When Adam Lowry is playing well, going head-to-head with the NHL’s best offensive players, the Winnipeg Jets win hockey games. When he’s at his best, battling his way past Canadian Olympians in front of the net in double overtime, Winnipeg wins playoff series.And when Lowry fails to have that impact, creating less offence while giving up footspeed, pivoting slowly and losing the physical edge that led to three straight seasons of excellence, the Jets finish 26th in the league and miss the playoffs altogether. The Jets captain’s inability to drive play contributed to his team’s failings last season, and he is owning it heading into training camp next month.“There’s always going to be questions when you have seasons that don’t live up to expectations,” Lowry told The Athletic in a one-on-one interview. “As a professional athlete, that’s something you have to deal with.”His interview went to cover a wide range of topics: Connor Hellebuyck’s future, Viggo Björck’s potential, the Jets’ route back to the playoffs and more. It starts with a mission statement.“Your self-belief is what has to fuel you,” he said. “I know the type of player I can be. I know the type of impact I can have when I’m playing my best. (And) I believe in the work I’ve put in to find my game.”Then comes the deep dive. Lowry’s shutdown role is one of the most consistent assignments in the NHL. Even during his disappointing 2025-26 season, Lowry’s most frequent forward matchups featured Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov. Winnipeg’s old-school approach to line matching worked spectacularly during most of Rick Bowness’ tenure and again in 2024-25 under Scott Arniel.“Historically, we’ve run really hard matchups at home and tried to get softer matchups for either (Mark Scheifele’s) line or (Vladislav Namestnikov’s) line — or whoever is playing in that hole,” Lowry says. “We’ll take our top players against other team’s depth players any day of the week.”In 2024-25, Lowry’s line with Nino Niederreiter and Mason Appleton outscored opponents 22-12 during the regular season and 3-2 in the playoffs at five-on-five. Their heavy usage against the McDavids and MacKinnons of the world helped Namestnikov’s line with Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti dominate teams, outscoring them 24-14.When the gambit fails, it can be equally spectacular. Last season, the Jets were outscored during Lowry’s minutes for the first time in three years. Meanwhile, nobody outside of Scheifele’s line was scoring goals, so Winnipeg encouraged that line to chase offence and encouraged an increased risk profile. Scheifele and Kyle Connor scored 195 points between them but were outscored without Josh Morrissey on the ice backing them up.If Lowry’s line had won its minutes or if the second line had gotten going earlier in the season, Scheifele’s line may not have been tasked with chasing offence. Had Scheifele’s line not been run so hard, with Connor and Scheifele finishing No. 3 and No. 4 in ice time among forwards, they may have had more energy to shut things down in their end of the rink.“It’s cause and effect. If the rest of us start scoring, you don’t necessarily have to run those guys as hard,” Lowry says. “If our line can go out there and tilt the ice and get the guys some offensive-zone faceoffs, we like our chances. When our line has been at our best, it can help other guys have success.”Lowry struggled in that role last season, returning to play when cleared after hip surgery but without pace in his stride. He generated fewer scoring chances than in recent seasons, finishing with just 21 points in 70 games. He does not sound like he’s preparing for Winnipeg’s deployment to change, but there is one new, exciting possibility that opens up — if he can get back to his best.“The way I look at it this year, with the potential of Viggo (Björck) coming into the lineup, it’s ‘How can you help him transition to the NHL as fast as possible?'” said Lowry. “One of the ways you’d like to help is if you can soften his matchups a little bit — if you can get him some offensive-zone time, make it so he doesn’t have to go 200 feet to generate offence, it can have a huge trickle-down effect.”Lowry got the chance to meet Björck at development camp in July. He was struck by Björck’s maturity, despite the 15-year age gap between himself and Winnipeg’s latest first-round draft pick. The two talked shop, working on faceoffs together, and then Lowry got a chance to talk to Winnipeg’s scouts about the young man who’d impressed him so much.“I think our organization is super high on him — as we should be. We believe the sky’s the limit based on his work ethic and the way he sees the game,” he said.The important thing for everyone to understand, Lowry says, is that the transition to the NHL doesn’t happen overnight. Some players burst into the NHL and score right away, from Macklin Celebrini to Patrik Laine, but most players take time to produce. It took Scheifele three training camps to stick with the Jets for a full season, Lowry pointed out, and people used to worry about it. Now Scheifele is a 103-point player and the team’s most consistent threat to produce offence on any given night: “You look back now, and everyone is over the moon with how his career has turned out.”Don’t mistake Lowry’s long-term view with a lack of belief in Björck’s NHL potential. He may preach caution as the 18-year-old transitions to North America, but he sees an NHL hockey player in the hard-working Swede.