The Winnipeg Jets have signed Cole Perfetti to a two-year, $3.25 million AAV contract, ending a stalemate that saw the 22-year-old forward miss the first five days of training camp.
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) September 24, 2024
It’s a good deal for the Jets, who get Perfetti signed to a manageable cap hit — a contract less than teammate Gabriel Vilardi signed for last summer and oft-cited but imperfect comparable Shane Pinto. It’s also a solid deal for Perfetti, who is a likely candidate to receive top-six minutes and power-play time under new head coach Scott Arniel. Perfetti scored 38 points in 71 games for Winnipeg in 2023-24 despite limited first-half minutes and a second-half slump that included time spent as a healthy scratch. A player of his hockey IQ and puck skill should be able to outproduce a $3.25 million AAV with increased opportunity — his next deal should be much more expensive than this one — which may be the bet Perfetti is making on himself.
He will earn $3 million in the first year of the deal and $3.5 million in the second, making him a free agent with arbitration rights two years from now. It’s the sort of contract that, upon signing, seems so eminently fair that one wonders why it wasn’t consummated earlier in the summer. The Jets and Perfetti’s camp remained far apart on what constituted an apt comparable for Perfetti as recently as this weekend.
A league source tells The Athletic that Perfetti had interest in signing a long-term deal while Winnipeg’s focus remained on a two-year bridge.
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(Photo: James Carey Lauder / USA Today)
