Pre-Season: Minnesota Wild @ Winnipeg Jets
The National Hockey League’s 2024-25 pre-season schedule gets underway today with a slate of three games on tap. Four franchises will get the honour of being the first out of the gate this year since the St. Louis Blues-Dallas Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins-Buffalo Sabres contests will both get underway at 6 pm CST.
Our Winnipeg Jets will take part in Saturday’s final match up when they host the Minnesota Wild at the Peg’s Canada Life Centre. Manitoban sport fans will have a decision to make this evening, since the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are also facing off against the Edmonton Elks at 6 pm CST and both contests will be on the TSN network (Jets on TSN3 and Bombers on TSN4). The Big Blue are tied for the top of the Canadian Football League’s Western Conference, but the Elks are only 4 pts behind in the standings, so there is definitely more on the line for the Peg’s football club.
Despite being raised by die-hard Bomber fans, I will be opting for hockey tonight as I am eager to see some of the young prospects in action. Unfortunately the roster won’t be entirely filled with youth due to the NHL-NHLPA collective bargaining agreement, as the league requires a certain level of “veteran” presence. Here is the actual clause:
Based on that, the Jets shouldn’t have any real issue meeting that criteria since they have 25 players at camp that are considered “veterans“, almost half of all the attendees (53). A couple players came very close to qualifying, with Alex Jonsson-Fjallby narrowly missing with 99 total NHL games (needed 100) and 26 contests last season (needed 30) and Mason Shaw with a total of 82 games and 20 last year.
Here are the 20 Winnipeg Jets who will take the ice against the Wild tonight (*denotes non-veteran):
Forwards: Vladislav Namestnikov, Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi, Mason Appleton, Morgan Barron, Mason Shaw, Brad Lambert*, Brayden Yager*, Colby Barlow*, Nikita Chibrikov*, Jacob Julien*, & Connor Levis*
Defensemen: Dylan Samberg, Colin Miller, Haydn Fleury, Elias Salomonsson*, Tyrel Bauer*, & Dmitry Kuzmin*
Goalies: Kaapo Kahkonen & Thomas Milic*
As of 10 am, I have been unable to locate what the projected line combinations will look like to see where some of Winnipeg’s talented young prospects will get to play. I am hopeful that right-handed Brad Lambert will get a look at the center position and things are looking good since there are plenty of right wingers available for coach Scott Arniel to pick from: Gabriel Vilardi, Mason Appleton, Nikita Chibrikov, and Connor Levis. Defender Elias Salomonsson has been paired with Dylan Samberg in practices, so it’s possible we will see the duo together against the Wild tonight. Newly acquired Brayden Yager played very well with Chibrikov on his right wing at the Young Stars Classic, so I expect them to be on the same line again. The question is who will play on their left wing….since both Colby Barlow & Jacob Julien did well along side them at the Classic, but the staff may want to give them a veteran presence like Vladislav Namestnikov or Alex Iafallo.
I expect Kaapo Kahkonen to get the start but won’t be surprised if young Thomas Milic is given the second half of the contest. A couple other new players to the city will also get to don a Winnipeg Jets’ jersey this evening, as forward Mason Shaw & defenseman Haydn Fleury will get the opportunity to make a first impression on the fans. I will check throughout the day for the Jets’ actual game day lineup and add them to the article once I find them.
According to Mitchell Clinton of WinnipegJets.com, here are the lines and D pairs for the game versus Minnesota:
Iafallo-Lambert-VilardiChibrikov-Namestnikov-AppletonBarlow-Yager-BarronJulien-Shaw-Levis
Samberg-SalomonssonKuzmin-BauerAnhorn-Miller
Not sure what to make of Dylan Anhorn taking Haydn Fleury’s spot in the lineup above…maybe that was a mistake in the early press release or perhaps a late injury/illness to Fleury? (**mystery solved, as Fleury’s wife welcomed a new born baby at 1 am today so the coach gave him the day off, but according to WinnipegJets.com the defender said that he would like to play. So will it be Anhorn or Fleury, we’ll have to wait to find out**)
The Minnesota Wild will be playing 21 yr old goalie Jesper Wallstedt the entire game and the Swede has played well in the AHL through two seasons. The franchise has plenty of options for tonight’s game versus the Jets, here is a list of their training camp invitees:
Forwards:Kirill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno – Marco Rossi – Yakov Trenin
Jakub Lauko – Marat Khusnutdinov – Freddy Gaudreau
Liam Ohgren – Brendan Gaunce – Reese Johnson
Devin Shore – Graeme Clarke – Travis Boyd
Sammy Walker – Riley Heidt – Hunter Haight
Ryder Ritchie – Ben Jones – Matthew Sop
Gavin Hain – Caedan Bankier – Pavel Novak
Defense:Jonas Brodin – Brock Faber
Jake Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Declan Chisholm – Zach Bogosian
Jon Merrill – Cameron Crotty
Daemon Hunt – David Spacek
Carson Lambos – Ryan O’Rourke
Jack Peart – Kalem Parker
Will Zmolek – Kyle Masters
Goaltenders:Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson
Jesper Wallstedt
Troy Grosenick (Injured)
Samuel Hlavaj
Kyle McClellan
Chase Wutzke
William Rousseau
Well, I will have to try to find something to keep me busy this rainy Saturday because all I want to do is watch some HOCKEY!! Still almost 8.5 hours left…..plenty of time to do a bit of laundry and stock up on snacks/beverages, which is all I really have on my plate today.
Still no update on the Cole Perfetti contract situation…….get it done, Chevy!
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