If the Jets qualify for the playoffs this year or re-sign Eakin to a new contract by July 5, the Jets will instead transfer their 2021 third-round pick to the Golden Knights. Eakin is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Eakin, 28, has four goals and six assists in 41 games with Vegas this season. He has 232 points (102 goals, 130 assists) in 578 career NHL games with Washington, Dallas and Vegas.

A third-round pick (85th overall) of the Capitals in 2009, Eakin was a member of a Canadian team that finished second at the world junior hockey championship in 2011.

The six-foot, 183-pound Eakin joins a Jets team that was sitting in the first wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference entering play Friday night.