Winnipeg's Kyle Connor is, quietly it seems, on pace for a career year. At the time of writing this article, the 23-year-old is a point-per-player game with 26 goals and 56 points in 56 games. He leads his team in goals, is third in assists and second in points. Long story short, he's an excellent player who's in the first year of a seven-year deal paying him just under $7.15 million a year. So would the Jets consider moving him? According to one report, yes, for the right price.
So what is the right price? It would obviously need to be a very good return that fills a need for the Jets, and that need right now is defense. According to Mike McIntyre with the Winnipeg Free Press, Connor's name has been linked by a source to Colorado's potential franchise defenseman Bowen Byram. McIntyre writes:
He's the main name being linked to Connor, by the way, along with a couple other small pieces. Byram, selected fourth-overall by the Colorado Avalanche in last summer's NHL draft, is currently playing with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League.As the thinking goes, the Avalanche already have a potential franchise blue-liner in rookie Cale Makar, and their window to win is wide open right now. Trading a highly coveted asset for a major piece to help in the present might make some sense.
If you're unfamiliar with Byram, he played with Canada's gold-medal winning team at the Wold Junior Hockey Championships this year, playing a major role on the blueline. He also has 30 points in 37 games with the Vancouver Giants this season, after putting up 71 points in 67 games with the same team last season. While there's no such thing as a sure thing, he certainly seems destined for a great NHL career.
While the whole thing might seem like complete speculation as we get closer to the trade deadline, McIntyre insists his "well-connected source" swears "it has legs."
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
