Winnipeg has won four out of five games since the trade deadline, maintaining its spot at the top of the NHL.
The Jets maintain the league’s best record, best goal differential, top power play, top goaltender and four of the league’s top 50 scorers, with Kyle Connor fifth in the league. Every week brings a new challenge and, despite a history of struggles at this time of year, this year’s Jets are finding new ways to win games.
The most recent success story is Dylan Samberg, whose emergence as a top-four workhorse has given the Jets defence new dimension and confidence heading down the stretch. The 26-year-old defenceman from Hermantown, Minn. scored the game-winning goal on Sunday, teed up by his former roommate, Cole Perfetti, whose top-six success is another win for Winnipeg.
But Samberg is not alone. In this dive into Jets trends, we cover Perfetti, Samberg, Winnipeg’s top line’s return to form, a specific aspect of Scott Arniel’s coaching, and the little things Luke Schenn is doing to help unlock Samberg’s defensive game.
We also talk about Samberg’s next contract, his offensive mindset, and more. Here’s what we’re seeing from the No. 1 Jets this week.
Inside Samberg’s offensive mindset, plus a note on his next deal
Samberg jumped into a rush and onto the highlight reel during Friday night’s win over Dallas, picking up Mark Scheifele’s feed just inside the blue line and wiring a wrist shot past a screened Jake Oettinger.
It wasn’t his biggest goal of the week.
THAT EX ROOMMATE CONNECTION LIVES ON FOREVER ‼️ pic.twitter.com/777d8tsRFE
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) March 17, 2025
Samberg scored Sunday’s overtime winner off a nice pass from Perfetti — a bit of payback for Samberg’s shot helping Perfetti get a goal earlier in the game. Samberg has three points in the two games since Neal Pionk’s injury, playing a more offensive role with stay-at-home partner Schenn.
Samberg’s offence may seem like a new development but it’s the culmination of work he’s put into developing his game from Day 1 of the season. He told The Athletic at training camp that he wanted to get better at chaining plays together. He wanted to do more than make the defensive boxout or block — he wanted to follow it with a good first pass and then follow that pass up the ice to make himself an option for Jets forwards.
“It’s one of those things you’re constantly working to build,” Samberg said by way of update last week. “When I’m playing well, we’re getting the puck out of our zone quickly (and) it allows us to create more offence.”
Samberg’s defensive game has been there all season — well worthy of the top-four minutes he receives. On Friday, he (along with Dylan DeMelo, Adam Lowry and Alex Iafallo) killed off the entire two minutes of Dallas’ second-period power play. Samberg opened that PK by boxing out Wyatt Johnston off the faceoff, allowing Iafallo to ice the puck. He ended it with one shot block and two pass blocks which helped the Jets get out of two full minutes of grinding.
“Sammy’s been doing it all year,” Connor said on Friday. “He’s one of the best shot blockers. It’s such an underrated skill the way he’s able to predict the shots and get in the lanes.”
That underrated skill is a big part of Samberg’s emergence as a go-to top-four defenceman. Connor’s description calls Jaccob Slavin to mind. The amount of skill it takes to maintain stick and body position for a block like this one is Dominik Hasek-esque:
“I would absolutely lose my mind playing against Slavo” – Seth Jarvis pic.twitter.com/ILGy1yQ9Nz
— The SurgeCast (@TheSurgeCast) February 21, 2025
It looks like desperation but it’s a master class in angles, agility and hockey IQ. Slavin is the gold standard for plays like those but Samberg’s game is built on the same foundation. He reads the play, sizes up the most dangerous threat and throws his stick or body in the way as the moment dictates. It cost him a broken foot earlier in the season, necessitating the creation of a skate he calls a “transformer.”
How Schenn helps Samberg play his game
I want to draw your attention to Schenn’s work on consecutive defensive zone faceoffs against Dallas on Friday. The goal here is to illustrate how Schenn helps Samberg play offence despite a limited offensive skill set of his own.
This shift starts to Connor Hellebuyck’s left, with Samberg in the middle of the ice and Schenn lined up against Mikko Rantanen on the left wing boards. Lowry wins the draw toward Schenn on the wall, creating an opportunity for a battle that Schenn wins by boxing Rantanen out, protecting the puck and allowing Samberg to kick-start a breakout.
It takes a team effort to start a shift in the defensive zone and then to play most of it at the other end of the rink. Boxouts make for boring video but the impact of Schenn’s battle-winning should not be lost.
Here’s the very next shift — also a defensive zone draw against the Stars’ top line. This time, Morgan Barron wins the draw toward the boards where Rantanen does a better job of jumping into the circle, only to find that Schenn has fronted him this time. Watch as Schenn neatly swats the puck away, Samberg reverses it to Iafallo, and the Jets key another breakout and rush.
If you watched the clip all the way through, you saw the fourth line go to work on the forecheck, ultimately creating a breakaway for Brandon Tanev that nearly resulted in a goal. That’s a breakaway and a Grade-A scoring chance that would not have happened without winning that board battle off the draw.
“To watch him shift in and shift out, you see it,” Arniel said of Schenn. “When he uses his smarts, when he uses his hockey savvy, or he can use his body to get those pucks, that leads to puck possession. Maybe it’s a faceoff that’s a 50/50 that he leans in and gets that puck and it’s a breakout for us.”
Pionk has an offensive skill set that will be missed while he’s away. His mentorship has been part of Samberg’s growth. In his absence, we are getting a reminder that Samberg can drive results in a lot of different ways.
