Note: While you may think the Jets news is done with yesterday morning’s exit interviews with the players we still have our end of season scrums with head coach Paul Maurice at 11 AM as well as general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff at 12 noon. So keep it locked to illegalcurve.com as well as our various social media accounts including Twitter | Facebook | Instagram.
Note II: The parent club may be done but the Moose are still getting loose for the next week although they did conclude the home portion of their schedule with yesterday’s 4-3 win (and weekend sweep) of the Tucson Roadrunners. They even handed out some end of season awards prior to puck drop. They have the day off today before returning to practice on Tuesday.
Note III: With the end to the NHL regular season last night the Jets officially finished 20th overall and their draft position was set (for now) at 12th (it would have been 11th but for Las Vegas). Brush up on how the draft lotto could alter this spot.
Jets news:
Winnipeg Sun: Contract issue ‘two-way street’: Trouba. While fans want to know that the Michigan born defenceman wants to spend the rest of his career in Manitoba the reality is there are still plenty of questions to be answered before he commits long term.
Winnipeg Sun: Wheeler’s expectations for Jets changed during season. I think expectations should have changed the moment your veteran second line centre went down with injury in that 1st period of the first game of the season. Couple that with other significant injuries, Trouba’s holdout and the rookies/youth in net and you had a recipe for what we saw this season here in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Sun: Patrik Laine relished spotlight. His answer about signing autographs and taking pictures with fans was extremely impressive for someone so young. He spoke about how the spotlight might not always be so bright and that it was his pleasure to accommodate those requests.
Winnipeg Sun: Enstrom wants to stick around. He spoke about how he has liked playing for this franchise (Jets/Thrashers) for the last ten years and how he feels honoured to wear the Winnipeg uniform and wants to be a part of the bright future here in Peg’ city.
Winnipeg Sun: Jets fans want more. A look at how the readers have responded to the annual Sun survey which allows you to have a voice in what you’d like to see done with the franchise here in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Free Press: Trouba’s future with the Jets? ‘It’s a mutual thing’. (Paywall). Certainly shouldn’t expect him to conduct negotiations in his exit meeting scrum. So while folks may have wanted some sort of assertive statement I am not terribly surprised that wasn’t forthcoming yesterday.
Winnipeg Free Press: Enstrom ‘happy here’ and declines to discuss waiving no-movement clause. (Paywall). He certainly didn’t sound like a player who was considering a move or waiving his NMC.
Metro News: Jets see bright future after disappointing 2016-17 season. Lots of eyes going to be on the front office during the course of this Summer.
Yahoo Sports: Fixing one of NHL’s biggest disappointments. Number of areas of improvement for this squad as outlined in this article.
Jets audio:
Illegal Curve: Players 2016-17 end of season interviews. Hear each of the scrums in their entirety from the players who were brought out yesterday including Blake Wheeler, Tobias Enstrom, Bryan Little, Shawn Matthias, Adam Lowry, Mathieu Perreault, Jacob Trouba, Mark Scheifele, Tyler Myers, Nikolaj Ehlers, Patrik Laine and Connor Hellebuyck.
TSN 1290 Winnipeg: End of season interviews. Rick Ralph and Huster were also chatting with players yesterday and had on a number of players during a special Sunday edition of radion including Ehlers, Enstrom, Little, Morrissey, Myers, Perreault, Scheifele, Thorburn and Trouba.
Moose news:
Illegal Curve: Moose win home finale 4-3; Sweep two-game series with Roadrunners. Pre-game news, scoring summary, player assessments and post-game audio from coach, Ryan Olsen, Kyle Connor and Nelson Nogier.
Illegal Curve: Moose End of Year Awards. They handed out five of the six (top scorer still to be determined) last night prior to puck drop.
Latest on the injured duo.
A look at the projected lineup with all the latest game info.
TSN play-by-play voice Dan Robertson joined Hustler for a chat.
Keeping you up-to-date with all the latest pro hockey news in Manitoba.
Good insight from number 37.