Winnipeg Jets send prospects down but could need them to play a key role this season

It took until the final day of training camp, but the Winnipeg Jets officially sent down Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, and Elias Salmonsson on Monday as they got to a 23-man roster. After speaking with Scott Arniel, it was clear that the coaching staff is open to calling these players up when needed. 

Jets could need their young players to play a key role this season

Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke about the opportunities ahead for young players earlier this summer. Despite that, it looks as though the Jets are heading into the season with a roster identical to last season, with no young prospects cracking the roster. 

While many Jets fans will voice their displeasure with this decision, Scott Arniel left the door open for those players to be called up this season and play meaningful games for the Jets. 

“This league changes quickly, as we saw in training camp with our injuries to our D,” Scott Arniel said on Monday when asked about the young prospects being sent down. “This doesn’t mean anything is written in stone where we’re going. So I told them both to go down and continue to be the best players. This could be a week, this could be a month, I’m not making any guarantees.”

Last year, the Jets were remarkably healthy on the blueline, losing Logan Stanley for a handful of games and Brenden Dillon in the final two playoff games. That luck seems to be turning this year, with Stanley and Ville Heinola likely to miss the rest of the month. 

Arniel explained that they saw what they wanted throughout camp and the preseason games from the young players. 

“Both of them, again, just like Elias, they’ve had great camps, and they’ve done some great things. The big thing is that, last year they both had breakout years, and they really had big years that we wanted them to step forward, and they did in the exhibition games, the things that we wanted them to do.”

Elias Salomonsson steadily improved with every preseason game he played as he adjusted to the North American ice and the competition ramped up. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound defenceman is an incredibly smooth skater, which should ease the transition to a smaller ice surface. 

Lambert and Chibrikov also showed flashes of strong play throughout the preseason and could be playing a massive role on the Jets by the middle of the season. If an injury were to occur in the top six, Lambert’s play style would be the ideal fit to replace that loss. If an injury occurs in the bottom six, Chibrikov’s play style might be more suited for that role. 

As for starting the season with the big club, Arniel outlined a way in which that can backfire.

“We don’t want to force them into a situation where they crash and burn and then we gotta start all over again,” Arniel explained on Monday. “We’re doing this obviously because if we need these guys, they are part of our future and this is part of the building blocks with Elias and some of these other guys that we’re looking at and we just feel that at this time. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t change.”

This philosophy from Arniel should give Jets fans confidence that any of these three players will be the first call-up in the event of an injury or poor performance. 

As for Lambert and Chibrikov, Arniel explained that they understand the challenge ahead of them. 

“Those two guys were good about it, and they understand that they just gotta go be the best versions of themselves down with the Moose right now.”

Other notes from first regular season practice

• Connor Hellebuyck is not skating but is still expected to play on Wednesday

Connor Hellebuyck was absent from today’s skate due to family/personal reasons. Arniel still expects the Jets’ starting netminder to be available for Wednesday night when the Jets begin their season, but the Jets are currently carrying three goaltenders just in case. 

“We just gotta make 100 percent sure that we’re in a position to get on that plane to go to Edmonton. Then we’re all good to go. So we’ll hold on to that (extra) spot. I know we have one extra decision to make, but we have until four o’clock today.”

• Emphasis was on breakouts, penalty kills, and compete levels 

The emphasis of today’s skate was clear – Arniel wants his team to play clean defensive and neutral zone hockey on Wednesday evening, as the Oilers remain one of the most dangerous teams on the counter-attack in the NHL. 

They wrapped up the skate, practicing their special teams, with the focus being more on the penalty kill. Arniel said after practice that the Jets will shift that focus to the power play tomorrow in their final practice before the regular season begins. 

• Jaret Anderson-Dolan clears waivers

“Yeah, we have these guys and we haven’t lost anybody,” Arniel said after Anderson-Dolan cleared waivers. “Both this summer and free agency, obviously we wanted to sign guys. It didn’t work, but at the end of the day we wanted to improve our depth”

With Anderson-Dolan, Lundmark, Jonsson-Fjallby, Toninato, and Shaw all clearing waivers, it looks as though the Manitoba Moose are going to have a strong number of veterans to supplement the youth to begin the season.