WWYDW: Who Are The Jets Untouchables?

Forward @Kyle Connor scored goals 34 and 35 last night against the @Buffalo Sabres during a 3-1 @Winnipeg Jets victory, setting a new career high for the Jets winger. It was the fourth game in a row KC has scored a goal and over those last four games has a total of five goals and seven points.

Not bad for a player that many Jets fans suggested should be trade bait.

Of course trade rumors and speculation of even the best players on a team is nothing new or exclusive to just the Jets. Heck, if one of the greatest hockey players ever in Wayne Gretzky can be traded – twice – in his career, then no one is safe, not even those with No-Movement clauses, although they are a little safer from being traded than most.

During the Jets relatively short history in their second go-round in Winnipeg, we’ve seen plenty of trade talk that has surrounded some of the best players on the team. There was debate between keeping then captain @Andrew Ladd over defenseman @Dustin Byfuglien. @Evander Kane and @Jacob Trouba were always players who were inevitably going to be traded away, but not before we had years of speculation beforehand. This past summer there was talk that @Nikolaj Ehlers would be easily tradeable and both @Patrik Laine and the aforementioned Kyle Connor also are often the targets of armchair general managers.

So it got me to thinking… Who are the “untouchables” on the Winnipeg Jets? Again, there is no such thing as a player who could never be traded, and with the trade deadline having passed, we don’t have to really worry about it right now, but who are the players that we could all pretty much agree on at this moment wouldn’t be traded for pretty much anything unless there was a mega-star like a @Connor McDavid or @David Pastrnak coming back the other way?

Who are my four Jets Untouchables? I’m glad you (probably didn’t) asked!

It constantly baffles me why anyone who considered themselves a Winnipeg Jets fan would want to trade Laine. Yes, I understand the criticisms of his game and they may have been valid a season or two ago, but he’s also just 21 and still developing his game and as we’ve seen this season, those previous critiques that he’s had in the past – the lack of commitment to a 200 foot game, or a getting easily frustrated when not scoring all the goals – those are growing less and less relevant as each game passes this season.

Second in team scoring a season ago and leading team scoring this season and on one of the most team-friendly contracts you’ll find in the entire National Hockey League. Is his commitment to team defense lacking at times? Sure it is. Is he the most impactful player on the ice? Not hardly ever. He’s not the fastest on the ice or the strongest and he’s not going to be mistaken for a game-breaking talent that teams have to build entire plans around in order to shutdown, but yet almost every night he’s picking up a point here or there, usually making a play on a game winning or game tying goal.

While my first two picks are very likely to be “evergreen” picks I’d make until the end of their actual time in Winnipeg, my last two picks for untouchable Jets players are both of the “here and now” variety where given their current status and the team’s current situation, I’d be highly unlikely make a deal. Josh Morrissey is the first of the two in that department. the Jets defensive core has already suffered enough losses since the start of the off-season last year and while there is still work needed to be done in his development, Morrissey is the closest to ‘number one defenseman’ status with the Jets and it would take a pretty insane package of picks and players to convince me to let him go.

Again, as it stands right now, there is zero chance I’d part with Hellebuyck. The Oilers could even come calling with a package of McDavid and @Leon Draisaitl for Helle and I’d… Well ok, I’d probably make that move, but I would still think long and hard about it. In a year or two, because goalies and the practice of goaltending is indeed voodoo, I may change my mind on this, but right now unless I knew the second coming of Domink Hasek was waiting, Hellebuyck’s goaltending has been far too important this season, and likely will be over the next few years to just trade away.