It’s a question that might have got you laughed out of the room up until just a few months ago: where would the Winnipeg Jets be without Brandon Tanev?
After all, the team wasn’t exactly touted in hockey circles as landing a big fish when they signed the undrafted 24-year-old winger out of Providence College in the spring of 2016.
There was no high-profile bidding war for his services, no public waiting game to see which franchise he chose, as we’ve seen with other college free agents. No, the move was mostly met with a collective shoulder shrug from the fan base.