3 Winnipeg Jets Players Who Could Be Traded By the Trade Deadline

2. Brenden Dillon

The Jets only acquired Dillon this past offseason, but could we see the veteran defenseman move again just some short months later?

Fellow Jets White Out writer, Dan St. Joseph pointed out in his recap of the Jets’ pre-all-star-break loss to the Flyers that the Jets’ young defensive prospects have been playing extremely well and this may incline Kevin Cheveldayoff to move a higher priced contract and let the prospects take the reigns on defense. I do think that Dan has a great point here and it can potentially come to fruition.

With the Jets having pending restricted free agents of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Evgeny Svechnikov, Jansen Harkins, Eric Comrie, and others while also potentially looking to resign pending UFAs Andrew Copp and Paul Stastny, Dillon’s contract may be one the Jets will look to offload to create more cap space for the next season.

This becomes more of a factor when you consider that a number of the Jets’ prospect defensemen will be coming off their entry-level contracts during the next couple of years and will most likely see an increase in their respective salaries (Kovacevic, Samberg, Stanley, Gawanke, and Nogier).

Dillon’s current contract has an AAV of $3,900,000 and expires at the end of the 2023-2024 season. He is a shutdown, defensive defenseman, who currently is the Jets outright leader in plus/minus (+16). He can be a great veteran addition to any playoff team.