Happy Canada Day and welcome to day 1 of the NHL free agent frenzy 2025. At the time of this article being published, there are just ten hours to go before NHL unrestricted free agents officially hit the open market. With the Jets sending qualifying offers to all of their notable restricted free agents yesterday, today the team will see Nikolaj Ehlers, Brandon Tanev and Mason Appleton become free agents.

The Jets will have approximately $23.5 million in cap space as of today, and many fans are wondering what the Jets will do with that amount of money on day 1 of free agency. Regardless of whether or not the Jets are able to re-sign Nikolaj Ehlers, Brock Boeser could end up being the Jets “plan A” on day 1 on free agency.

Reports from several insiders have confirmed that the Jets are “actively pursuing” Brock Boeser. Chris Johnston (from The Athletic) said that it “would not surprise [him] in the least if the Jets are pretty aggressively going after Brock Boeser; he’s Plan A for Winnipeg at this point in time”. As someone who watches a lot of Canucks games (when I’m not watching the Jets), I think Brock Boeser would be a terrific addition to this Jets roster. The Jets already have their “elite goal scorer” in Kyle Connor, but adding Boeser to their top 6 would almost instantly make them a contender in the Western Conference.

With Mitch Marner gone from the top of the free agents board as of yesterday (to Vegas), one of the top forward options remaining is Brock Boeser. This will surely lead to a bidding war for Boeser (as it will also for Ehlers) right as free agency opens. While the Canucks are reported to have “checked in” one final time on Boeser, the four teams that have been interested to most in Boeser are the Jets, the L.A Kings, the Minnesota Wild and the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins wouldn’t be a terrible option for Boeser, but he likely wants to go to a team that will be competing in the playoffs next season. The Kings make sense for Boeser, but with a few other players to sign (including Vladislav Gavrikov), there may not be much money left for Boeser. The Minnesota Wild make even more sense for Boeser, as he’s from Burnsville, Minnesota, but with their acquisition of Vladimir Tarasenko yesterday, the Wild’s cap space is running thin. That makes the Jets (with the most cap space of those four teams) a potentially good option for Boeser.

Boeser, a 28-year old right handed winger, is 6″1 and 208 lbs and was drafted 23rd overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2015 NHL entry draft. Boeser has spent his whole career with the Canucks, and he just completed his 8th full season with the West Coast team. Boeser scored a career high 40 goals in the 2023-24 season, and followed that up this season with a very solid stat line of 25 goals and 25 assists for 50 points. Analytics project Boeser’s upcoming contract to be for either 6 or 7 years at an average annual value between $8-9 million.

I don’t expect Boeser to be available for very long on day 1 of NHL free agency, so we’re just hours away before we see what goes down. If Boeser decides to join the Jets, it would be a great start for Cheveldayoff and the Jets as they begin to craft their roster for the 2025-26 season. If “plan A” falls through, I still hope that the Jets will have a successful July 1st.

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