After the Winnipeg Jets’ practiced in Raleigh Carolina, Paul Maurice gave some updates on the Jets and some expectations for tomorrow. One of these announcements was that the Jets’ would be without veteran Mark Stuart for quite some time.

With the February 9th trade deadline coming up, it will be interesting to see how this impacts the Jets and their decisions revolving around the team’s future.

Stuart has dressed for 55 games this year for the Jets, posting one goal and two assists.

The Jets have controlled 47.6 per cent of all shots (goals, saves, misses, and blocks) with Stuart on the ice, while controlling 53.6 per cent with Stuart on the bench. Removing blocked shots improves those numbers a bit to to 48.7 per cent, while the team has controlled 52.7 per cent with him on the bench.

Times have been tough for Stuart this year. The team has been struggling and so has he. Not only is Stuart’s relative numbers, the difference between Jets with Stuart on-ice versus off-ice, on the statistics above worst on the team for defenders, it is the worst of Stuart’s career.

Stuart’s ice time has dropped to about 15 and a half minutes a game, his lowest deployment over his duration in Winnipeg.

The only area where Stuart’s ice time had been dropping off was on the penalty kill. Although, Maurice refused to give Stuart any time on the kill the last two games prior to his injury; a decision perhaps impacted by Stuart posting some of his most porous numbers on the kill of his career (which is quite the accomplishment).

Maurice noted that Adam Pardy will be drawing in for Stuart. Although limited and with his own share of flaws, Pardy has fairly consistently been able to maintain puck possession for the Jets. He has also been a decent performer on the penalty kill, which could be helpful for the team.

Stuart still has two years under contract with the Jets with a 2.625 million dollar cap hit. Not only will trade deadline decisions be interesting for the Jets with the Stuart injury, it will also be interesting to see how the Jets perform or respond to the loss of Stuart’s on-ice impact and the intangibles he is praised for.