What a fun and exciting day?

There were trades and rumours of trades. There were players drafted high as expected, and then some selections and passes that made you scratch your head.

In case you did not know, the Winnipeg Jets were among those rumours and drafting.

Let’s take a look at the first day of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft for the Jets.

At was reported earlier that the Jets were still on-going in their negotiations with the young Czech forward. However, it seems that the gap between parties is too far a part and that Frolik has begun looking elsewhere. The Jets may still, and probably are, talking to Frolik, but for now they are just one voice of many.

It is unfortunate, as the Jets would then be losing a still young and highly effective top-nine forward.

While Frolik does not score a tonne of points, he is still a forward that significantly impacts a team’s chance at winning the game. Frolik projects as a 40-45 point scorer with strong underlying two-way numbers. The gap between Frolik’s scoring and his two-way game tends to cause many to undervalue and appreciate Frolik.

There are however many that are starting to notice and listen, which is driving up the price for a defender who still has years between himself and thirty.

While the Jets may have loss the ear of Frolik, they still have the intention of Drew Stafford.

The lines have been open and on-going between both camps, and it is possible the Jets could see the return of the veteran winger.

Stafford’s point production pace while a Jet was likely unsustainable, but he still projects as a similar point-scorer as Frolik, although with much weaker two-way impact.

Stafford may not be as sexy as Frolik or have the same positive impact on out-chancing the opposition, but he still is a bonafide NHL forward. At the right price and with the right usage, Stafford can be an effective support scorer who can offer some secondary offense.

The Jets have had ongoing conversations with Alexander Burmistrov and his representatives on returning to the NHL for quite some while. 

As of this moment, it looks like Burmistrov will be a NHL player once again. Whether as a sign-and-trade or a bonafide addition to the Jets top-nine forward depth, the Jets will be gaining value from an asset that almost had no more return left.

There cannot be much complaint there.

It was no secret that the Arizona Coyotes were actively listening to offers for the third overall selection.

There were rumours that the Jets offered both of their first round selections, plus a significant addition. While this was never confirmed specifically, Kevin Cheveldayoff told JetsTV that they took a “swing at the fences” with trying to move up, although so did many other teams, apparently.

In the end, the Jets missed out on packaging some assets for the third overall selection.

This may be a bullet dodged though. Historically speaking, teams moving up lose trades usually, because the value of top picks are overly inflated and many legitimate talents fall into later areas, as long as a team is intelligent to go after skill and talent.

Okay, it was not that Connor (McDavid) or that Jack (Eichel), but the Jets did add some premium talent to their prospect pool.

In fact, some would say the Jets were one of the best in getting value relative to position.

The Nation Network Prospect Profile series ranked Kyle Connor at seventh overall and Jack Roslovic at twenty-first overall. PCS ranked the two at 5th and 19th in the entire draft pool.

Overall it seems like the Jets got hell-of-a deal, and we all know how Winnipegers love deals.

There’s still a bunch of talent on the board, and potential fun with trades and rumours. Hopefully day two will be just as good.