During the course of doing this overseas report the Jets had 14 draft picks or players under contract playing in the KHL, SHL, Liiga, DEL, DEL2, Slovakian league and HockeyAllsvenskan.
With training camps set to open next Sunday a number of Winnipeg’s prospects or players were cut loose from their European contracts to return to North America including Kristian Vesalainen, Joona Luoto, David Gustafsson and Skyler McKenzie. It is believed that Mikhail Berdin, after his rights were traded from SKA back to Sochi, would be returning to Winnipeg but nothing has been confirmed. Lastly there are a pair of prospects who were playing in Liiga that are currently at the World Juniors including 2019 1st rounder Ville Heinola and 2019 4th rounder Henri Nikkanen.
Players on loan:
1. Leon Gawanke
Eisbären Polar Bears (DEL): 3 GP 0 goals 0 assists 3 blocked shots. Averaging 18:25 of time on ice.
Change since last week: 1 GP no goals no assists.
Next game: January 5th.
There was a Q&A with him (in German) on December 24th that (via translation) seemed to indicate he hadn’t received instructions yet to return:
As I said, I haven’t heard anything from Winnipeg yet. But it would certainly not be so smart if I fly there now, train for two weeks, get sent down and then do nothing for a month. It would be better for my development if I could play seven or eight games here. But I don’t have to decide, Winnipeg will decide for me.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
2. Arvid Holm
Farjestads BK Karlstad (SHL): 7-7-1, 2.62 GAA .918 save%
Change since last week: 1 GP no wins 1 loss. After posting back to back wins for his club in mid December he wouldn’t play in the next three contests. He played and lost this evening giving up four goals on 26 shots.
Next game: December 30th.
Other Jets prospects in Europe:
1. Santeri Virtanen
SaiPa Lappeenranta (Liiga): 20 GP 2 goals 4 assist, averaging 16:42 of ice time per game.
Change since last week: 2 GP no goals no assists. He’s the only Jets prospect still playing in Liiga (until Henri Nikkanen returns).
Next game: December 30th.
2. Simon Lundmark
Linkopings HC (SHL): 19 GP 2 goals 3 assist, averaging 13:10 of ice time per game.
Change since last week: 2 GP 1 goal 0 assists. He scored his second ever goal in the Swedish Hockey League two games ago which gave him goals in back to back games. And his second goal was almost a carbon copy of the first one he scored.
Next game: December 30th.
Injured:
1. Marko Dano
Trencin Dukla (Slovak League): 2 GP 2 goals 1 assist.
Status: As I reported Dano had surgery and is out indefinitely.
2. Anton Johannesson
HV71 J20: Hasn’t played a game yet this season.
Status: None. Murat Ates of The Athletic Winnipeg reported that the Jets 2020 5th rounder is recovering from surgery on his foot.
In my chat with his countryman David Gustafsson he gave me his coles notes on the Jets 2020 5th rounder.
3. Daniel Torgersson
Frölunda HC J20 (J20 Nationell): 10 GP 4 goals 5 assists.
Frölunda HC (SHL): 2 GP 0 goals 0 assists, averaging 3:22 of ice time per game.
Status: None. In that same report from Murat wrote this about the the Jets 2nd rounder from 2020 “Initial reports suggested a four to five month recovery but I’m also told it’s possible he misses the full SHL season.”.
In my chat with his countryman David Gustafsson he gave me his coles notes on the Jets 2020 2nd rounder.
