Back during covid the abbreviated 2020-21 campaign the NHL/AHL/CHL made an allowance due to covid to allow players who would normally be ineligible (i.e kids who were 19 years old) to play in the AHL or be on a taxi squad until their CHL team got going again. After participating in the World Juniors Jets 2020 1st rounder Cole Perfetti joined the NHL club and was thereafter assigned to the Moose of the AHL.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Kozub/Manitoba Moose
It was an incredibly important move as it ensured his development path continued rather than be stalled by losing a year as the OHL did, in the end, shut down their season. The Ontario product also learned at an age when he’d normally be facing his peers, what it was like to go up against men, players who had been pros for years. His growth was quite something from a kid who played on the periphery to a guy who would attack the middle of the ice.
Now this was an exemption as, in the normal course, a player who is 19 and playing in the CHL would have to return to his junior team if he didn’t make his NHL team out of training camp. There wasn’t an AHL option.
In current Jets terms last season we saw Brayden Yager, Colby Barlow and Jacob Julien all return to their respective junior franchises once they got cut by Winnipeg. And to be clear it’s possible the Jets organization might have still chosen that path for them even if they could have decided to send one of them to the AHL but it wasn’t even an option.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
This year, unless guys like Kevin He and Kieron Walton make the Jets out of camp (they most likely will not), the only option for them is to return to their respective OHL clubs.
However, starting in the 2026-27 season according to insider Frank Seravalli the organization would have a choice.
“Sources say a new provision in the CBA will allow each #NHL team to place one 19-year-old CHL player in the #AHL per season.
One per organization per season and 18-year-olds are ineligible.”
That means, for example, if next season the Jets look at Winnipegger and third round pick from 2025 Owen Martin as too good to return to Spokane in the WHL, they would now have the option to send him to Manitoba to continue his development in a pro league.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
That would certainly make things interesting from a development perspective.
