After 20 days Jets training camp is set to conclude with the start of the NHL regular season on Tuesday. Today was an important day however as Winnipeg, along with 31 other NHL clubs, had to have their 23-man roster set. They made three moves on Sunday placing Kyle Capobianco, Collin Delia and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on waivers in order to get down to that requisite number and would have to wait until 1 pm today to know if they all cleared.
After three or four days off the ice the Jets had a welcome sight with the return of Nikolaj Ehlers to the ice surface with his teammates for this morning’s skate.
Photo Credit: Dave Minuk (Illegal Curve)
The good news for the Jets was he was a full participant as you can see from today’s line and D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Perfetti-Niederreiter
Iafallo-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Namestnikov
Gustafsson
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Dillon-Schmidt
Stanley-Chisholm
Hellebuyck
Brossoit
Following the skate Ehlers confirmed he was feeling ready to go for Wednesday’s season opener for the Jets in Calgary.
Prior to hearing from Jets bench boss Rick Bowness we learned that all three players that Winnipeg had placed on waivers had cleared and would be assigned to the Moose.
Bowness confirmed that Ehlers was expected to play in game one for Winnipeg and he also confirmed that Ville Heinola had successful surgery although the timeline for his return remained unknow other than it would be at least eight weeks before he expected to be bothered about updates.
While the Moose battled the Bisons in an exhibition game at hockey for all centre the Jets released the big news that they had signed Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to identical seven-year contract extensions with identical AAVs of 8.5 million. The two along with head coach Rick Bowness and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff will speak tomorrow.
For a place that is often maligned the Jets have shown Winnipeg can retain players. Hellebuyck and Scheifele both signing second long-term deals with the club joining a long list of others (current & former) who have committed to being in MB.
We will have full coverage of all things Jets tomorrow so be sure to stay tuned to this website and our YouTube page.
