The Jets got the ball rolling on what should be a busy off-season Monday by re-signing Paul Stastny and shortly thereafter, trading for Brendan Dillon from the Washington Capitals.

Stastny’s deal is a one-year contract with a cap hit of $3.75 million while the Jets sent a second-round pick in 2022 and a second-round pick in 2023 to Washington for Dillon.

Head coach Paul Maurice’s comments about Stastny following the Jets playoff exit hammered home the idea that Stastny means much more to the Jets than what he does on the ice and in the box score. He’s a veteran leader that will help some of the younger Jets expected to be in the lineup next season.

In 56 games last season, Stastny had 13 goals and 16 assists.

Ideally, Stastny slides into a third line role, providing the Jets with the same stability down the middle as they had last season. As we saw last year, he still has the ability to slide up and down the lineup when needed and can even move out to the wings if asked.

The trade for Dillon is an interesting one. He comes to Winnipeg with three years left on his current contract and a cap hit of $3.9 million.

The addition of Dillon is a much-needed upgrade to the Jets top-four. The left-shot defenseman brings a physical presence to the table, and the ability to grind out key penalty minutes, logging 1:47 of shorthanded time on ice per game last season.

Unless the Jets add some more bodies to their blueline, Dillon will likely slide into the Jets’ second pairing behind Josh Morrissey. With Dillon added to a top-four of Morrissey, Dylan DeMelo and Neal Pionk, that takes a little bit of pressure off players such as Logan Stanley, Sammy Niku and Nathan Beaulieu as the Jets round out their blueline depth.

With Dillon, the Jets finally have a big, physical body that can clear the net and hopefully make life in front of Connor Hellebuyck that much easier.

Ideally, the addition of Dillon pushes Stanley and ultimately Stanley takes over on the second pairing, but nonetheless, it’s a good problem for the Jets to have.

Now, with the re-signing of Stastny and the addition of Dillon, the Jets have just over $13.5 million in cap space left. They still need to find a backup goalie, and hammer out new contracts with RFAs Pionk, Stanley and Andrew Copp.

Unrestricted free agency opens at noon eastern time Wednesday.

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