Stanley Lands in Long Island. Winnipeg's Blue Line Gets Thinner.

Logan Stanley signed a one-year deal with the Islanders on Saturday, closing out a lengthy free agency that stretched nearly to the regular season. For Stanley, it's a fresh start after a career-best offensive year — eight goals and nine assists in 49 games. For Winnipeg, it's one more name gone from a defense that was already short on depth.

The Jets identified the blue line as a critical need heading into this season, and the concern was specific: the drop-off behind the top pairing is steep. Neal Pionk leads the depth chart, and what follows him is thin. Stanley's departure doesn't change that calculus dramatically — he wasn't going to be re-signed into a top-four role — but it removes a body that logged real minutes and finished a plus-four last season. Those players are harder to replace than they look.

The front office spent the summer acquiring Mario Ferraro on a three-year deal to shore up the group. That move still stands. But the Hellebuyck suspension, the injury list, and now the slow bleed of peripheral pieces heading elsewhere have made the defensive situation feel more precarious than the Ferraro signing suggested it would be. Haydn Fleury is next in line behind Pionk on the current depth chart, and the gap between those two is real.

Stanley found his deal just before the puck drops. The Jets will open the season with the blue line they have.