On Friday the Winnipeg Jets made some much needed cuts to their roster, ones that will give an indication of who will likely be on the team come the opening night. Of all the players sent down the one that raises the most eyebrows is Sami Niku, the swift defenseman who appears to be ready to be the offensive player the blue line needs.
Niku has a future this is clear but when he arrives in the future is a bit of a guess, but it probably won't take too long given the impression he's made through camp and the preseason. The Jets also sent down other players who also made strong impressions with Suess, McKenzie and Griffith. Let's be clear, simply having a strong camp was not going to move the needle for these guys, they had to dazzle and wildly exceed every expectation as well as get some help from others failing in some capacity.
So what does the roster look like now?
G Hellebuyck Brossoit
D
Poolman Kulikov Byfuglien Chiarot Trouba Morrissey Myers Morrow Stanley
F
Copp Tanev Lowry Little Petan Wheeler Ehlers Roslovic Laine Vesalainen Lemieux Scheifele Dano Spacek Perreault
That's 9 defense and 15 forwards plus two goalies for a 26 man roster 3 too many for opening night.
There is no possible way that Logan Stanley makes this team. He's got a ton of work to do with his skating and while he's smart enough with positioning and good with his stick, those strengths will not compensate for the glaring weakness of his skating when games mean something.
Take away Stanley and throw two in the press box and I would expect the D to look as this:
44-8 7-33 70-57
The forwards could be surprising though. First let's offer some heartfelt condolences to Nic Petan for the sudden passing of his father. There are some rumors out there about the death and I'd suggest empathy for Petan and his family rather than worrying about salacious things.
In all honesty I think Petan is in the press box at best at the start and that's because Kristian Vesalainen has doe so much to impress in his debut. While the young Finn is not producing offensively as he would like his defensive awareness and 'hustle' has been his most marked characteristic. He's simply doing things that head coach Paul Maurice notices and has commented on.
For Spacek, Lemieux, Dano and Petan they are all vying for spots but there simply is not enough room so again it would appear that Lemieux is sent down to the Moose. Brendan has the necessary grit that coaches like but he has some significant challenges with positioning and reads in the defensive zone. I think he's joined by Petan as well simply due to circumstances with his father and the arrival of Vesalainen.
So what does the 4th line look like?
Connor Scheifele Wheeler Ehlers Little Laine Copp Lowry Tanev ???? ???? ??????
The most important part here is not to determine depth and role more so that it's the last line to be reviewed and the one with the most uncertainty. Furthermore there is no assurance that the second line is even what it is given some of the pre-season game combinations.
Assuming Perreault is there based on the above who slots in with him?
Perreault admittedly prefers to play the wing more than centre so if he's on the left wing that would leave Roslovic to be centre and then some one on the right side and that would come down to Dano or Vesalainen. The Jets are weak with RH forwards with only 4 (5 including Spacek). So it would likely be Dano or Vesalainen playing off side on the wing which is not a huge deal and Dano has done it before.
Perreault Roslovic Vesalainen
would be a possibility but does that makes sense and why is Spacek around still?
Perreault Spacek Roslovic
could be an option too but I'm not sure how the logic works to keep Spacek up.
Perreault Dano Roslovic
could be intriguing too but I'm not sure Maurice trusts Dano at centre but he can play it.
The curious variable in all of this is Vesalainen. Do the Jets want to give him 9 games to see how he plays with NHL regulars and then decide before the agree he goes back to Europe to play per the special agreement in his contract? Given the expectations on the Jets this year do they really want to worry about on the fly development for a rookie when he could be in a better place with more ice time?
The other thing to consider is that this line is simply a guess assuming no changes in the other lines and that seems a bit 'iffy' at this point. Mathieu Perreault has been good on the PP this pre-season and he also needs to get more ice than 12-15 minutes a game. He could just as easily be with Little and Laine to help make that line more dynamic but does that mean dropping Ehlers down to the 4th?
This is the area that becomes concerning the Jets will need scoring from that second line as teams are going to play their PP harder given the talent available. So does spreading the depth makes sense? The lines and work leading up to opening night will certainly give us some ideas but other than Vesalainen I don't expect too much change on the bottom groups and that's what happens when your depth finally arrives.