Winnipeg Jets lock up Mark Scheifele to eight-year, $49M contract

The Winnipeg Jets rewarded young center Mark Scheifele for his career year with a big raise off his entry-level contract.

The Jets announced they have re-signed the 23-year-old scorer to an eight-year, $49 million contract. This comes to a $6.125 million salary cap hit. Scheifele was a restricted free agent.

The deal will expire when Scheifele is 31 and will eat into his unrestricted free agency years, which start at age 27. The Jets said Scheifele was “very receptive” to an eight-year deal, rather than a shorter term contract that could lead into UFA at a younger, premium age.

“He embodies so many things that we as an organization want to embody,” general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said. “He embraces the community, he gives back to the community. He respects the game, he respects himself. There’s probably not a truer match for our organization than a player like Mark Scheifele for this length of term.”

Last season, Scheifele finished second on the team with 61 points and first in goals with 29. He was also a team-best plus-16. He held a 53.53 score and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% and a plus-4.02 5-on-5 score and venue adjusted CF% Rel.

In 227 NHL games, Scheifele has 145 NHL points. He is a member of Team North America for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey.

The deal is for more term and a higher cap hit than Nashville’s Filip Forsberg, another restricted free agent with similar numbers coming off his entry-level contract. Forsberg signed for six years at $36 million. It was believed Forsberg’s deal could have impacted Scheifele’s.

“I wanted an eight year deal. That was in my mind from the start,” Scheifele said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to stick around if it wasn’t such a great community.”

The Jets have $14.635 million of salary cap space remaining this offseason with young defenseman Jacob Trouba still unsigned as a restricted free agent. In the past it was reported that Trouba may be susceptible to an offer sheet. Recently Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has said he’s not trying to trade Trouba.

In December it was reported Trouba wanted more than $56 million over eight years, a report his agent denied.

Cheveldayoff did not address Trouba when asked specifically about the blue liner.

“When we have something to announce we’ll announce it,” he said.

This contract at least brings some extra clarity to Winnipeg’s salary structure so they can figure out a path forward with Trouba.

“Well certainly again in this salary cap world you have to give yourself some flexibility and leave that opportunity open,” Cheveldayoff said. “We talked very openly about it when we had to make some difficult decisions last year during the season and obviously any long-term deal that you do there’s implications regarding that moving forward. We still have a good amount of cap space available. We have several more RFAs to get locked up here as the summer progresses and we’re going to continue to move methodically in that fashion.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper