Photo Credit: Dave Mahussier
Last season the Jets went with a 13 forwards, 8 defencemen and two goalie roster configuration to start 2017-18 but this season they will begin with 14 forwards, 7 defencemen and two goalies.
It seems almost inconceivable based on how he played last year but Kyle Connor was the last cut of camp in 2017-18 while Jack Roslovic was a December call up when Mark Scheifele got injured. Of course Connor is firmly entrenched on the Jets top line while Roslovic will get an opportunity to centre the 3rd line. New additions to begin camp from within the Jets system are 2017 1st rounder rookie Kristian Vesalainen and Brendan Lemieux, who spent the past two seasons with the Manitoba Moose and which included nine games with the Jets last season.
The Jets are technically at 24 players on the roster as a result of the sudden passing of Nic Petan’s father Franc. The talented forward was granted a leave of absence from the team and will have non-roster status to start the season getting the Jets down to the 23 they needed to comply with NHL regulations. Petan’s cap hit still counts however against the team total.
The complete list is as follows:
Forwards (14):
Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Mathieu Perreault, Bryan Little, Patrik Laine, Nikolaj Ehlers, Jack Roslovic, Kristian Vesalainen, Adam Lowry, Brandon Tanev, Andrew Copp, Marko Dano, and Brendan Lemieux.
Defencemen (7):
Dustin Byfuglien, Dmitry Kulikov, Tyler Myers, Josh Morrissey, Jacob Trouba, Ben Chiarot and Joe Morrow.
Goalies (2):
Connor Hellebuyck & Laurent Brossoit.
Projected lines & D pairs(based on today’s skate):
Connor — Scheifele — Wheeler
Perreault — Little — Laine
Vesalainen — Roslovic — Ehlers
Copp — Lowry — Tanev
Extras: Lemieux, Dano
Morrissey — Trouba
Chiarot — Byfuglien
Morrow — Myers
Kulikov
Hellebuyck
Brossoit
As always stay tuned for the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news by keeping it locked to illegalcurve.com and on social media including Twitter | Facebook | Instagram. And you can follow me on twitter as well (@icdave).
