey, Connor Hellebuyck, Adam Lowry and Tucker Poolman… All of those players are going to be looking for somewhat significant to very significant raises very shortly.

It’s not impossible to get Trouba locked down for a long term deal, but it’s going to require some crafty cap management.

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