Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel details next steps for Adam Lowry’s return from offseason hip surgery

The last few Jets practices we’ve seen captain Adam Lowry on the ice with his teammates in a yellow, non-contact jersey as he continues to work his way back from offseason hip surgery.

He hasn’t yet joined the team on the road so when they went to Calgary earlier in the week he stayed in Winnipeg and continued his IR skate with Dylan Samberg and Cole Perfetti.

As the Jets get set to face the Flames tonight we spoke with head coach Scott Arniel who spoke about what it means to have Lowry even just back at practice.

“It’s great to see him but until that jersey changes I’m not thinking too much about him. He’s just getting to the point of, now he’s able to get in with our guys. There’s still a timeline.”

The timeline/target we were told was late October/early November which is quite close.

So what steps are needed to get him to the next stage in his recovery?

“Now he needs live contact. He needs to get into those situations. I think you saw him yesterday taking faceoffs, which he hasn’t really done — which is a little bit different. Last year, when he was hurt, the last couple of years really affected his hip. That was one area — battles off draws — so it’s nice to see him do that. He felt pretty good about it.

Those are the things: the battle, now getting into drills where there’s tempo, it’s 5-on-5, and it’s not just a couple of guys. Hopefully — it’s not the best schedule because we have so many games — but we’re trying to make it more game-like for him.”

Which doesn’t give us an update on his timeline. Team next scheduled to practice tomorrow so we shall have to see what tomorrow brings!