Report: Jets close to signing Kyle Connor
With Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers already off the board after agreeing to contract extensions within the past week, the once-vaunted 2026 unrestricted free agent class might be poised to get even thinner.
According to a report from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Winnipeg Jets and star winger Kyle Connor are making progress toward a long-term contract extension with a goal of finalizing the deal before the Jets’ season-opening game on Thursday.
Heading home from Winnipeg, where we did some feature work today
Hearing Jets and Kyle Connor have made progress on a long-term extension.
Team opens Thursday and everyone working to close it beforehand.
Friedman added that he expects the average annual value to come in around the $12 million range, which could approach or even exceed the $12.5 million McDavid received from the Oilers on a two-year extension on Monday.
Should the deal get done, it would solidify the presence of an absolutely crucial member of Winnipeg’s core as well as their top goalscorer.
Last summer, the Jets failed to retain Nikolaj Ehlers, who wound up joining the Carolina Hurricanes. Had Connor also walked next July, it would have meant losing an even higher tier of gamebreaking talent for nothing.
Connor, a 28-year-old from Michigan, is coming off the most productive season of his career. The No. 17 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft posted a career-high 97 points last year in the form of 41 goals and a career-best 56 assists.
The 2025-26 season will be the last of his current seven-year contract that comes with a cap hit of $7,142,857. Over the course of that deal, Connor has gone from a promising young talent to a bonafide elite scorer in the league.
The team’s front office has done well to secure long-term commitments from several core players already. Franchise cornerstones Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele are both signed to plus-value deals through 2031, the same year in which defenseman Neal Pionk and forward Gabriel Vilardi are also set to hit unrestricted free agency.