Winnipeg Jets Cap Space: Examining the Jets' salary in the off-season

The Winnipeg Jets have had a changing of the guard of sorts this off-season.

They traded away Pierre-Luc Dubois and also bought out Blake Wheeler, to change the culture in the locker room. With those moves, Winnipeg has $7,792,143 in cap space after the first wave of free agency.

Winnipeg, however, still has four RFAs left to sign, and Connor Hellebuyck still could be moved, so the Jets still could be busy this summer.

The Winnipeg Jets' eventful off-season

The Winnipeg Jets started out the off-season by doing a sign-and-trade to deal Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings. The Jets were able to acquire Alex Iaffalo, Gabe Villardi, Rasmus Kupari, and a second-round pick, with the latter two being RFAs.

Dubois clearly did not want to be in Winnipeg while Villardi and Iafflo both were ecstatic about the move as they both should have bigger roles with Winnipeg.

Gabriel Vilardi and Alex Iaffalo spoke to reporters about their excitement to be Jets (via NHL.com)

"Yeah, more opportunity, obviously," Vilardi said. "Last year I kind of played more of a bottom-six role. Hopefully, I just want to keep growing my game and getting better, and obviously helping the Jets however that is. I'm just excited to kind of get going there."

"It was definitely a big change, I've never been traded before, but at the end of the day I'm definitely excited to be a Jet," Iafallo said. "I know a couple of guys on the team already and that will make that adjustment easier. Obviously, 'Gabe' and 'Kup' are coming with me, so I'm excited. I heard a lot of good things."

Outside of trading Dubois and buying out Wheeler, Winnipeg brought back Vladislav Namestnikov and signed Laurent Brossoit to be the backup goalie. Brossoit is a former Jet that decided to come back after winning the Stanley Cup with Las Vegas.

"A bunch of the guys, the guys that I played with when I was there last, they all texted me and seemed to be very happy that I'm coming back, and I'm happy to be back," Brossoit told reporters (via NHL.com).

Still armed with a bit of cap space, the next moves for the Winnipeg Jets will be signing Gabe Vilardi, Morgan Barron, Rasmus Kupari, and Logan Stanley to new deals, as all four are RFAs.

Vilardi and Barron will likely cost the most, but the Jets should have enough cap space to sign all four to new deals, especially if they go the bridge deal route.