Kyle Connor, Jets Agree to 8-Year, $96M Contract Extension Ahead of 2025 NHL Opener

Kyle Connor is cashing in on a career-best 97-point season by signing on for eight more years with the Winnipeg Jets.

Connor has agreed to an eight-year, $96 million extension ahead of the 2025-26 season, the Jets announced Wednesday.

The winger had one year and $7.14 million remaining on his previous seven-year deal with the team, per Spotrac. His new deal is set to keep him in Winnipeg through his age-37 campaign in 2033-34, Spotrac reported.

The contract marks the most lucrative in Jets history in both average annual salary and total value, according to Spotrac.

The previous franchise record was held by top-line center Mark Scheifele and reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck, who each inked seven-year, $59.5 million extensions in 2023.

The contract also made Jets history by including signing bonuses over multiple seasons as well as a full no-trade clause, which Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported are both franchise firsts.

A 2015 first-round pick, Connor is heading into his 10th season with the Jets. He ranked seventh in the NHL with 97 points and eighth with 41 goals while playing all 82 games last season.

Connor then contributed five goals and 17 points in 13 playoff games before the Jets were eliminated by the Dallas Stars in the second round.

Since becoming a full-time NHLer in 2017, Connor has eclipsed the 30-goal mark in every season excepting the shortened 2020-21 campaign.

Rather than risking the team's leading scorer putting up another point-per-game campaign and testing free agency next summer, Jets now have their top three forwards in Connor, Scheifele and Gabe Vilardi signed through at least the 2030-31 season.

Winnipeg will hope locking down the top line in front of Hellebuyck, who is also signed until 2031, will set up this team to finally make it back to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2018.

Connor and the Jets are set to open the 2025-26 season by playing the Stars for the first time since last spring's Game 6 overtime loss. The puck drops at Canada Life Centre at 8 p.m. ET.