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Winnipeg Jets Top 10 Players Ranking | LeoVegas

Top 10 Past and Present Winnipeg Jets Players Ranked

The Winnipeg Jets have seen a couple of renditions in the NHL, and until recently, you still point to two franchises that once or still do don the moniker. However, with the 1972 Winnipeg Jets going to Phoenix and now being inactive, only the former Atlanta Thrashers version of the Winnipeg Jets remains in the NHL.

Table of Contents:

Both teams have fairly short histories – although, we obviously hope that the history of the existing Winnipeg Jets continues to bring top-tier hockey to Manitoba for years to come. So here, we’ll be bundling together the best players of the 1972 Jets, the 1997-founded Thrashers, and their refranchised team, the 2011 Winnipeg Jets.

This way, we can get a much more comprehensive look at the outright top ten Winnipeg Jets players throughout the histories of the two separate NHL franchises.

1. Dale Hawerchuk (C)

  • Position: Center
  • Years Active: 16
  • Games Played: 1,188
  • Goals: 518
  • Assists: 891
  • Total Points: 1,409

Dale Hawerchuk retired the very same year that the Atlanta Thrashers were founded, but throughout the 1980s, he was easily the standout performer for the 1979 Winnipeg Jets. In his rookie season, he made good on the promise that had him taken off the board first overall, putting up 45 goals and 103 points in 80 games.

Throughout his nine seasons with the 1979 Jets, Hawerchuk didn’t slow down, hitting highs of 53 games and 130 points in 1984/85 and lows of 26 goals and 81 points in 1989/90. It wasn’t enough to carry the Jets deep into the playoffs, with their furthest run being in 1987, when they were swept by the would-be champions, the Edmonton Oilers.

2. Thomas Steen (C)

  • Position: Center
  • Years Active: 14
  • Games Played: 950
  • Goals: 264
  • Assists: 553
  • Total Points: 817With 14 years on the NHL ice for the 1979 Jets, Thomas Steen was very nearly there from the start of the franchise to its relocation. In the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, the Jets made him one of their first selections as an NHL team in the fifth round. By 1981/82, the Swede was ready for the NHL, scoring 44 points in his rookie campaign.

Over the 14 seasons that he was still active, Steen was a useful offensive outlet for the Jets and a great source of insight in post and pregame interviews. With 817 points in 950 games, Steen easily ranks as the second-best player the 1979 Jets ever had. If he’d have stayed on for one more season, the center would have been tied to the Jets for the entirety of the franchise’s stay in Winnipeg.

3. Bobby Hull (LW)

  • Position: Left Wing
  • Years Active: 16
  • Games Played: 1,063
  • Goals: 610
  • Assists: 560
  • Total Points: 1,170

The Winnipeg Jets forking out the colossal fees required to bring Bobby Hull from the NHL to the WHA in 1972 laid down the gauntlet in the bitter battle between the hockey leagues. The winger was easily one of the best players in the world, consistently putting up over 40 goals and 70 points for the Chicago Black Hawks of the NHL.

It’d be fair to say that he enjoyed his time in the WHA. For the Jets, he’d score 303 goals and 633 points in 411 games over seven seasons. He was integral to Winnipeg becoming the hottest team before the WHA-NHL merger, winning three of the last four Avco Cups – although, he didn’t really feature in the 1978/79 season.

When the Jets came to the NHL in 1979, the team was picked apart and barely given a chance to become competitive under the rules imposed by their new overlords. Hull would only feature in 18 games for the Jets in the NHL, would move to the Hartford Whalers, and move on from the NHL at the end of that season.

4. Ilya Kovalchuk (LW)

  • Position: Left Wing
  • Years Active: 13
  • Games Played: 926
  • Goals: 443
  • Assists: 433
  • Total Points: 876

Ilya Kovalchuk played 13 seasons in the NHL, but never did he play for a team called the “Winnipeg Jets.” He did, however, star for the club that would move to Manitoba to become the new Winnipeg Jets in 2010. In 2001, the Atlanta Thrashers decided to take the hefty Russian first overall and threw him straight into the NHL lines.

The natural sniper put away 29 goals and 51 points as a rookie, escalating both tallies with each successive season until he hit 52 goals and 98 points in 2005/06. Making his way through the 2009/10 season, Kovalchuk refused to sign a new deal with the Thrashers, so he was traded to the New Jersey Devils just a couple of years before Atlanta moved to Winnipeg.

5. Connor Hellebuyck (G)

  • Position: Goaltender
  • Years Active: 10
  • Games Played: 548
  • Shutouts: 43
  • Goals Against Average: 2.48
  • Save Percentage: .917

Standing 6’4’’, this Michigan-born goaltender has been a member of the elite class of NHL netminders for many years. Even his rookie stat line of a 2.34 GAA and .918 SV% through 26 starts and 13 wins is impressive. This season, however, he’s way ahead in the Vezina Trophy odds because he’s been as close to perfect as it gets.

