There will be a battle to the be Jets’ backup for the upcoming season after Laurent Brossoit departed in free agency and Eric Comrie and Kaapo Kahkonen were brought on board.
The Jets knew Brossoit, who had a great 2023-24 behind Connor Hellebuyck, was likely to cash in on a bigger contract somewhere else and he did just that, signing for two years at $3.3 million per year with the Chicago Blackhawks on July 1. Now, the Jets will pit a familiar face against a new one for the backup role.
Comrie Returns for Fourth Stint With Jets After Rough Go With Sabres
Death, taxes, and Eric Comrie returning to the Jets: the only certainties in life. The netminder signed a two-year pact with the team worth $825,000 to return for his fourth stint since being drafted 59th overall by them in 2013.
Comrie, who will be 29 by the time the 2024-25 season begins, has been a fringe goaltender since his big-league debut with the Jets in 2016-17. He spent the last two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres organization but struggled and bounced between the NHL and AHL’s Rochester Americans, posting an 11-16-1 record in 29 starts over two campaigns with a 3.68 Goals Against Average (GAA) .886 Save Percentage (SV%), and one shutout. A couple injuries didn’t help matters and he was leapt on the depth chart by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devon Levi last season.
Comrie’s best season — the one that allowed him to parlay his performance into the two-year deal with Buffalo at $1.8 million per season — was in 2021-22 with the Jets, when he provided solid backup services and posted a 10-5-1 record, 2.58 GAA, .920 SV% and one shutout in 16 starts and 19 appearances.
In 57-career NHL games between the Jets, Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and New Jersey Devils, he has a 24-26-2 record, 3.38 GAA and .893 SV%. He has also played 214 games in the AHL and holds a number of Manitoba Moose individual goaltending records.
Kahkonen Comes on Board After Splitting Season With 2 Non-Playoff Clubs
If Comrie though he was a shoo-in for Jets’ backup, he thought so for only a short time. A couple hours after inking Comrie, the Jets locked up Finnish netminder Kaapo Kahkonen to a one-year deal worth $1 million.
Kahkonen split time between the San Jose Sharks and Devils last season, being dealt to New Jersey at the 2024 Trade Deadline. In 37 games and 34 starts between the two clubs, he had a 7-24-3 record, 3.64 GAA, .898 SV%, and one shutout.
Kahkonen was drafted 109th overall by the Minnesota Wild in 2014 and made his NHL debut in 2019-20. In 139-career games and 131-career starts between the three clubs, he owns a 49-67-15 record, 3.33 GAA, .899 SV%, and four shutouts.
Winnipeg a Good Place For Either Goalie To Improve Numbers
While neither goaltender’s 2023-24 numbers are nearly as good as Brossoit’s, they’re a little misleading.
Comrie struggled with injuries and was playing in front of two Sabres clubs that ultimately missed the playoffs (Buffalo hasn’t seen postseason hockey since 2011.) Kahkonen spent most of last season on a historically-woeful Sharks squad that was more interested in getting the first-overall pick in last month’s draft (which they did after finishing dead last in the NHL at 19-54-9) than they were at trying to compete. His 38-save performance against the Jets on Feb. 14 — a game the Jets managed to win 1-0 — shows he has some serious skills.
Related: Breaking Down the Winnipeg Jets’ 2024-25 Schedule
Kahkonen has posted better numbers in the past. His best campaign was in 2021-22, split between the Wild and Sharks, when he had a 14-14-4 record with a .912 SV% and 2.87 GAA.
the Jets, a defensively-stout team that won the William M. Jennings Trophy last season by allowing the fewest regular-seaon goals (199), may be able to get more out of them than their former clubs did.
Who Has the Upper Hand: Comrie or Kahkonen?
Comrie could have the upper hand simply due to his familiarity with the organization, Hellebuyck, and goaltending coach Wade Flaherty, who has been in the job for all of Jets 2.0 history.
“I just have a very good working relationship with Helly. I think myself and him get along really well, and he’s the best in the world, so it’s amazing to learn from him, watching him every single game and in practice,” Comrie said after being signed.
“And they have one of the best goalie coaches… he’s unbelievable at what he does. How much my game grows when I’m with him and how sharp he keeps my game, it doesn’t matter how much you’re playing or when you’re playing, he knows how to keep goalies ready to go and keep them sharp.” (From ‘Jets add goaltenders, depth, on first day of NHL free agency,’ Winnipeg Free Press, July 1, 2024.)
Kahkonen, however, could have the upper hand due to being the more experienced goaltender at the NHL level despite being two years younger.
The job should be won by merit, not by past connections. New head coach Scott Arniel should give the netminders two starts each in the six-game preseason slate to prove their worth.
It takes a special type of person to back up a two-time and reining Vezina Trophy winner. The goalie behind Hellebuyck needs to understand they aren’t going to get a ton of starts and not resent sitting on the bench while Hellebuyck starts 60-plus (as he has in five different seasons.) At the same time, they still need to be ready to jump in at a moment’s notice and give the Jets a chance to win in their starts even after long layoffs. They also need to push Hellebuyck to be his best.
Whoever loses out and is sent down to the Moose will also have an important role to play in not only staying mentally ready to jump to the NHL in case of injury but also in mentoring promising prospect Thomas Milic.
Milic, chosen in the fifth round in 2023, had a strong rookie season and will be looking to continue to develop in his sophomore campaign; playing in tandem with and being around a solid veteran could help him immensely. The now-21-year-old began last season in the ECHL with the Norfolk Admirals, amassing an All-Star nod by posting an 11-3-3 record, 2.45 GAA, .908 SV%, and a pair of shutouts. In the back half of the season, he took over the Moose starter’s role from Collin Delia and Oskari Salminen, who were both struggling mightily and have both departed.
As one of the AHL’s youngest goalies, Milic posted a 19-9-2 record, 2.72 GAA, .900 SV% while capturing his first professional shutout and playing an instrumental role in helping the Moose make the Calder Cup Playoffs after a historically-bad first half.
