Remember goaltender Chris Mason’s 20 games with the Jets 2011-12? Well, Mason’s number (50), a fairly odd goalie number, is how many days to go until the Winnipeg Jets host the Dallas Stars for their home opener of the 2025-26 NHL season. Continuing right along with the “goals and expectations” series, today the attention turns to the Jets number one centre Mark Scheifele. A reminder that not every player will be featured in this series, but you know that a player like Scheifele had to be included. The 2024-25 season was filled with both highs and lows for Scheifele on and off the ice. Entering year two of his current seven year contract, what’s in store for Mr. Scheifele?

Scheifele hardly needs introducing, as fans know him as one of the greatest Jets 2.0 players of all time. Including players who played for the Atlanta Thrashers, Scheifele passed Ilya Kovalchuk for most goals in franchise history, and Scheifele now sits just 8 points behind Blake Wheeler for most points in franchise history. Scheifele has been a member of the Jets since he was drafted 7th overall in the 2011 NHL draft. After a few years of fine tuning and developing his game, Scheifele has been a staple on this Jets roster. Last season Scheifele appeared in all 82 regular season games, scoring 39 goals (3 away from a career high) to go along with 48 assists for a career high 87 points. Can Scheifele top these totals in the 2025-26 season playing alongside Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi?

Scheifele is an established leader of this Jets team. Although he’s primarily known as a very skilled, playmaking centre, he’s not afraid to score some goals too. Scheifele’s career high in goals came back in 2022-23 when he scored 42 times to go along with 26 assists, the 2nd lowest assist total in his career. Last season Scheifele was one goal away from reaching the 40 goal mark for the 2nd time in his career, so there’s no reason to think Scheifele can’t score at least 30 goals this season. The top powerplay unit for the Jets was almost always top 5 in the league from the beginning of the season, and that’s where Scheifele can rack up some assists to Kyle Connor or Gabriel Vilardi in their prime shooting locations.

It’s not often that I mirror the “satisfactory season” into to “bad season”, but with Scheifele there is a certain standard that he needs to live up to at this point in his career. The dynamic trio of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi keep gaining chemistry, so there’s no reason to believe that any of them will have a “down” year. The only real way that Scheifele fails to reach 30 goals or 70 points this season is if he has more of a “pass first” mentality. That being said, it’s tough to imagine what a truly bad season would look like for Scheifele coming off a career high 87 points.

Scheifele raised the bar last season (as did his whole line) in terms of expectations. It might be difficult for Scheifele to push for an 88+ point season, but I can definitely see 35+ goals and 80+ points. A shooting percentage of 21.5% may be difficult to replicate, but even with some regression 35 goals seem reachable. They’ll be plenty of goals, assists and points to go around the 1st line again this season, it’s just a matter of trying to replicate if not exceed the magic that they produced last season. Scheifele appears eager to continue his impressive level of play, and that’s what could lead him to success in the 2025-26 season.

Mark Scheifele, much like other Jets players, continues to be underrated as an elite centre in the NHL. After getting snubbed from Canada’s “4 Nations Face-Off” roster last season, you can bet that Scheifele will be hungry to prove that he deserves a spot on Canada’s 2026 Olympic Hockey team. I’m excited to see what more Scheifele can bring to his game this season as he builds off a career year. Scheif is ready for year 15 as he will soon become the player with the most career points in Jets 2.0 history.