At the time of writing, his career averages of a solid 2.58 GAA and .917 SV% were being crushed by his 2.06 GAA and .925 SV% through 43 starts and 34 wins to open the 2024/25 season. With a career-best six shutouts already, if he can keep the hot hand, the Winnipeg Jets will be very hard to stop in the postseason.

6. Mark Scheifele (C)

  • Position: Center
  • Years Active: 14
  • Games Played: 853
  • Goals: 328
  • Assists: 452
  • Total Points: 780

Just as happy to block a shot and lay down a hit as he is to tee up his teammates, Mark Scheifele is very much a complete center. After being picked with the seventh overall selection in the 2011 draft as the very first draftee for this version of a Winnipeg team, he was given a couple of years to develop, bar a few NHL cameos.

By 2013/14, he was a full-time starter for the Jets, building up to his breakout season of 2015/16, in which he scored 61 points in 71 games. He’s remained a very consistent scorer for the Jets – good for a point per game on average – a leader in the dressing room, and a talisman of the small-market club seeking glory.

Just as their superstar goaltender, Hellebuyck, will be critical, so too will Scheifele’s playmaking and leadership. Considering his consistency and skill, perhaps the Jets should be higher up in the hockey odds to win the Stanley Cup this year.

7. Bryan Little (C)

  • Position: Center
  • Years Active: 13
  • Games Played: 843
  • Goals: 217
  • Assists: 304
  • Total Points: 521

Bryan Little was one of the Atlanta Thrashers regulars who suddenly found himself playing in the dark blue of the Winnipeg Jets. Drafted 12th overall by the Thrashers in 2006, he was given a season in the major juniors before being brought into the NHL fold. In four seasons as a Thrasher, Little scored 149 points in 282 games.

By his third season playing in Winnipeg, Little had set a new career best of 23 goals and 64 points, but that would remain as his offensive peak. Still, it was his tenacity on the ice and willingness to battle all over that let him win over management and the fans.

Unfortunately, the 2019/20 season would be his last, with issues spiralling from a concussion and a shot taken to the side of his head. While his contract was traded around for cap reasons over the next four years, he did manage to sign to a one-day deal with the Jets in October 2024 to be able to officially retire as a Jet.

8. Kyle Connor (LW)

  • Position: Left Wing
  • Years Active: 9
  • Games Played: 587
  • Goals: 273
  • Assists: 281
  • Total Points: 554

Another Michigan native in and amongst the elite ranks of the modern-day Winnipeg Jets, while Hellebuyck is a natural shot-stopper, Kyle Conner is a gifted goalscorer. Teased into the team in 2016/17 after being taken 17th overall in 2015, Connor’s first full season in the NHL truly put him on the map.

The left wing sniper put away 31 goals in the 2017/18 campaign and continued to put up points (ten in total) during the Jets’ 17-game run deep into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Over the next couple of years, he kept improving to 34 goals and then 38 goals. As it stands, the 47 goals and 93 points in 2021/22 mark Connor’s best season to date, but on 30 goals and 69 points at the 56-game mark in 2024/25, he might just beat that.

9. Nikolaj Ehlers (LW)

  • Position: Left Wing
  • Years Active: 10
  • Games Played: 652
  • Goals: 218
  • Assists: 287
  • Total Points: 505

A team player through and through, Nikolaj Ehlers continues to utilize the speed, soft hands, and deft playmaking skills that got him picked ninth overall in 2014 over a decade later to help the Winnipeg Jets. Looking at the Danish left wing’s goals output, though, you’d be permitted to mistake him for an outright sniper.

In his ten years of NHL play, Ehlers has never failed to score at least 20 goals and 35 points when he’s been able to suit up for 60 games or more. With career-best tallies of 29 goals and 64 points – from separate seasons – you can bet that the Dane is eyeing up a new top mark having hit 17 goals and 48 points in his first 47 games of this season. Hungry for success with the Jets, he’s always worth a look in the points column of the NHL lines.

10. Adam Lowry (C)

  • Position: Center
  • Years Active: 11
  • Games Played: 750
  • Goals: 116
  • Assists: 149
  • Total Points: 265

The second-ever pick of the still-standing Winnipeg Jets, Adam Lowry is an excellent two-way center who continues to anchor the short-handed units. Standing 6’5’’, the faceoff maestro was originally taken in the third round of the 2011 draft by the Jets (they didn’t have a second-rounder), and they gave him plenty of time to develop.

Lowry’s big step-up came in 2014/15, when he featured in 80 games for the team. He may have only scored 11 goals in that season and seven in the next, but in both campaigns, he nailed two game-winning goals. To this day, he’s relied upon to win the majority of his faceoffs, orchestrate penalty kill units, put down hits, and block shots – all of which he does without question.