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Update on Winnipeg Jets prospects who were at the World Juniors Tournament

The World Juniors tournament concluded in Edmonton on Tuesday with Cole Perfetti(Canada) taking home silver medal while Ville Heinola & Henri Nikkanen (Finland) took home a bronze medal.

Now that the tournament has concluded it seemed likely that a pair of the Jets prospects would come to Winnipeg for training camp including 2019 1st rounder Heinola and 2020 1st rounder Perfetti.  And that 2019 4th rounder Nikkanen would return to Liiga to continue his development playing for Jukurit.

Today during his media availability Jets head coach Paul Maurice was asked about the status of his two 1st rounders who were playing in Edmonton:

“We’ll make a decision on Cole (Perfetti) as he’s been locked up in the bubble for an awfully long time, hasn’t had a Christmas. So he may get a little bit of time to go home. Ville (Heinola) little different situation cause he’s over here now. I don’t have a date for you on either of those guys.”

Not exactly the answer that was expected but there is your update on two of the three Jets prospects who were at the World Juniors.

Update:  Henri Nikkanen’s team in Finland (Jukurit) wrote about the Finnish win for Nikkanen and another Jukurit player (Mikko Kokkonen) and confirmed (via google translation) this:

“…the bronze team lands in Finland early on Thursday morning. Nikkanen and Kokkonen will be seen in the Jukurit shirt again next week.”

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.

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