The Winnipeg Jets have already made some big decisions this off-season, but if they are to compete for a playoff spot in 2023-24, two big contracts have been identified as ones that need to be moved.
Overpaid and underperforming
The Jets were a solid team in 2022-23, but after moving both Blake Wheeler and Pierre-Luc Dubois, they still find themselves needing to make more moves if they want to be taken seriously in the Western Conference.
In his latest piece, Murat Ates of The Athletic has identified two contracts that are just way too inefficient for the Jets, with them either needing to improve drastically or be moved ahead of the season.
Two veteran names
Those two names are veterans Neal Pionk and Nate Schmidt, both of whom account for a combined $11.8 million cap hit in 2023-24, and while they're both solid veterans, that's a large portion of the cap.
When considering the cap hits of Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck, the inefficient contracts of Pionk and Schmidt stand out poorly even more, and if the Jets want to be contenders, more trades may be on the way.