Based mostly on a breakout season, are the Winnipeg Jets prepared to afford the main pay improve Logan Stanley is predicted to command as an impending free agent?.
In a single quick 12 months, he’s change into a uniquely polarizing sports activities determine on this metropolis.
Final 12 months, many followers felt the press field was a greater spot for him than on the staff’s blue line.
This 12 months, the polarity is strictly the alternative, with chants of MVP echoing via Canada Life Centre each time he scores a aim and followers even producing their very own T-shirts utilizing his nickname to proclaim they’re “Stanimal’s Largest Fanimal.”
It’s a wrestling-type following that has frankly flipped the script from villain to hero seemingly in a single day. And the one purpose for it’s Stanley’s play this season.
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After being chosen within the first spherical of the 2016 draft, it’s actually been a second for Stanley to lastly arrive as an on a regular basis NHL defenceman, with property reminiscent of skating, measurement, physicality, toughness and, sure, scoring all now working in conjunction this season.
For the Jets, it’s been a affected person and prolonged funding in Stanley — a mission by many accounts that’s lastly full, which leads one to surprise what the staff is pondering concerning retaining the 27-year-old’s providers previous this season.
With a rumoured expectation of $4 to $5 million per season the ask, watching Stanley stroll away in July or be traded on or earlier than the March 6 deadline doesn’t look like a sage transfer for the Jets.
In spite of everything, six-foot-seven defencemen that may play aren’t in abundance throughout the NHL and his departure would go away Winnipeg a lot leaner on the left facet of its blue line, little doubt.
For Stanley, who’s simply reaching his prime, he’s seeking to money in and understandably strike whereas the iron seems to be scorching.
And whereas it may not have been the case a 12 months in the past, it’s doubtless many Winnipeg followers now imagine not re-signing Stanley could be a transfer the Jets can’t afford to make.
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