WINNIPEG – The final horn on Thursday didn’t just cement a 4-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning – it closed the Winnipeg Jets’ final on-ice audition.
With Friday’s NHL trade deadline looming, the players have put in their final pitch to general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
Now, the fate of the roster is entirely out of their hands.
Jets forward Kyle Connor (81) scores an empty-net goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during third period NHL action in Winnipeg on March 5, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
“At the end of the day, we’re still chasing a playoff spot, and that’s what I’ve tried to keep those guys focused on,” said head coach Scott Arniel.
“This is a hard distraction, it’s right in front of us, but the focus is an eight-game homestand and, well, we’re two for two.”
That reality set in before puck drop.
Despite Arniel stating earlier in the day that the team’s injured reserve list was too crowded to afford resting any pending unrestricted free agents, the script flipped by the evening.
Defencemen Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley were late scratches, held out of the lineup as trade rumours swirled.
A couple hours after the game, they were dealt to the Buffalo Sabres for defenceman Jacob Bryson, forward Isak Rosen, a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a second-round selection next year.
It was a stark reminder of how quickly situations can evolve during deadline week.
“When you’re sitting out two guys that have been teammates the last few years, it’s hard,” Arniel said. “It’s easy for people to just say trade that guy, trade this guy, move this guy. Well, there’s some human aspect to it of family and kids, friendships — all of those things.”
For those players navigating the rumour mill, leaning on teammates with experience in these types of situations has helped.
Veteran forward Gustav Nyquist, who has been traded three times in his career, served as a sounding board for Stanley in recent days.
“I mean, listen, it’s hard. This week’s hard,” Nyquist said. “He’s been here for a while … it’s part of the business. So we’ve had talks, but I think he’s been handling it great.”
For a group that’s become accustomed in recent years to adding players for a playoff push, this season’s impending deadline carries a decidedly different weight to it.
With the Jets (25-26-10) still several points out of a playoff spot, creating the outside expectation that the organization will pivot to being sellers, the room is trying to balance the human toll with the task at hand.
“Obviously, yeah, it’s different circumstances than the last couple,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said before the game. “Obviously this year we’re on the outside looking in. But I think the biggest thing is guys in this locker room want to support the guys where there’s a lot of uncertainty.”
The business side of hockey is never more apparent than in the final hours ahead of the deadline. Friendships built over years are suddenly put on hold, replaced by the harsh reality that several players may have worn a Winnipeg sweater for the final time.
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“From a personal side, it’s tough,” Lowry added. “You have guys uprooting their families. There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. It’s not just the player getting traded, it’s the family.”
The NHL trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Cheveldayoff is expected to be busy working the phones, armed with a clear mandate to accumulate draft capital and future assets.
Winnipeg’s list of pending unrestricted free agents is crowded.
It includes defenceman Colin Miller, alongside forwards Nyquist, Tanner Pearson, Cole Koepke and veteran Jonathan Toews, who controls his own destiny with a full no-move clause.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.
Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer
Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.
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