- Jets sign defenceman Tyrel Bauer to a two-year deal at $875K AAV
- Two-way contract in 2026-27, one-way in 2027-28
- Read below for the league award that made Bauer’s spring
Tyrel Bauer is not a name that moves the needle in August. His last six months are a different story.
The Jets announced Monday they agreed to terms with the 24-year-old defenceman on a two-year contract worth an average annual value of $875,000. It runs as a two-way deal in 2026-27 before flipping to a one-way in 2027-28.
Three months earlier, he won the 2026 Yanick Dupré Memorial Award as the AHL’s Man of the Year. The league gives it out once a season to the player who does the most for his community, picked from all 32 team nominees.
Take a look at the Moose making it official in May:
He became the third Moose player to win it, after Jimmy Roy in 2003 and Jimmy Oligny in 2023.
That award came out of 40 community appearances last season. He hosted foster families at 15 Manitoba home games through the Kinship and Foster Family Network of Manitoba, meeting the kids and their caregivers after the final horn for photos and autographs.
One of those kids, a young fan named Noah, now plays with a set of custom-modified gloves that Bauer and the Moose put together for him.
There was plenty more. Bauer coached a U11 team through the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy for a third straight year, spoke at the True North Youth Foundation gala about mental health, packed Christmas hampers in December and read to 13 schools around Winnipeg in February.
On the ice, this is a grinder’s résumé. The Cochrane, Alta. native went in the sixth round in 2020, 164th overall, and has spent all four pro seasons with the Moose.
Bauer has 21 points in 214 AHL games. He has 401 penalty minutes, including 110 in 52 games last season, and he dressed for all seven of Manitoba’s playoff games.
Nothing in that stat line reads like an NHL job is waiting, which makes the one-way year in 2027-28 the interesting piece. It guarantees him an NHL salary in the second season whether he is in Winnipeg or back in Manitoba.
Cole Perfetti got the headline contract in Winnipeg this summer, a five-year deal signed in July. This one sits at the other end of the roster.
Bauer has yet to play an NHL game. The Jets just committed to paying him like one is coming.
