Veteran defenseman re-signs with Jets despite trade request

The Jets have reached an agreement on a new deal with one of their remaining restricted free agents. They announced that they’ve re-signed defenseman Logan Stanley to a one-year contract. The one-way deal will pay him $1M and matches what his qualifying offer was back in June.

The 25-year-old was a first-round pick by Winnipeg back in 2016 (18th overall) with the team hoping that his 6-foot-7 stature could make him a force on their back end. While Stanley has shown flashes of being an impact player, he hasn’t been able to do that consistently at this point in his career.

Last season was a tough one on multiple fronts for Stanley. He missed a total of 40 games due to a pair of lower-body injuries, and when he was healthy, he struggled to get into the lineup. The end result was just 19 appearances during the regular season, the lowest of his three-year career. In those games, Stanley had just three points along with 44 hits while logging less than 14 minutes a night. In the playoffs, Stanley got into just one contest, playing less than nine minutes in total.

Along the way, Stanley requested a trade, one that has yet to be granted. The challenge for Winnipeg in terms of extracting value for Stanley is that at this stage of his career (spanning 114 games), he simply hasn’t shown enough to be counted on as a full-time top-six blueliner. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff won’t want to give Stanley away as the trade value for a depth defender isn’t particularly high, while on the flip side, an acquiring team won’t want to pay a higher asking price for someone who hasn’t yet landed a full-time lineup spot yet.

Unfortunately for Stanley, his situation hasn’t changed much over the summer as Winnipeg’s back end hasn’t changed. If nothing else, it might have gotten more crowded with Declan Chisholm (their other remaining RFA) now waiver-eligible while Ville Heinola (who also has made it known he’d welcome a change of scenery) also in the mix. At the moment, Stanley will likely be battling for the sixth or seventh spot on the depth chart, which puts him exactly where he was a year ago.

Stanley will once again be a restricted free agent next summer with a $1M qualifier. He’ll have arbitration rights at that time as well, something he elected not to exercise this time around, a decision likely made with the hopes that it might help facilitate a trade. If he’s still around next summer, it’ll be interesting to see if he takes that route if nothing changes for him in the coming months.