Following the cancellation of the AHL season goalie Mikhail Berdin went home to Russia. The second year pro, who spent last season in the AHL with the Moose, was not with the Jets in Winnipeg during the two week training camp the team held starting back on July 13th. However when the Jets announced their 31-man roster on Sunday night the only addition was their 2016 6th rounder and goalie prospect Mikhail Berdin.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence
When asked during a zoom chat back on July 13th about the prospect of having a fourth goalie GM Kevin Cheveldayoff limited his answer to the fact that Berdin was under contract which presumably meant the team would have access to him if necessary.
Today during his media availability bench boss Paul Maurice was asked about adding Berdin to the Jets roster for Edmonton. “Risk at position. You can play a defenceman at forward and you can play a forward on the backend but you get into a goaletender problem and you’ve got a real problem. We just felt that the best minutes of our 31st player would be allocated to a goaltender if we got into that situation.”
Paul Maurice was also asked about a timeline for Berdin to join the club in Edmonton and indicated “I believe he will be in today or tomorrow.”
Of course with the strict NHL guidelines for who can enter the bubble the presumption is that Berdin will likely have already been in compliance with the quarantine policies in place if he will be able to join the team.
But now Berdin, who received quite a bit of praise for his development from Moose head coach Pascal Vincent following this past season, is one step closer to realizing his dream. Seems like a lifetime ago but was in reality back in September following an exhibition game against the Flames when asked about whether it was the realization of a dream to play in the NHL he replied in his usual style “play preseason it’s not my dream. My dream to play in show, win Stanleys, and get trophies. This my dream, but I am excited”.
