The Winnipeg Jets may be about to lose one of their own without receiving anything in return with Ville Heinola, the Finnish defenseman selected by Winnipeg in the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft, is entering the offseason as a Group-6 unrestricted free agent.
This means he is free to sign with any team in the league when the market opens next Wednesday. For an organization that has watched Heinola develop patiently over seven professional seasons, the prospect of losing him without compensation is a situation the front office will be eager to avoid.
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Group-6 free agency is among the lesser known classifications in the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, but Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman broke down all six groups on his 32 podcast this week for those unfamiliar with how Heinola arrived at this crossroads.
The six groups cover players finishing entry-level contracts, traditional restricted free agents like Jason Robertson and Connor Bedard, the widely understood unrestricted free agents, players who have competed overseas and were never drafted or signed in North America like Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub, a fifth category involving players with ten or more professional seasons or those meeting a specific salary threshold, which Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas noted is quite rare, and finally the sixth group, which is where Heinola lands.
A Group-6 unrestricted free agent is defined as a player who is 25 years of age or older as of June 30th of the expiring contract year, has played fewer than 80 career NHL games, and has completed three or more professional seasons.
The 25-year-old appeared in just five games with the Jets this past season, recording no points at the NHL level, while spending the bulk of his year with the Manitoba Moose in the AHL, where he posted three goals and 18 assists for 21 points in 44 games. Those numbers add to an already impressive AHL resume.
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Over seven seasons with the Moose, Heinola has accumulated 124 points in 198 games, establishing himself as one of the more productive defensemen in franchise history at that level. At the NHL level, the production has been harder to come by with 12 points in 58 career games across six seasons, largely due to limited opportunity rather than a lack of ability.
That lack of opportunity may ultimately be what drives Heinola out of Winnipeg. As a Group-6 unrestricted free agent, he holds all the leverage and will have no shortage of suitors among teams willing to give him the consistent top-league deployment that has eluded him in Manitoba. For a player of his caliber and age, the desire to find a situation where he can finally stick in an NHL lineup full time is entirely understandable.
The Jets did bring Heinola up towards the end of this past season, a move that could be read as a final audition or a genuine attempt to reintegrate him into the big league club ahead of a potential re-signing. Whether that late-season callup translates into a new deal remains to be seen, but Winnipeg will need to move quickly. The clock runs out on Wednesday, and if the Jets cannot offer Heinola what he is looking for in terms of both contract and opportunity, another organization almost certainly will.
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