A franchise player is expected to lead the way for his team and consistently put up big years, that’s the expectation for Mark Scheifele in 2023-24.
The 30-year-old forward is coming off a team-leading, career-high 42-goal campaign last year, in which he also posted 68 points. Fans are demanding the Winnipeg Jets have a big year in the upcoming 2023-24 season, which is going to require Scheifele to have a big year as well.
If the Jets are going to succeed in the upcoming season, assuming he’s still on the roster, Scheifele needs to be a significant contributor to his team's success. He’s finished in the top two Jets players in both, goals and points every year since 2018-19. In that time, Winnipeg qualified for the playoffs in four of five seasons, and Scheifele was a big part of it.
With a new look Jets team with a plethora of different faces up front in the forward group, there are some questions about who will contribute to the goal scoring for this team. With Blake Wheeler's and Pierre-Luc Dubois's departures this offseason, new faces will need to step up, and Winnipeg will need significant contributions from familiar faces such as Scheifele.
This is also the last year on Scheifele’s eight-year, $49 million contract he signed back in 2016 and he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023-24 season. Whether or not Scheifele is on the Jets roster come opening day in the upcoming season remains to be seen, but one thing remains clear: he’ll need a big year if he wants to maximize the value of his next contract.
Certain players have different motivators, whether they be team-oriented or monetary goals. For Scheifele, both should play a factor in 2023-24, as the Jets need a big year from him, and another productive year will set him up nicely for a monster contract.
All of the motivators are there for Scheifele, and it should be expected that he uses these motivators to propel him to another big year in the upcoming 2023-24 season.
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