AS I SEE IT COLUMN: The Winnipeg Jets can easily afford any free agent in the NHL

In today’s NHL one hears an awful lot about “cap space” especially during this time of the season when teams are acquiring free agents, players who can “freely” sign with any team they want because they’ve played 10 seasons in the NHL. It’s their chance to cash in and sign a big contract.

Cap space refers to the amount of money each is allowed to spend on their players. Heading into the 2025-2026 season, NHL teams must spend a minimum of $70.6 million on their roster, but cannot exceed the league maximum of $95.5 million.

Many Jets fans are hoping the team re-signs Nikolaj Ehlers, the popular Danish player, who was one of the best Jets during their abbreviated playoff run. (At press time he had not signed anywhere.)

Whether it’s re-signing Ehlers or going after any of the unrestricted free agents that are out there, here’s the most important thing all Jets fans – and the media – need to remember: The Jets can easily afford any player on the market.

If they want to, they can offer Ehlers way more than he would get from any other team. If there’s a high-profile player they want, the Jets have cash to burn.

The Jets co-owner is David Thomson, heir to the Thomson-Reuters media empire. His estimated net worth is around $52,000,000,000.

According to Forbes and Bloomberg, Thomson is the 23rd richest person on earth, the 4th richest owner in all of sports (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and soccer), and easily the richest owner in the NHL.

So anything you read or hear in the media about “can the Jets afford this player or that?” is complete bunk. They can afford any player that is available.

There are some mitigating factors. Many players in the league supposedly don’t want to play in Winnipeg. While I don’t doubt that to be true, a lot of players are driven by money so if the Jets want someone badly enough, they can pay them more than other teams will, as long as they don’t pass the league maximum.

Sure it’s cold here in winter and the taxes are high, but very few Jets make Manitoba their permanent home, so they can spend the non-hockey half the year living wherever they want.

Then there’s the matter of how willing the Jets owners are to paying or overpaying for free agents, given that Manitoba is the smallest market with the smallest arena in the league.

Just because Jets co-owner Thomson has the money, doesn’t automatically mean he will want to spend it.

The Jets are his (and Mark Chipman’s) private company so they can spend their money however they see fit. That is entirely their prerogative. To their credit, they routinely spend the maximum allowable amount of money, despite the attendance challenges and early playoff exists of the past few seasons. They wouldn’t have won the President’s Trophy as the regular season’s best team if they spent the bare minimum.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on sports team ownership, but I do know that billionaires like to have some of their holdings lose money; it reduces their overall tax bill. So the Jets don’t even need to turn a profit, although we’ll never know that because NHL owners never open their books.

The bottom line is this. When you hear commentators on TSN and Sportsnet and elsewhere in the centre of the universe bloviate about who the Jets can or cannot afford to go after in free agency, it’s all hogwash.

With the richest owner in the NHL, the Jets can easily afford to sign anyone they want.