WINNIPEG – Locker clean-out day is never enjoyable – unless you’re the last team standing at the end of June – but Friday’s session inside the Winnipeg Jets dressing room, just one day after their regular season finale, carried a feeling of disappointment that was easy to feel.
Sure, there were some smiles. Jonathan Toews signed numerous sticks for his teammates who had been by his side through all 82 games he played, the first regular season action the 37-year-old had seen since the end of the 2023 campaign.
But even for Toews, the story of his return to the National Hockey League and his hometown team, wasn’t quite enough.
“I'm super happy and proud that I went after the dream of playing in the NHL again. But at the same time you have expectations in your mind of what kind of player you can be and how you want to contribute to your team,” said Toews, who scored 11 times and finished with 29 points.
“It's disappointing and sometimes you feel like you want to be giving more, helping your team,” he said. “Obviously we need more help at centre this year and our team went through a lot of injuries as well. So it's just kind of the way things went.”
Toews said he’ll take the first few weeks of the off-season to reflect on the busy 82-game grind – made even more compact by the Olympics – and come to a decision on his playing future at that time.
If he elects to play again, he’d love to be right back in Jets colours.
“100 percent, if they'll have me,” said Toews. “We've got great leaders, a lot of talent. I'm just impressed with how guys approach the game every day and their energy and positivity, especially with each other and especially when things aren't going perfectly your way, these guys are just so resilient and showing up, keeping things light, having fun every single day.”
That leadership group – including captain Adam Lowry, alternate captains Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey – and the mix of veterans and young players in the room next year will have the goal of getting back to the type of results this group got used to in 2024-25.
Going from the 116 points that season to the 82 of this season wasn’t caused by any one thing. There were the injuries – Lowry recovering from off-season hip surgery, Cole Perfetti’s ankle injury and Dylan Samberg’s broken wrist in the preseason, and Connor Hellebuyck’s knee procedure to name a few – but Winnipeg doesn’t like to use those as an excuse.
Offensively, a Jets team that finished fourth in the NHL in goals last season (275) wound up 26th this season (229). Two seasons of William Jennings trophies for the fewest goals against also came to an end, with Winnipeg allowing 256 goals (22nd) after consecutive seasons under 200.
Add in the 0-7-4 skid from December 15 to January 8, and the Jets – despite their best efforts – just couldn’t climb themselves out of the 11-point deficit they faced coming out of the Olympic break.
“Ultimately the consistency wasn’t there,” said Lowry. “My first two years (as captain) went pretty smoothly with how the team played. Not many extended losing streaks. I think reflecting on how we handled those things will make us stronger moving forward. Sometimes it’s finding the right words at the right time. Sometimes it’s going out there and leading the way with your actions. There’s things I learned.”
The last time the Jets missed the playoffs in 2022, they responded by making the postseason in each of the next three seasons. They know life is never easy in the Central Division, which produced the Presidents’ Trophy winner for a second straight season in 2025-26, but the resolve to do whatever is necessary to return to form is noticeable.
“I think the guys coming back need to take a step forward and have bounce back years you can be proud of,” said Lowry. “Any time you feel to meet expectations you, there’s going to be changes. What those look like, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see come free agency, come the draft. I think it’s on the guys returning, that we use the time valuably and come back so we’re not sitting here.”
The changes Lowry speaks of will happen over the course of the summer. According to PuckPedia, the Jets roster has six unrestricted free agents (Gustav Nyquist, Toews, Cole Koepke, Eric Comrie, Colin Miller, and Jacob Bryson) and two restricted free agents (Isak Rosen and Cole Perfetti) that the organization will have to negotiate.
“I'm obviously excited to get those talks going whenever the time is,” said Perfetti. “Obviously, being in this organization that drafted me and being here for five years now, you feel like you're a part of this and have been a part of this for a long time and you want to be a solution, a fix. I want to be a guy that can that can help get this team far.”
And that was the prevailing theme of Monday. Players want to be part of the solution to bring the whiteout back to Canada Life Centre at this time next season.
“The accountability in this room is really good. Obviously, the execution, things like that didn’t go as planned this year,” said Lowry. “I think guys do a really good job of understanding what role they play and being part of that solution.
“Sometimes things are said that are tough to hear, but that’s our job, to go out there and correct those things so they’re not said again. Change the narrative a little bit. It’s an important day, it’s important we take what we hear and put in the work and try to get better so we don’t find ourselves in this position again next year.”
