The Winnipeg Jets silenced a lot of the narrative about “franchise uncertainty” with the signing of Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to long-term contracts almost a month ago.
One of the four remaining unrestricted free agents on the roster is making a very strong case about also extending his future with the hockey club.
Nino Niederreiter has fit like a glove with Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton ever since that trio was put together six plus games ago during the 3-2 overtime win at Edmonton.
Over that stretch, which has produced a 4-1-2 record, the Jets’ so-called third line has pulled the trigger on nine of the team’s 23 goals while combining for 20 points and a plus 17 rating.
For the past two weeks, Lowry, Appleton and Niederreiter have been Winnipeg’s best line — and it hasn’t even been close.
And as Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun reported over the weekend, the timing couldn’t be better, following Niederreiter’s hat trick performance in the 5-3 win at Arizona.
According to Billeck, Nino’s agent is scheduled to be in Winnipeg when the team arrives back home later this week.
Who knows what might result from potential conversations between said agent, Andre Rufener, and Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff?
Niederreiter said rather firmly late last April — during the exit meetings following the disastrous Game Five loss in Vegas — that Winnipeg is a market that simply can’t go into rebuild mode.
A few weeks later, while playing for Switzerland at the World Championship tournament in Riga, Latvia, Niederreiter had nothing but positive things to say about this city and the Jets organization.
That was before the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade, and the Scheifele and Hellebuyck signings.
Nino Niederreiter turned 31 just before the start of training camp, so purely from an outsider’s perspective, a deal in the range of four to five years for a bump to just a bit north of the $4 million the Swiss native is currently being paid, would seem to make sense.
That’s a workable number for the team to keep the competitive window open for the foreseeable future and a term for a player who clearly wants to be here.
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