Revisiting 2023-24 Bold Jets Predictions - The Hockey Writers Latest News, Analysis & More

About a month before the season began, I made three bold predictions about the 2023-24 Winnipeg Jets, who at the time had a lot of uncertainty swirling around them. My prediction was that the key piece in the trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings a few months prior to making my predictions would break out into a true top-six talent and thus eclipse his career-high goal mark of 23. Unfortunately, his campaign was riddled with injuries: he missed 16 games due to an MCL sprain in early October sustained when tripped from behind by former teammate Blake Lizotte, missed two games in January due to an undisclosed lower-body injury, and missed 15 games down the stretch due to an enlarged spleen and undisclosed upper-body injury. Ultimately, Vilardi ended up with 22 goals — including a team-leading nine on the power play — in 47 games, just one fewer goal than he had in 2022-23 in 16 fewer games.