Keeping tabs on Day 1 of Winnipeg Jets training camp

It was a busy first day of training camp in Winnipeg as the Jets began their 16th camp since returning to the city.

Late Wednesday night, the team announced it had suspended Connor Hellebuyck after he failed to report for medicals. The accompanying release indicated GM Kevin Cheveldayoff would address the situation at a 10:30 a.m. news conference Thursday.

Prior to it getting underway group 1 hit the ice for the first skate which included Elias Salomonsson skating in a regular jersey doing work with skills coach Matt Larke as he works his way back from shoulder surgery in late April. However, he would not skate with the full group when they went to the other ice surface to begin drills.

At 10:30 a.m., we assembled in one of the Jets conference rooms for Cheveldayoff’s media availability, which ran just over 23 minutes.

Once that concluded, we resumed watching the early group skate. The lines and D pairs were as follows:

Connor-Scheifele-Perfetti
Koepke-Gregor-Namestnikov
Barlow-Julien-Burnside
Zhilkin-Ford-Chibrikov
Cloutier

Morrissey-DeMelo
Ferraro-Bauer
Sautner-Taillefer
Thrun-Gustafsson

Skinner & Milic

Following the skate, we heard from Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele.

Once we had the morning’s coverage posted, the second group was ready to go. They lined up as follows:

Rosen-Björck-Vilardi
Barron-Lowry-Lambert
Niederreiter-Yager-Iafallo
He-Wagner-Wahlin
Walton

Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-St. Ivany
Phillips-Freij
Ta’amu-Mayo

DiVincentiis, Poulter, and Worthington

Following the skate, we heard from coach Scott Arniel, who gave his thoughts on the Hellebuyck situation, his team bouncing back after last season’s disappointment, the early line combinations, getting faster and a few injury updates.

On the injury front, Arniel said the Jets have Salomonsson targeted for “the end of October,” although the Swedish defenceman is already shooting pucks. “If it works out that it’s earlier, that would be great,” he added.

Walker Duehr is a little farther behind Salomonsson. Arniel said the South Dakota product is just starting to get moving and “doesn’t have a lot of range of motion.”

As for Jets prospect Garrett Brown, who was injured at last weekend’s Prospect Challenge in Quebec, the team initially feared he could be done for the season. But after their doctors got a chance to examine him, Arniel said they received “great news” and that it is not season-ending. He will be evaluated again in a few weeks.

Following the coach we heard from Gabriel Vilardi and Isak Rosén.

The Jets will be back at Hockey for All Centre tomorrow for Day 2 of training camp.