Winnipeg Jets Practice Report

After a day off on Monday which saw Nikolaj Ehlers added to the covid protocols the Jets are scheduled to practice today as they continue to wait for their next game which isn’t until Thursday in Detroit against the Red Wings. Still question marks about the health of Paul Stastny and Logan Stanley who are listed as day-to-day.

Transaction news:

Ahead of skate JetsPR announced that goalie Mikhail Berdin had been reassigned from the taxi squad back to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. That would seem to be good news as one would suspect it means that taxi squad goalie Arvid Holm is ready to come out of covid protocol. That could also mean that Dylan DeMelo and Jansen Harkins also could be available.

But then the other shoe dropped as the team account later announced that Nathan Beaulieu, Logan Stanley, Kristian Reichel and Ville Heinola had all been placed into covid protocol.

Skate news:

Some good news from practice for Winnipeg according to Mitchell Clinton of JetsTV as veteran forward Paul Stastny is back and skating. In total they have just 15 players skating according to Mitch being:

Scheifele, Connor, Stastny, Dubois, Copp, Perfetti, Lowry, Svechnikov, Toninato, Suess.

Morrissey, Pionk, Dillon, Schmidt, Samberg.

Missing from this list is Kristian Vesalainen.

Health updates:

As per interim head coach Dave Lowry forward Jansen Harkins is now available to come out of quarantine. He is traveling today to Detroit. Dylan DeMelo is still in covid protocol. He is in Denver.

Kristian Vesalainen is listed as day-to-day.

We also learned that captain Blake Wheeler is back on the ice skating. The team is hopeful he can join them at some point on their road trip next week (in a non-contact uniform) when they head out east to Washington, Nashville, Boston and Pittsburgh.

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Status update on DeMelo, Harkins and Vesalainen?
2) How concerned is he to have a full roster on Thursday night? (1:00)
3) Are Harkins and DeMelo expected to meet them in Detroit? (1:29)
4) What are his other options for players? (1:43)
5) Thoughts on Jets 2017 2nd rounder Dylan Samberg (2:15)
6) All the players he has in covid protocol/his approach next few days (2:49)
7) How uneasy is he about the current circumstances? (3:41)
8) How has the unevenness of the season impacted expectations for this team? (4:25)
9) Update on Kristian Vesalainen (5:24)
10) Does he have an update on Blake Wheeler? (5:54)
11) How close is Wheeler to joining group in non-contact jersey? (6:22)

Up next:

The Jets have another day of practice scheduled for tomorrow at 11 AM in Winnipeg.  You can start your day with the Morning Papers which go live on illegalcurve.com at 7 AM