Jets Add Mason and Kulikov

The Winnipeg Jets took home the top prize in Saturday's free agent frenzy, the top hockey pool point-getter among all unrestricted free agents, goalie Steve Mason.  Mason signed a 2-year, $8.2 million deal early on Saturday after what was believed to be some good meetings with the Jets during the talking period, where teams could sell the team, but not necessarily negotiate terms.

The 29-year old keeper had an up-and-down year with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017, posting 26 wins and 59 points in 58 appearances for the club, which was good enough for 18th among all goalies in the league.

The Jets also added defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who didn't finish among the top defenders last season, as injuries forced him to miss nearly half the season in Buffalo last year.  The 26-year old defender had the remainder of his last deal bought out and the Jets signed him to a new 3-year, $13 million deal, getting him to join an already potent blueline.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Mark Scheifele	6.125	Dustin Byfuglien	7.600	Steve Mason	4.100
Blake Wheeler	5.600	Toby Enstrom	5.750	Michael Hutchinson	1.150
Bryan Little	4.700	Tyler Myers	5.500
Mathieu Perreault	4.125	Dmitry Kulikov	4.333
Shawn Matthias	2.125	Jacob Trouba	3.000
Adam Lowry	1.125	Ben Chiarot	1.400
Patrik Laine	0.925	Joshua Morrissey	0.863
Joel Armia	0.925	Julian Melchiori	0.625
Kyle Connor	0.925
Jack Roslovic	0.925
Nikolaj Ehlers	0.894
Marko Dano	0.850
Nic Petan	0.758

The Jets didn't go too crazy with their spending and they already are shaping up their team fairly well.  The current projected 23-man roster is coming in at $65.8 million against the cap, leaving them around $9.2 million left to spend, if they so choose.  The Jets still have Connor Hellebuyck, Andrew Copp and Brandon Tanev left to sign out of restricted free agency, which shouldn't be too much trouble and those are three that could jump into the projected lineup, once signed too.

The additions of Mason and Kulikov definitely bring some new life to this roster.  A bonafide starting goalie is a step up from pitting two young goalies against each other in a roster spot battle, while more offense from the blueline is almost a scary thought for Winnipeg, which already boasts a pretty powerful blueline before now.  These are two really good signings for this team and it could be what they need to make that move into the playoffs in the Central