With a strong finish to the season the Winnipeg Jets can bring playoff hockey back to the Province of Manitoba for the first time in nearly 20 years.  

With a week to go before the 2015 NHL trade deadline on March 2, the stakes are high for the Jets. So let’s take stock of where the Jets are, what they need and what assets they have to play with as they chase a Stanley Cup playoff spot. 

The Winnipeg Jets have a really good blue-line group, a dominant top-line, and two excellent middle-six centremen. That’s a potent mix of ingredients, a mix that has Winnipeg residents salivating at the idea of tasting some Stanley Cup playoff action.

To get there though, the Jets could use an additional piece or two, especially if that additional piece is an above average bottom-six forward. Even with the acquisition of Drew Stafford, who has been solid since arriving in Winnipeg last week as part of the Evander Kane trade, the Jets are still leaning too heavily on fourth-line caliber players like Chris Thorburn and T.J. Galiardi. 

They’re also playing Dustin Byfuglien – easily their best defenseman – at forward far too frequently. The opportunity cost of playing Byfuglien out of position is exorbitant; it’s a cost that the Jets can’t afford to bear if they hope to hang tough down the stretch in the rough and tumble Western Conference playoff race. 

The Jets have other areas of need – an ace left-handed shooting top-four defenseman would be helpful, for example, or a bona fide starting goaltender – but adding an additional forward (or two) could potentially alter the complexion of this club down the stretch, and the cost should be manageable. 

Expect the Jets to shop busily in the ‘depth forward’ aisle at the March 2 NHL trade deadline.

The market for depth rental players hasn’t really been set yet, so it’s tough to gauge what it will cost at the 2015 NHL trade deadline to land a player like Daniel Winnik. The Maple Leafs are reportedly looking for a second-round pick AND a prospect for Winnik, an exorbitant price that buyers like the Jets seem unlikely to meet, but it’s conceivable that the price on rental players could be inflated this year.

Because of the tanking value of the Canadian dollar and the escrow-related salary cap uncertainty that goes with it, teams are likely to be very conservative when it comes to adding long-term salary commitments over the next week. Could that conservatism inflate the price of reasonably priced players on expiring contracts? 

It seems possible, though Jets fans can seek relief in reports that the likes of Florida Panthers forward Sean Bergenheim could be had for a third-round pick. That’s the type of player and price range that should suit the Jets, and come to think of it, an ace volume shooter like Bergenheim is an ideal replacement for Evander Kane. 

Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has the salary cap space to be very aggressive if he so chooses. The club has nearly $7.5 million in available cap space, according to NHLNumbers.com. 

The Jets will be unencumbered by the upper limit of the salary cap in seeking to improve their club. If Cheveldayoff and True North decide to be aggressive, they’ll have the flexibility to add. 

The Winnipeg Jets own all of their own draft picks for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. They also have as many as three additional picks, including the latest of the Buffalo Sabres’ three first-round selections, which is a pretty sweet asset to play should the Jets decide to make a play for a splashy rental piece like an Andrej Sekera, or Antoine Vermette. 

The Jets have as many as two other additional picks at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, including the Washington Capitals’ seventh-round pick and maybe Buffalo’s seventh-rounder (they received a conditional seventh-round pick from the Sabres as the return in a minor transaction during the summer of 2014, but the condition on the pick is unknown). 

So this is a club operating from a position of strength in terms of having their full arsenal, and then some, of draft picks at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. 

The Jets also have as deep a prospect group as exists in hockey at the moment, should they choose to dip into their future assets in pursuit of a playoff spot. Obviously players like Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey, and Nicolas Petan should be untouchable, but that still leaves the Jets with plenty of intriguing prospects to offer potential trade partners. 

Finally it has been reported that the Jets are willing to include 23-year-old forward Alex Burmistrov, who left Winnipeg for the KHL several years ago and hasn’t returned, in a deadline day deal. 

Cheveldayoff has been careful in the past. He’s built a deep prospect pool, while being reluctant to move prospects, picks or NHL pieces. He’s been safeguarding his club’s future assets for years, and he may stick to his usual modus operandi this week. 

If he decides to push even just some of his fat stack of prospect wealth into the middle of the table though, he’ll be able to compete with any opposing general manager’s offers on the trade market.  

The Jets are one of the most intriguing wild card teams heading into the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline. They have the motive, cap space, prospect depth, and draft picks to be major players on the trade market, should they so choose. 

Winnipeg may even be something of a bell weather for how interesting deadline day is overall. If it’s a busy day of horse trading on Portage and Main next Monday, then you’re pretty much guaranteed that the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline has passed in fascinating, action packed fashion. If the Jets are quiet, it seems likely the market will be too. 

Note: this article originally stated that the Jets haven’t been in the postseason in 22 years, it has been amended.