from Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun,

Now that Jacob Trouba and the Winnipeg Jets have stood before an arbitrator and presented their respective cases, it won’t be long before an award is handed out.

While it’s possible the two sides reach an agreement before the 48-hour window the arbitrator is given to make a decision, in all likelihood this negotiation will end with the ruling on what is expected to be a one-year pact.

Whether that ruling is closer to the $4 million offer the Jets presented or the $7 million the Trouba camp asked for remains to be seen.

It’s possible the arbitrator splits the difference and comes in somewhere around $5.5 million....

It’s been written in this space that this summer represented the best opportunity for Trouba and the Jets to come together on a long-term deal and for the sake of argument, let’s use six years at around $36 million.

Now that the window for that is nearly closed, what does it mean for the long-range plans of the Jets?

That’s impossible to know at this stage of the proceedings.

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