What we learned from the Winnipeg Jets’ pre-season
While the pre-season is often viewed as a snoozefest to many, we sure learned a lot about these Winnipeg Jets over the last two weeks.
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WINNIPEG — Now the fun starts.
After wrapping up exhibition play with a dress rehearsal against the Calgary Flames — which they won 5-2 — the Winnipeg Jets’ pre-season has finally concluded.
With just a few cuts left to be made, the team’s roster is practically set four days out from Wednesday’s season opener against the Edmonton Oilers. While the pre-season is often viewed as a snoozefest to many, we sure learned a lot about these Jets over the last two weeks.
So, before we bid adieu to the pre-season, let’s unpack some takeaways.
No youth movement….For now
After failing to re-sign Brenden Dillon and Sean Monahan on July 1, Jets GM Kevin Chveldayoff hinted at possibly filling those voids internally with young talent.
“If I’m a young player in the Jets organization today, I’m pretty excited about the opportunities in front of me. I’m working hard in the off-season to make sure I can take full advantage,” Cheveldayoff told reporters after the first day of free agency. “If you want to try and move forward in this league, you have to take different opportunities that are in front of you – whether you’re a team or whether you’re a player. It’s about seizing that moment. Everybody talks about wanting more. This is the opportunity for some of them to get that.”
Naturally, those comments had fans thinking — or rather, expecting — that the likes of Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov and Elias Salomonsson were due for big-league promotions.
But despite showing promise during training camp, those three — who were healthy scratches on Friday — will likely be among the Jets’ final cuts ahead of Monday’s roster deadline.
Lambert, 20, was the main draw at training camp. The lightning-fast skater has displayed tremendous growth since being drafted 30th overall in 2022 but as of right now, he’s better off going back down to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose and being the team’s number-one centre. While he held his own during practices, Lambert struggled to make an impact during five-on-five play — particularly on Wednesday night against Calgary — against NHL competition.
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Chibrikov, 21, is arguably NHL-ready. However, given that Nino Niederreiter, Mason Appleton, Morgan Barron and Alex Iaffalo have a firm grasp on Winnipeg’s bottom-six wing spots, there’s simply no room for the 5-foot-9 Russian winger. Chibrikov — who plays with ‘bite’ and has a howitzer of a shot — is first in line to be recalled, should the Jets have an injury on the wing
Salomonsson, 20, ignited a ‘hype train’ on the prairies but the smooth-skating Swedish defender never was going to leapfrog Dylan DeMelo, Neal Pionk or Colin Miller on the right side. While he got plenty of reps on the left side, the Jets want him to develop at his natural position — thus making it a no-brainer to assign him to the Moose, where he’ll log big minutes.
New-look special teams
It’s hardly surprising that special teams was a top priority for Jets coach Scott Arniel during training camp.
Since relocating from Atlanta, the Jets have only finished in the top 10 in power play percentage three times over the last 13 seasons. And they’ve only had a top-10 penalty kill twice.
Winnipeg boasts a new look on their first power play unit, which includes Nikolaj Ehlers — who former coach Rick Bowness rarely had on the first unit— in the bumper role. Alongside Ehlers in the 1-3-1 formation is Gabriel Vilardi, who posts up net front, Josh Morrissey on the point and Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor on opposite flanks.
The penalty kill, on the other hand, has also added a new wrinkle. The first unit will be comprised of Dylan DeMelo, Dylan Samberg, Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton, while Scheifele and Connor will make a cameo on the team’s second unit. That may sound crazy, but there’s no need to worry — the Jets aren’t asking two offensive studs to go out there and block shots.
“With how smart those guys are and their reads, oftentimes they can get in the lines, or they can intercept passes,” Lowry explained on Monday.
Assistant coach Dean Chynoweth has experience with weaponizing skilled players on the penalty kill, having overseen the Carolina Hurricanes’ penalty kill from 2018-19 to 2020-21 — a span in which they ranked second in PK% (83.4) — where Sebastian Aho was a key cog.
“You can be a little more opportunistic,” Lowry said. “A little more quick in the transition [and] you can catch guys flat-footed at the blue line and go the other way.”
Winnipeg still needs a second line centre
Here we go again.
In what has become a recurring theme, the Jets still have a glaring hole between Scheifele and Lowry on the depth chart. It’s no slight on Vladislav Namestnikov — a valuable swiss-army knife in his own right — but he’s better suited in a bottom-six role and that’s why Cheveldayoff went out and got Monahan last winter.
Will the Jets go out and trade a first-round pick for a stop-gap centre solution, as they did with Paul Statsny, Kevin Hayes and Monahan? They don’t have many options internally. Arniel has confirmed that they’ll be deploying Perfetti as a winger, and there’s no sign that Vilardi, a natural centre, will be shifting to the middle anytime soon.
With Lambert and Brayden Yager in the pipeline, the Jets likely won’t be seeking a centre with term. But if Winnipeg plans on advancing past the first round — let alone make it to the playoffs in the first place — they’ll have to make an upgrade, somehow.
