Jets' Scheifele in Locked & Upright Position

The Winnipeg Jets have wrapped up one of their cornerstone pieces for the maximum amount of time allowable, as they have re-signed centre Mark Scheifele to a new 8-year deal, worth $49 million on Friday.

The 7th overall pick in the 2011 entry draft has certainly grown into his role as one of the faces of the franchise, completing his third full season with the team in the 2016 season, scoring 29 goals and 61 points in 71 games, ranking 2nd on the team in pool scoring behind Blake Wheeler.

The 23-year old centre will certainly be in the middle of talent in the coming season, depending on who the coaching staff elects to have him play with.  The potential of playing with an established talent and/or an up-and-coming talent like Patrik Laine has to be exciting for Jets fans and poolies alike, because there is plenty of potential for offense in this lineup.

The long-term deal gives a lot of security to a guy who has been groomed through their own system and he is identified as the centerpiece of the offense.  This should mean a lot more confidence moving forward and that generally translates into better point totals at the end of the season, which means his projections will improve for the 2017 season, starting at around 70 points.

The cap hit also remains quite pleasing to the bookkeepers, I'm sure, as the Jets still have about $10.25 million under the cap ceiling with the coloured roster below.  Jacob Trouba is still outstanding in the restricted free agent market, but with this deal signed, there may be a little less to worry about getting that deal done.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Mark Scheifele	6.125	Dustin Byfuglien	7.600	Ondrej Pavelec	3.900
Blake Wheeler	5.600	Tyler Myers	5.500	Michael Hutchinson	1.150
Bryan Little	4.700			Connor Hellebuyck	0.668
Drew Stafford	4.350
Mathieu Perreault	3.000
Shawn Matthias	2.125
Nikolaj Ehlers	0.894
Alexander Burmistrov	1.550	Toby Enstrom	5.750
Chris Thorburn	1.200	Mark Stuart	2.625
Marko Dano	0.925	Brian Strait	0.600
Patrik Laine	0.925	Joshua Morrissey	0.863
Kyle Connor	0.925	Ben Chiarot	0.850
Andrew Copp	0.925
Chase De Leo	0.875	Paul Postma	0.888	Eric Comrie	0.637
Brendan Lemieux	0.839	Jan Kostalek	0.693
Nic Petan	0.758	Brenden Kichton	0.600
Scott Kosmachuk	0.720
Anthony Peluso	0.675
Jimmy Lodge	0.668
Quinton Howden	0.650
Ryan Olsen	0.619
Axel Blomqvist	0.583

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins,  injured/retired cap hits, in the system