What the Winnipeg Jets Need to do to Make a 2024 Stanley Cup Run

Winnipeg Jets Stanley Cup Odds

1. The Jets are 51.00 to win the Stanley Cup and 23.00 to win the Western Conference at BetMGM Sportsbook
2. The Jets are Jets at 61.00 to win the Stanley Cup and 31.00 to win the West at NorthStar Bets
3. The Jets are Jets at 41.00 to win the Stanley Cup at PointsBet Canada

We’re on the eve of the NHL’s off-season crazy time, with the draft coming up tonight in Nashville, followed by the beginning of free agency on July 1. 

A Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993 (the Montreal Canadiens), an abomination that Canadian hockey fans want corrected. 

Let’s take a look at what the Canadian teams need to do to turn the tide on that and bring a Cup back to Canadian soil. Here we look at what the sports betting are for the Winnipeg Jets.

Winnipeg Jets Making Moves, Can it Help Their Odds?

Things are getting very interesting with the Winnipeg Jets, and what GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is up to, with the news last night that C Pierre-Luc Dubois was traded to the L.A. Kings, with forwards Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari coming back to the Jets.

In BetMGM futures betting for the NHL, it lists the Jets at 51.00 to win the Cup next season and has them at 23.00 to win the Western Conference. NorthStar Bets has the Jets at 61.00 to win the Cup, 31.00 to win the West. PointsBet Canada has the Jets at 41.00 to win the Cup.

All the conversation now is what the team does from here. With Dubois, one of their top players last year (27 goals) out of the picture (Dubois immediately signed a new eight-year contract at an AAV of $8.5 million), the Jets still only have just under $9 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly.

What Will the Winnipeg Jets do with Blake Wheeler?

All eyes this week are on what they do with F Blake Wheeler, set to make $8.25 million in the last year of his contract. The buyout window closes Friday. Teams use buyouts to create cap space. Wheeler’s 36 and had just 16 goals last season, in 72 games. The Jets will have to eat a big chunk of that contract to move him out. 

G Connor Hellebuyck is another huge question mark. The 30-year had a fine season (2.49 GAA, .920 save percentage, four shutouts) and wants to win now. So a roster teardown wouldn’t make sense to Hellebuyck, who is entering the last year of his contract, set to make $6.1 million.

C Mark Scheifele is also entering the last year of his deal, at $6.125 million. Do the Jets re-sign Scheifele, jettison Wheeler to go along with the Dubois deal, and bring it back with Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter and the just-acquired Iafallo (14 goals in 59 games with the Kings last season, but was a +14) as the foundation up front, with the one of the NHL’s top goalies back-stopping the entire operation?

Those Stanley Cup betting odds  likely are impacted by all the uncertainty. To better those odds they’ll need to get Scheifele under contract and convince Hellebuyck they are committed to winning (the Jets made the playoffs last season, eighth in the Western Conferecne at 46-33-3, 95 points). 

Iafallo was a nice augment. With nine forwards and six defencemen under contract, we’ll see how deftly Cheveldayoff moves to fill out the bottom two lines.