I’m not a Jets fan but what was really baffling to me was the laundry list of really crap bottom-6 guys Winnipeg were playing ahead of him. Gustafsson, Stenlund, Maenelainen, Gagner, and so on.
It's not that complicated actually... only Stenlund was a bit of a headscratcher, true.
Gustafsson: They didn't play him ahead of Harkins. Harkins played a lot more games over the last 3 years. But the pro argument for Gustafsson was age and potential upside. Hasn't happened yet, this year is going to be VERY important for him IMO.
Stenlund: Yeah well not sure here either. Probably because we picked him up on waivers IIRC and therefore had to play him obviously. We needed bottom-6 players back then. He therefore had to advantage of having to stay up in the NHL compared to Harkins.
Maenelanen: He was only with us for one full season and while certainly providing absolutely zero offense, he was most likely our best defensive bottom-6 player. Actually a really good PKer, probably the biggest reason why the Avalanche gave him a PTO 4 weeks ago. He can give a special role if you lack that player.
Gagner: Locker room vet and had a really good start the first 1/3 of the season when we signed him. Actually played on the top lines for stretches because he was kind of hot and we needed somebody to fill in. EASILY the most offense providing bottom-6 player that season. Then got hurt and never really good back to the fitness level up until today and why he is probably done in the NHL. I believe the PTO he got from Edmonton was mainly because the guy just deserved it for having a great NHL career.
Harkins, compared to the other profiles, is the prototypical AHL/NHL tweener that doesn't provide enough offense in the NHL, is only very average defensively, not particularly phyiscal, not super quick. He's not useless - but he ain't gonna give you much you probably don't already have in our system anyway.