Jets Ink Their Man In Mayfield

Winnipeg has come to terms with defenseman Scott Mayfield on a deal that keeps him a core member of the Jets blueline for the next four years.

With the Jets in a full-on rebuild and sitting third-last in BEARD at 14-23-7 right now, there was some thought that they might have trouble convincing veteran free agents to stick around.

Winnipeg was considering exploring options on the trade market for Scott Mayfield as a rental, but their preference was always to keep him in the fold.

Teams were allowed to begin signing players to contract extensions on Sunday, and with Mayfield open to the idea of sticking around, the deal was stuck relatively quickly.

Mayfield's extension is for 4 years, worth $11.616 million - a $2,654,000 cap hit each season plus a $1,000,000 signing bonus.

The 30-year-old has put up 3 goals, 12 points in 43 games with 49 hits and 41 blocked shots this season - playing 20:28 a night and carrying the mantle as a leader, wearing an "A" for a young squad that has gone through plenty of struggles this year.

Mayfield is hardly a household name, but a reliable player who doesn't take shortcuts in his own end of the ice.

"This is a guy we're excited to keep around - we think he's a really good player, an excellent defensive defenseman and a great guy to show our young guys the right way to approach the game," said Jets GM Trevor Cook. "He's had to carry a lot of the load for our team this year and we admittedly haven't put him in the greatest position.

Night in and night out he gives it his all and when you're a team having a bad year what you really want to see is those guys that never take a game off. We think he will be an even better player going forward and a key part of a growing team as we move towards contending in the next couple of years."

Getting Mayfield to buy in and sign a reasonably priced contract extension is a good step in that growth, though the Jets will certainly have a lot more work to do if they are to go from bottom-dweller to serious contender over the life of that contract.