Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness confirms Nino Niederreiter won’t play vs Avs

Jets head coach Rick Bowness was “hopeful” on Thursday ahead of his team’s game against the Stars that they would have Nino Niederreiter available for their game against the Avalanche on Saturday afternoon as they conclude the road portion of their 2023-24 regular season schedule in Colorado. He said they’d continue to push him hard and see how number 62 would respond.

Niederreiter has been out of the lineup since he sustained a cut to the leg back on April 1st against the Kings.

As was reported by Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press he was on the ice today for the third straight practice/AM skate with the team this week. However after the skate concluded head coach Rick Bowness said Niederreiter will not play on Saturday against the Avs.

“We’re gonna give him a few more days. He’ll be out tomorrow. At this point we’re hoping and planning on him playing Tuesday. We’ll give him a good skate again today, put him on the ice on Monday and we’ll see where we are but at this point he’s out tomorrow.”

Not a big surprise that they want to give him more time to heal. They will now have the benefit of additional days until game 81 on Tuesday in Winnipeg when they take on Seattle. The Jets bench boss was asked if that was a factor.

“It’s huge when you have stitches where he has them. It just gives him time to heal better. We’re not going to put him out there unless he’s 100%, he’s not 100% so we need those extra days.”

Given the way they played in the 3-0 win over the Stars last night in Dallas and how seamless David Gustafsson played on the third line alongside Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton it makes sense to give Niederreiter a few more days to heal.