Jets Draft Preview: Trading first rounder for immediate help could be tricky

The Winnipeg Jets are in win-now mode, so anything is possible for the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners at the 2025 NHL Draft.

That said, the Jets didn’t make a first-round pick last year. And for a club that absolutely killed it in Round 1 for five years after its return to Manitoba, the Jets’ first picks have been hit and mostly miss for a long time now.

Unearthing a gem with the 28th overall pick would be a huge win for this club that, despite recent Round 1 whiffs and absences, does still have a credible prospect pool.

The best youngster in the pipeline is right-shot defenceman Elias Salomonsson, a 2022 second-rounder who is likely to step into the lineup next year.

The Jets’ first pick in ’22 was Rutger McGroarty, who chose not to sign with the team and was dealt last summer to Pittsburgh for Brayden Yager. The former was picked 14th overall by the Pens in 2023, a year after Winnipeg took McGroarty in the exact same slot.

As noted, Winnipeg did not make a selection in Round 1 last June and its 2023 first, Colby Barlow, was on a bit of a downward trajectory until a strong playoff showing with the Oshawa Generals this past spring.

A year before they took McGroarty, Winnipeg grabbed another American, centre Chaz Lucius, 18th overall, and he was just forced into very early retirement with a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

The Jets seem to have found a good one in Cole Perfetti in 2020, but 2019 first-rounder Ville Heinola has been slowed by a couple of injuries. Winnipeg traded its 2018 first-round pick at the deadline the previous winter, missed with Kristian Vesalainen in 2017 and parted ways with Patrik Laine, the second-overall pick in 2016, five years after he was drafted. They traded up four spots to get hulking defenceman Logan Stanley 18th in 2016, and, at 26, he’s still trying to prove himself as a no-doubt member of the squad’s top six.

All this is to say, the past nine first rounds have been nothing like the first five GM Kevin Cheveldayoff oversaw with the Jets, when they hit on Mark Scheifele at No. 7 in 2011, Jacob Trouba ninth in 2012, Josh Morrissey at lucky No. 13 in 2013, Nik Ehlers ninth in 2014 and Kyle Connor an absolute theft at 17th overall in 2015.

Winnipeg can truly lean into a best-player-available mentality at No. 28, especially with Salomonsson filling a niche as a righty on defence.

As noted, Cheveldayoff could look to fill an immediate need with an NHL body by moving his first. Winnipeg made huge news by signing hometown hero Jonathan Toews last week, the hope being — once the three-time Cup champion shakes out some rust — Toews can strengthen the team down the middle. Still, there’s uncertainty surrounding Nik Ehlers, who can become an unrestricted free agent in one week’s time and the defence corps could still stand an upgrade. If there’s an opportunity to turn a first-rounder into a player who can help Winnipeg lurch forward right now, pulling the trigger makes sense.

It has to be noted, though, that moving a first-round pick for right-now help looks to be a little trickier than usual heading into the 2025 draft for a couple reasons. First off, this draft — especially by the back end of Rd. 1 — is not viewed as a strong one, so that pick might not hold huge appeal. There’s also the fact that, thanks to numerous teams having multiple first-rounders, Winnipeg’s pick could be devalued a bit thanks to a saturated market.

Of course, much of draft day is a dice roll, and it will all come down to who’s on the board after 27 selections and how Winnipeg feels about its options in the moment.

Draft Picks: 28th overall, 92nd, 156th, 188th, 220th

Potential Rd. 1 Options

Could Malcolm Spence fall this far? He’s probably going to be gone by the early-20s, but he’d certainly be an intriguing player with his robust and skilled game on the wing. How about a swing on a big guy? Lynden Lakovic has heard critiques about his compete level coming and going, but there’s no denying the tantalizing package a nearly six-foot-five winger with good hands brings. Another huge winger — six-foot-five, 209-pound Russian Daniil Prokhorov — is gaining steam as a kid who could crack the first round. If Winnipeg wants both size and pedigree, William Horcoff — the nearly six-foot-five centre and son of former Edmonton Oiler Shawn Horcoff — could be in the mix at No. 28.

Last Year’s Top Pick

As noted, the Jets did not have a first-rounder last year — it went to Montreal in the swap that returned Sean Monahan — so the first player Winnipeg selected in 2024 was Swedish defenceman Alfons Freij at 37th overall. Freij is a shifty, offence-minded blue-liner who spent last year in

Sweden’s second-best division, recording eight points in 29 contests with Bjorkloven. He is set to join Timra on Sweden’s top circuit next fall and, after failing to make a pretty loaded Swedish World Junior Championship squad this past winter, he’ll almost surely be an important member of the country’s 2026 WJC entry in Minnesota.

Bold Prediction

For the second straight draft, Winnipeg won’t make a first-round selection. The Chicago Blackhawks — slated to pick third and 25th right now — will see another player they still like on the board at No. 28 and flip picks No. 34 and 62 to Winnipeg. The Jets — who don’t have a second-rounder in 2025, ’26 or ’27 right now — will move down and try to find some more second-round steals like Salomonsson.

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