Newlywed Jets winger Kyle Connor thriving on, off the ice as he prepares for fatherhood

Kyle Connor laughs when asked what was more difficult — preparing for his wedding last summer or the hockey season?

The Winnipeg Jets star left-winger married longtime girlfriend Ally Petack in front of about 150 friends and family in their home state of Michigan in July.

He had a few assists.

"If I needed to have my input valued, then it was there," Connor said in a recent interview. "It was a big day for me but, obviously, for a girl it's another thing. It's their dream pretty much, so it was good and very special."

That happy occasion was followed up by the Jets' strong start to the NHL season, and then news in November that the couple is expecting a daughter on March 31.

It's a lot of positive vibes on and off the ice for Connor, who leads Winnipeg in scoring with 59 points in 45 games after recording his sixth career hat trick in the team's 6-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night.

He and Mark Scheifele both have 26 goals for the club that sits first in the Western Conference (30-12-3).

"We've had success, but we're still very hungry as a team," Connor said. "The kind of culture that we've built here is to never be satisfied."

He doesn't correlate his happy home life to his production with the puck this season, but acknowledges things are going well.

"I'm definitely in a good spot in my life where I'm happy about it," Connor said.

"You're playing the sport you love and, obviously, everything outside of hockey is awesome for me. We're having a lot of fun."

Ally Connor has volunteered with the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy, a play-based program that helps students in socially and economically challenged schools with hockey and life skills.

She plans to be in the stands for an elite competition next month, watching her husband suit up for the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston.

When the couple returns from the event that runs Feb. 12-20, the countdown to their family addition will begin in earnest.

Jets baby boom

Kyle Connor said he and Ally started dating in 2019, meeting through mutual friends in Detroit. They connected on numerous levels, with both enjoying spending time with family and being outdoors, especially on the lakes in Michigan.

The Jets' players, wives and girlfriends are their family away from home as they navigate this next chapter in their lives.

"There's a lot of new fathers here, lot of new guys that have gone through it," Connor, 28, said. "You pick their brains, but at the same time you just want to be your own man and figure it out.

"I'm sure the time will come when I'll need their support and they'll be there."

He has two brothers and a sister, but he'll be the first to enter parenthood.

Jets captain Adam Lowry said the team is going through a bit of a baby boom.

The wives of Eric Comrie and Dominic Toninato are also expecting. Last summer, Neal Pionk's wife had their first child and Dylan DeMelo and Haydn Fleury became fathers for the second time.

"I think it's great that not only can the mothers, the wives support each other as they go through it together — we're gone a lot — but a lot of the guys are going through that experience together and they can gripe about not sleeping," Lowry said.

"Normally you'd be surrounded usually by your family and your hometown or whatnot, but being away it's nice to have that support system of guys going through similar situations."

Selected 17th overall by the Jets in the first round of the 2015 NHL draft, Connor joined the team full-time in 2017-18, leading the league's rookies in goals with 31. His seven-year, US$49.9-million contract runs through next season.

Lowry's not sure if Connor's positive personal life has impacted his success on the ice.

"I feel like Kyle is so stoic that sometimes it's such a hard read to know how things are going, whether it's good or bad," Lowry said.

"He kind of comes in and he's always so even keel. But I think good things away from the rink kind of allow you the peace of mind when you come to the rink to solely focus on hockey."

It might also just be Connor's evolution as he matures, Lowry said.

"I think it's one of those things where he's just taken another step into kind of becoming that superstar, all-star, that we view him as."

Connor has more of a leadership role on the team.

"He's been a little more vocal in between periods," Lowry said. "I don't know if he's focusing on trying to take that next step.

"You can certainly feel like when we're not playing at our best or things aren't going well, he's a guy that you can sometimes kind of feel that fire burning and you want to follow a guy like that."

Winnipeg, Chicago swap blue-liners

The Jets announced they swapped defencemen with Chicago on Wednesday.

Winnipeg acquired Isaak Phillips in exchange for Dmitry Kuzmin.

Phillips, a fifth-round selection in the 2020 NHL draft, has played in three games with Chicago this season, scoring one goal. He has played 56 career NHL games, collecting two goals and 10 assists.

Phillips has spent the majority of his season with the American Hockey League's Rockford IceHogs, recording one goal and seven assists in 28 games.

Kuzmin was a third-round pick by the Jets in the 2021 draft. He has three assists in 21 games this season with the AHL's Manitoba Moose.