We heard from Jets bench boss Scott Arniel on Monday that they were considering a plan for Ville Heinola who was ready to get back into games after dealing with ankle surgery for the second time. Shortly after we spoke with him the team announced he was coming off IR and would be heading to Manitoba on a conditioning assignment.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
But for how long?
The longest a conditioning stint can last is two weeks and with Heinola no longer waiver exempt it meant his last run in the AHL (on this team) would be done at the latest by early December which would have afforded him the chance to play four games for Manitoba.
Today after morning skate head coach Scott Arniel was asked for further clarity and had this to say about the plan for Heinola:
“It’s been a tough two years for him. I’m probably his biggest fan here. I wanna see him. I sat him down, asked him about the situation. I don’t want him going from zero to 100, having to play in a game like tonight or having to go to Pittsburgh or wherever that game was. We didn’t want him to get into contact until this past Monday. So now he’s up and running. Just asked him about going and playing some games. He was all for it. He wants to go play. I told Mo to play him thirty minutes down there. But he’s gonna get all situations. He’s gonna play a 10:30 game on Thursday and I think a 2 O’clock game on Saturday and then he’ll be flying into Minny. So, hopefully knock on wood everything works out but he’ll be back on Sunday.”
Asked for clarity that it would be just for the two games this week against the Wolves and not longer Arniel added:
“No. We need to get him playing games and then we need to get him in our lineup.”
What would he be looking to see from Ville to see that he’s ‘back up to speed’?
“He’s been able to get into more contact situations. So whether that’s him breaking out under pressure and getting up speed. And that’s one thing he’s really good at, getting back and getting pucks, making that first pass. His ability offensively to get away from people. He uses creativity that way. Up speed in the sense of battles, net front, popping sticks….It’s just him looking like he’s played 20 games than having zero behind him.”
The Moose are in action on Thursday at 10:30 AM when they take on the Wolves who they beat in Chicago last weekend.
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