Jets and Morgan Barron sign new deal, avoid arbitration.

The Winnipeg Jets have concluded an important piece of business.

The Jets had a lot of work to do this offseason with a number of restricted free agents on their roster in need of new contracts, and the pressure was ramped up considerably when several of those free agents filed for salary arbitration earlier this month.

The Jets had 3 players elect for arbitration with Gabriel Vilardi, Dylan Samberg, and Morgan Barron making up that list of 3, but in Barron's case at least there will be no need for salary arbitration.

According to a report from National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, Barron and the Jets have come to terms on a new deal that effectively kicks the problem down the road. According to Friedman, the new contract is a 2 year deal that will carry an average annual value and salary cap hit of $1.85 million per season.

Negotiations will only get tougher from here however as far as Barron and the Jets are concerned, with the 26 year old forward now set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this new deal. Barron will have considerably more leverage in his next negotiations, which likely means that the Jets will be getting a very motivated player for the next 2 years that he is under contract.

Barron had 8 goals and 7 assists for 15 points over 74 regular season games with the Jets this past season.

Arbitration can be an ugly process for both team and player and I suspect that both sides are happy that a resolution was reached before the arbitration process officially got under way.