This brings us back to Slavin, who I brought up for a reason. Samberg’s positive impact on offence — and dramatically positive impact on defence — mirror Slavin’s impacts in Carolina. Their roles are similar, featuring nearly three PK minutes per game, while the Jets lean even harder on Samberg at five-on-five than Carolina leans on Slavin. The veteran has a higher peak and better consistency and got to his level slightly younger than Samberg did, but they’re providing similar value to their teams right now.
There’s a good argument to be made that the Jets would be fortunate to pay Samberg the same $5.3 million AAV Slavin makes right now. Factor in the rising cap and Samberg would make $6.4 million if he got the same 6.67 percent of the maximum Slavin got as an RFA in 2017.
He’s 26 years old and a good bet to deliver value on his next contract — particularly if it’s a long-term deal that takes him through the heart of his career.
Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi rebounding from first lull
Connor, Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi are Winnipeg’s offensive leaders. Improved defending means their overall body of work has also driven team success. At five-on-five, they’re in the middle of the pack compared to top lines around the league. On the power play, they’re spectacular — no longer on pace to set the NHL record for best power play of the modern era, but No. 1 by quite some distance.
Add it all up and you get Connor on pace for 103 points, Scheifele on pace for 90 points and Vilardi on pace for 74 points. All three of those marks would be career-best totals and Connor’s would set a new record for most points in Jets 2.0 history. (If you care about Atlanta Thrashers records, Connor would also surpass Marian Hossa’s 100 points in 2006-07.) Vilardi has already set new highs in goals (27), assists (34) and points (61).
If you were writing a book about the top line’s season, the main story arc would be about triumph. Recently, though, they overcame a lull.
Over the first 10 games since the 4 Nations Face-Off break, some of their old habits appeared to have crept back into their game. The Jets’ top line was extending shifts, looking for offensive chances at inopportune times, and averaging almost one minute per shift at five-on-five. In one game against Philadelphia, the whole line averaged over a minute per shift — again, not counting the power play. They even reverted back to occasional hope plays on the breakout — those familiar, but ancient problems of flying the zone before the puck was safe.
That’s what made Friday’s game against Dallas such a dramatic and powerful statement. All three members of Winnipeg’s top line contributed to all three of their five-on-five goals, whether or not they got a point on the play. It was the biggest game of Winnipeg’s stretch run and the top line gave the Jets a 3-0 lead.
The Barn is ROCKING for Kyle Connor’s second of the night 💥 pic.twitter.com/FSuvpcc1Rr
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 15, 2025
Against Seattle, it was a cycle play from Josh Morrissey to Connor late in the first period that kick-started Winnipeg’s first great shift of the game. Perfetti scored on the very next shift — a hustle play that saw Winnipeg’s second line establish its forecheck, steal a puck and then crash the net. Perfetti’s rebound goal gave the Jets hope and changed the nature of the game, ultimately keying a comeback win.
Vladislav Namestnikov’s line has been playing some of its best hockey of late and its secondary scoring will be vital come playoff time. That’s part of why Winnipeg tried as hard as it did to add Brock Nelson at the trade deadline — and part of what makes Perfetti’s two-way play (and 50-point pace) such a welcome development.
But Winnipeg is built around its primary scorers. When Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi show up on the scoresheet — and have the dominant, two-way impact they did in marquee matchups as they did against Dallas — it’s a vote of confidence in Winnipeg’s ability to go toe to toe with the league’s best teams come playoff time. They haven’t always measured up to the Nathan MacKinnons and Jack Eichels of the world, but they’re giving us reasons to believe this year could be different.
Arniel’s late-game adjustments: Can Winnipeg hold a lead when the big games hit?
We’ve seen it all season: The Jets are up by one, the other team’s goaltender is pulled, and Iafallo replaces Vilardi on the top line.
This is a defence-first move Scott Arniel employs with roughly five minutes left in the third period — a move he’s gone to all season and recently modified to include Tanev as another option in Vilardi’s stead. It’s a move that’s worked: Winnipeg has only given up one six-on-five goal this season, tying Washington and New Jersey for the best number in the NHL.
Arniel said he likes to use Iafallo and Tanev in the shutdown role because of their play along the boards.
“That’s not taking anything away from Gabe … But they’re good on the walls, shot-blockers. They do a good job sort of anticipating those situations,” Arniel said on Thursday. “That’s what they do on the penalty kill. When they get out five-on-five, they are really responsible players. … You just throw them in there and they’re really good glue guys.”
Iafallo has done the job all season; Tanev has just arrived. It’s clear both players will get the task — in big regular-season games against Dallas and especially during the playoffs. It’s also reminiscent of Rick Bowness’ decisions last season, pulling Perfetti or Nikolaj Ehlers in key moments and replacing them with Mason Appleton. Appleton can be counted on to eat a check from a pinching defenceman and get the puck out anyway.
It’s an area of the game Connor struggles with, so I asked Arniel why he keeps Connor in when he takes Vilardi out.
“I don’t know. I think Kyle’s been in this a lot longer,” Arniel said. “He’s also a penalty killer, he’s got some quickness to him. His stick there defending. … He does a good job that way. Anticipation, I don’t know. He’s become a real good 200-foot player for us, both ways, so that’s probably the reason there.”
Connor has a flawless record with the other team’s goalie pulled. He wasn’t on the ice for the six-on-five goal Winnipeg gave up or the six-on-four goal, either. I maintain some skepticism about his ability to take a rimmed puck, absorb a check from a pinching defenceman and get the puck out of the zone. Connor has performed when the Jets have been down a man, including on the PK. The results offer compelling evidence that the Jets’ approach is working.
Schenn will be called on to play in these kinds of situations, too, and he seems ready for the task.
(Photo of Dylan Samberg celebrating his overtime winner with Cole Perfetti: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
