The 2022 World Juniors Championship is here, and the NHL is working their way back to playing games. With this, there are some updates to give on some Winnipeg Jets prospects!

First of all, I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, or just Happy Holidays to those who celebrated something this week!

Now, with the holiday season, we all know that the World Juniors comes along with them. Some of the most fun hockey to watch. Representing their countries from the Jets organization, includes Cole Perfetti (CAN), Chaz Lucius (USA), Nikita Chibrikov (RUS), and Daniel Torgersson (SWE).

Starting off with the prospect Jets fans are most familiar with, Cole Perfetti, the expectation is for him to play a big role for Canada. Though going pointless in his 2 NHL games this season, Perfetti has been great in the AHL, registering 6 goals, 9 assists for 15 points in 17 games. Perfetti's offensive abilities are the bright spot of his game, but he is also very responsible defensively. In his first game in this years WJC tournament, Perfetti registered 3 assists. The offense should keep coming, maybe not at a 3-points-per-game rate, but definitely in the top end of this years tournament.

Chaz Lucius is proudly representing the USA, and though not registering a point in his first game of the tournament, he should be able to play a strong offensive role. In the NCAA, he has put up 5 goals, 3 assists, for 8 points in 12 games. While not superstar level offense, he certainly shows the capability of generating incredible amounts of offense.

Nikita Chibrikov has been playing a little bit of everywhere, including the KHL, the VHL (AHL equivalent) and the MHL (Junior). Registering 22 points total across 23 games, Chibrikov is having a great year in Russia. 4 of those games were in the KHL, where Chibrikov has gone point-less, as well as 4 games in the MHL where he registered 6 points. The remaining 16 points in 15 games were in the VHL. The elusive winger is representing team Russia, where he has 2 points in 2 games.

Finally, the last prospect in the tournament is Daniel Torgersson, who has been playing in the second highest league in Sweden, the HockeyAllsvenskan league, and has struggled. Only registering 5 points across 20 games, Torgersson still has some flashes of talent. With a large frame for a 19 year old, at 6'3, 205lbs, he plays a power-forward type game, and has great skating all things considered. Though point-less in his first two games in the WJC, still look for Torgersson to make an impact.

The last prospect we will discuss is Ville Heinola, who has been having a great year in the AHL so far. Finding himself on the scoresheet 14 times in 20 games, as a defenseman in the AHL is quite impressive. Over the past few days, the NHL has announced that the Taxi Squad will be returning, and the first course of action for the Jets was to get Heinola back closer to the NHL. With Pionk seemingly ready to play whenever the Jets return to action, I am not sure if Heinola will get the chance to play, but will certainly be the first called-upon if he is needed.

Thank you for reading, let me know your thoughts on the current stance on Jets prospects, and how you think they will fare out in their development.

By Jacob Billington

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