The Winnipeg Jets have $12.4 million in cap space this season, the most of any team in the NHL. If Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Jacob Trouba have anything to say about it though, that $12 million will evaporate quicker than the goodwill Jets fans once held for Evander Kane. According to a Monday report from Tim Campbell of the Winnipeg Free Press, initial asks for Winnipeg's three pending free agents comes to a total somewhere north of $152 million.
"League and player sources have confirmed that Jets captain Andrew Ladd has asked for a six-year deal worth at least $41 million, that defenseman Dustin Byfuglien has requested $55 million over eight years and that defenseman Jacob Trouba wants more than $56 million over the maximum eight years allowed in the league's CBA with its players," Campbell wrote.
Of course, as was noted by Campbell and others, initial asks are usually on the high end of the spectrum. You ask for more than you think you'll get in the hopes that when a compromise is struck - assuming a compromise is struck - you'll still end up making out, with the other side happy to meet a high ask that saves them from an astronomical one.
Unfortunately for the Jets and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, the prospect of keeping and re-signing all three players is slim. There's simply too much money and too much term here to sign the players and fill out the roster and ice a competitive team in the immediate and long-term future. Difficult decisions will be made, especially with essential non-essential players like Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry and Michael Hutchinson in need of new deals of their own in the next year.
Per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, there's been little in the way of news on Trouba and Byfuglien's contract talks, but Ladd and the Jets have made progress on both term and salary.
"Word is both sides have bent on term, with a six-year length agreed upon," Friedman reported Tuesday. "On salary, it sounds like the two are less than $1M apart per year, but more than $500,000. It's not insignificant, but also not insurmountable. They are grinding each other, with the biggest issue likely to be that both Ladd and the Jets feel they've compromised enough.
"There's a deal to be made here, unless the public revelation throws it off the rails."
As Friedman writes, it's odd for player's asking prices to be revealed in such a manner and while Byfuglien and Ladd have been through the contract ask-trade situation before, Trouba hasn't.
Was it a tactic on the part of Winnipeg, hoping to prep fans and players for the inevitable divorce from at least one popular figure? And will it become an issue for a young guy like Trouba who has been struggling to keep his game up lately?
Trouba's agent Kurt Overhardt, who just recently shepherded Columbus Blue Jackets forward Ryan Johansen through a protracted contract negotiation of his own, was apparently shocked when asked to comment on Campbell's report.
"The information about Jacob is incorrect," Overhardt told Friedman. "Incorrect."
And an unnamed NHL agent, shown the exchange with Overhardt, sounded a negative tone regarding how things may proceed from here.
"This is going to be a problem," he said, per Friedman.
In the end, something will have to give and at least one of the involved parties is bound to head home from the party without any favors and feeling very much like they were ignored and/or treated unfairly.
Considering his age and asking price, Byfuglien seems the likeliest to be dealt. And considering his status in the locker room and that progress has reportedly been made, Ladd seems likely to stick around.
But for Trouba, a young player still finding his way in the game, it remains to be seen what kind of impact this situation has on him and his desire to remain in Winnipeg.
Now, about that whole Travis Hamonic thing...