“I think he’ll play the whole year with us,” Lowry said. “He might not dominate every night and that’s OK. At 18, his development is not done. There’s still untapped potential and we’re all super excited.”At this, Lowry digs into the big picture, including player development. He believes that the better his line performs — and the better the team performs as a result — the more often the Jets will lead in games, giving Arniel the opportunity to make investments in his team’s future.“If you’re up a few goals or you’ve banked points early in the season, you can run different players in the D-zone and give them opportunities to grow,” he explained. “You can try different looks earlier in the year to get guys development, so that later in the season they’re better prepared for different situations.”It sounds like an excellent plan. What’s Lowry going to do about it, now that he’s being doubted for perhaps the first time in his career?Step one is working out with strength and conditioning coach Jake Wolff in ways he wasn’t able to do following last summer’s hip surgery and the ailments that preceded it. The goal is to rebuild the explosiveness in Lowry’s stride.Lowry also got back onto the ice shortly after the Jets’ season ended, working with members of Team Canada as they prepared for the World Championships. He continued his training through May, June, and July, taking a short break to get married to longtime partner Laura Quinton, and then went home to Calgary to skate with Josh Morrissey and other NHL stars. Throughout the process, he attacked his workouts with the motivation of a player committed to rebuilding his game.“I wanted to get some touches, get some positive feelings back,” Lowry said. “The last two summers I wasn’t able to do a ton of this stuff … I feel like I’ve had a good summer and my game is starting to come back.”As for the playoffs, Winnipeg has work to do. The offence, defence, special teams, neutral-zone play — all of it needs work. Lowry believes the Jets got close to their complete game at the end of last season, but it’s clear there’s a lot further to go.“The year we won the Presidents’ Trophy, we were good offensively but we were elite defensively and we had elite goaltending, too. Bones came in and he had us dialed in with defensive structure — and not just in the D-zone,” he said. “Last year, it was performance-based: we got loose, got leaky, started chasing games. Normally we’d clamp it down but we started bleeding chances. If we can get back to being a solid, structural team, that’s how we’re at our best.”His words echo those of many people in the organization. There is a sentiment that the Jets don’t need to reinvent so much as re-establish the best version of their game. Lowry says he believes in the style of play that took them past the St. Louis Blues and made Round 2 against the Dallas Stars competitive in 2025.“Last year, we fall flat on our faces, but just because we didn’t have success doesn’t mean we need to scrap the entire game plan. I think we need to double down on what’s made us successful and then build from there.”Lowry points to team speed as a driving cause for last season’s issues — not only in terms of skating, but decision-making and team cohesiveness. He believes Winnipeg started to move the puck faster after the Olympics, which led to improved play in all three zones.“The Winnipeg Jets we can hang our hat on? We have the best goalie in the world. We’re a really good defensive team in front of him when we’re playing our best. We’re good on the rush, in transition. We forecheck hard, recovering a lot of pucks.”Hold on a minute. Do the Jets, in fact, have the best goaltender in the world? Connor Hellebuyck has been the subject of trade rumors throughout the offseason. A rumored blockbuster with the Buffalo Sabres fell apart before the draft when the Jets declined to include the No. 8 overall pick.“All indications are he’s a Winnipeg Jet,” Lowry said. “That’s the way we’re approaching the situation. My job is to support my teammates, to show up and help us win, and I believe everyone approaches it the same way. As long as they’re in the locker room, we’re behind them.”What does Lowry expect from Hellebuyck next season?“I expect him to come to camp. I expect him to prove he’s the best goalie in the world … Until something happens, he’s a Jet, he’s a good friend, and we’re excited to get him back.”Lowry added that he doesn’t have special insight as to what Hellebuyck’s future will hold. He’s not interested in speculation, doing his best to accept that some things are beyond his control.“The biggest thing with these situations is that they always work themselves out one way or another … If you speculate, you can drive yourself mad. You can come up with a million scenarios and then realize you’ve wasted so much time thinking about it. Is there any value in me worrying over it until a trade does happen or doesn’t happen? (No.) That’s the way I approach it.”Lowry’s focus is on getting back to the best version of himself, focusing doing what he can do to add value to his team. The next workout. The next recovery session. And then the next workout after that.“I feel rejuvenated,” the Jets captain said. “I’m ready to put last season behind me.”