Winnipeg Jets activate Ville Heinola from IR and loaned him to Moose for conditioning purposes

We spoke with Jets head coach Scott Arniel today after practice about Ville Heinola who has been in a regular uniform and seemed ready to return to the lineup. The only question was which would it be? With the Jets or the Moose? Seemed more likely it would be with the latter on a conditioning loan but we’d have to wait and see.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

At the time he said:

“We finally got him into heavy contact. We got a couple on the road not that we practiced a whole lot. But today I thought was a really good one. He got to get into some really good 5 on 5 stuff. We got a decision to make with him. We’ll talk to him and see how we move forward here. We want to get him in some games sooner than later. We just gotta find out what the best course of it is. If the docs are 100% ready for us to move forward with him into games and talk to him about best scenario.”

A few hours later the team announced they will be sending Heinola down to the Moose on a conditioning loan. The loan can last up to two weeks (but not more) and the team has to have a roster spot for him (which they do because Logan Stanley is on IR).

We learned during training camp that Heinola had an infection in the ankle that he had had surgery on last year only to require surgery again this year. It’s been about two months since that news broke.

The Moose play this Thursday morning in a school day game. Puck drop is at 10:30 AM CST.