The Jets have taken one among their pending unrestricted free brokers off the marketplace for this summer time. They announced that they’ve signed ahead Vladislav Namestnikov to a two-year contract extension value $3M per season starting in 2025-26.
The 32-year-old confirmed some promise offensively early in his profession with a 48-point season in 2017-18. Nevertheless, he hasn’t been in a position to attain these numbers since then, leading to him changing into a little bit of a hockey nomad, spending time with eight completely different groups between that season and the 2022-23 marketing campaign. The Jets have been the final crew out of that group as they acquired him as a rental on the 2023 commerce deadline and favored what they noticed, giving him a two-year, $4M contract on the opening day of free company that summer time.
The contract has worked out well for both sides. While Namestnikov still hasn’t returned to his top offensive numbers, he has become a reliable secondary scorer for Winnipeg. Last season, in his first full year with the Jets, he picked up 11 goals and 26 assists in 78 games, good for the second-highest point total of his career. He also spent considerable time at center after spending most of the previous few seasons on the wing.
Namestnikov is on pace for a higher offensive output this year. Through 52 outings this season, he has 10 goals and 19 assists while logging just under 15 minutes a night of playing time. He has been a regular at center this year and has improved his faceoff percentage by 9.5% compared to a year ago, although it still checks in as below-average at 45.8% on the campaign. Nonetheless, becoming a reliable middle-six player who can play down the middle certainly helped Namestnikov’s cause in contract talks, allowing him to get a 50% raise on this new agreement to keep him in the fold.
With the deal, Winnipeg now has roughly $55.6M in commitments to 14 players for next season, per PuckPedia, giving them somewhat underneath $40M in area to work with. Nevertheless, they nonetheless have a pair of notable pending UFAs to take care of, together with winger
Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman Neal Pionk, each of whom are in line for expensive long-term contracts this summer time. Within the meantime, they’ve helped shore up their ahead depth for the following two years by retaining Namestnikov round.
Namestnikov’s agent, Dan Milstein, first reported the deal, whereas Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first with the monetary phrases.
