Edited Jul. 31, 2018 at 8:19 p.m.
I am shocked at the sub 100k AHL level salary. Given that my working assumption with Petan was that he was still likely to be playing significant time in the AHL (if he stays in the Jets organization this year at least), I would think both the agent and the Jets wouldn’t skriff on a few hundred K.
Rather what this says to me is that Petan will be spending meaningful time in the NHL this year. There are two scenarios:
1) Winnipeg includes him on their active roster, giving him bottom-6 minutes and perhaps limited special teams time to start
2) Winnipeg trades Petan to bank future assets.
Given that Petan has been sidelined by the Jets forward depth he hasn’t had the opportunity to show what he is worth at the NHL level. This hurts his trade value. Thus it’s possible that the Jets play Petan for a couple of months to bump up his trade value and then flip him. Or, if they like what they see, then sign him to a longer extension for say 2 years (so he is still an RFA when that 3rd contract ends) come January when he would be eligible to sign an extension for next year.
It’s also worth noting that Petan’s waiver eligibility just expired so that come the end of training camp, if they wish to have him be sent down to the AHL he will have to clear waivers (which is probably 50/50 - while young with upside, there aren’t a lot of teams with space for an extra body barring injury). If he doesn’t clear waivers, then either option 1 or 2 will have to occur anyways.