Winnipeg Jets going into the 24/25 season

[Bob E]

well then doesnt that cancel out? the top line is way slower and will be getting more minutes than the 2nd line. so how does that improve the team speed?

Makes a 2nd line very fast, that another team has to account for. Which d pairing and line do they try to match up against. If all three play fast, harder for other team to win the match up.

Improving team speed will also come with Salomonsson replacing Pionk in the lineup. And a Freij over Stanley (even Heinola) eventually. Even having Yager in over McGroarty will improve our team speed in future. Want to be a quicker team, draft faster skaters.

 

[DRW204]

Makes a 2nd line very fast, that another team has to account for. Which d pairing and line do they try to match up against. If all three play fast, harder for other team to win the match up.

Improving team speed will also come with Salomonsson replacing Pionk in the lineup. And a Freij over Stanley (even Heinola) eventually. Even having Yager in over McGroarty will improve our team speed in future. Want to be a quicker team, draft faster skaters.

None that solves your first line lack of speed.

And none of those prospects are playing a meaningful amount of nhl in 2024-2025 which is this thread's topic.

 

[Bob E]

None that solves your first line lack of speed.

And none of those prospects are playing a meaningful amount of nhl in 2024-2025 which is this thread's topic.

Too early to say a young player like Salomonsson isn’t going to play a meaningful amount in NHL until camp ends and season begins imo. Freij, absolutely, he’s not even coming over and is years away.

Any line that has Perfetti, won’t be a burner line. But with Scheifele it won’t be pedestrian either. If you want to keep CSV together, then a Perfetti-Lambert-Ehlers line (or with Names) would be faster than a 2nd line with Toffoli and Monahan. You’re sacrificing size for speed.

 

[KingBogo]

There is a lot of debate on when to insert young players into the lineup, and I am far from a prospect hawk, but IMO Chevy needs to find a balance here. I'll argue over and over again for the importance of development, but IMO Chevy slow plays the introduction of young players to too great of an extent. I'll take Lambert as an example. He is now going into his D+3 season after a breakout AHL season. This is the same season Schiefele and Connor became regulars. Ehlers and Perfetti a year earlier. Just my opinion, but if you have a prospect ready you need to let him jump to the next level. Sure there will be a few growing pains, but the rewards for exceed the risks IMO.

 

[surixon]

There is a lot of debate on when to insert young players into the lineup, and I am far from a prospect hawk, but IMO Chevy needs to find a balance here. I'll argue over and over again for the importance of development, but IMO Chevy slow plays the introduction of young players to too great of an extent. I'll take Lambert as an example. He is now going into his D+3 season after a breakout AHL season. This is the same season Schiefele and Connor became regulars. Ehlers and Perfetti a year earlier. Just my opinion, but if you have a prospect ready you need to let him jump to the next level. Sure there will be a few growing pains, but the rewards for exceed the risks IMO.

I am still wondering what is going to happen with Ehlers. Do we get another double long term signing announcement with him and Cole over the next few days to a week or does he start the season unsigned?

The reason why I think this is important is if he's unsigned I see them dealing him mid season and then inserting Brad in his spot.

If he's inked long term then it's once again fourth line minutes for a prospect and the team doesn't like doing that.

 

[Whileee]

There is a lot of debate on when to insert young players into the lineup, and I am far from a prospect hawk, but IMO Chevy needs to find a balance here. I'll argue over and over again for the importance of development, but IMO Chevy slow plays the introduction of young players to too great of an extent. I'll take Lambert as an example. He is now going into his D+3 season after a breakout AHL season. This is the same season Schiefele and Connor became regulars. Ehlers and Perfetti a year earlier. Just my opinion, but if you have a prospect ready you need to let him jump to the next level. Sure there will be a few growing pains, but the rewards for exceed the risks IMO.

I tend to agree. If Lambert shows he's ready then slot him onto RW in the top 9 and move Appleton or Iafallo. With the responsible Lowry and Namestnikov at 2/3 C the Jets can afford to put some offensive sparkle in their middle 6.

 

[Buffdog]

There is a lot of debate on when to insert young players into the lineup, and I am far from a prospect hawk, but IMO Chevy needs to find a balance here. I'll argue over and over again for the importance of development, but IMO Chevy slow plays the introduction of young players to too great of an extent. I'll take Lambert as an example. He is now going into his D+3 season after a breakout AHL season. This is the same season Schiefele and Connor became regulars. Ehlers and Perfetti a year earlier. Just my opinion, but if you have a prospect ready you need to let him jump to the next level. Sure there will be a few growing pains, but the rewards for exceed the risks IMO.

To be fair, Chevy has talked about adding youth to the line ups in the past only to have the coach at the time not do so

Going into 2016-17, I know for a fact that Maurice was given an order to play the kids. After that, who knows. Coaches, when given the autonomy, tend to ice the line ups that they think will give them the vest chance to win

TL/DR, I don't think that this is a Chevy issue

 

[KingBogo]

I am still wondering what is going to happen with Ehlers. Do we get another double long term signing announcement with him and Cole over the next few days to a week or does he start the season unsigned?

The reason why I think this is important is if he's unsigned I see them dealing him mid season and then inserting Brad in his spot.

If he's inked long term then it's once again fourth line minutes for a prospect and the team doesn't like doing that.

Personally I think we sign Ehlers late in camp similarly to Helle and Scheifele last season. I think Perfetti signs very soon before camp. Saying that I think it should be easy enough to find places to insert Lambert into the lineup where it is not a pure 4th energy line.

 

[WolfHouse]

Shouldn't we wait until camp starts to say we are not giving Lambert etc a shot this year haha?

 

[KingBogo]

Shouldn't we wait until camp starts to say we are not giving Lambert etc a shot this year haha?

Why would that be the one thing not speculated on as we wait for camp to start?

 

[DannyGallivan]

Jets have the 3rd tallest and 6th heaviest team in the league apparently Elite Prospects - Team Comparison in NHL and

Puffed wheat… big, but not tough. Last year you had Dillon and Lowry when things got ugly. We lost half that now.

We have size at forward for puck battles and forechecking. On defense we have Stanley (spot duty with the slowest fists in the league, Samberg (not tough), Morrissey (undersized), Pionk (undersized)…

My point is that Dillon left a hole. He brought an element to the team that will be missed.

 

[Whileee]

There is a lot of debate on when to insert young players into the lineup, and I am far from a prospect hawk, but IMO Chevy needs to find a balance here. I'll argue over and over again for the importance of development, but IMO Chevy slow plays the introduction of young players to too great of an extent. I'll take Lambert as an example. He is now going into his D+3 season after a breakout AHL season. This is the same season Schiefele and Connor became regulars. Ehlers and Perfetti a year earlier. Just my opinion, but if you have a prospect ready you need to let him jump to the next level. Sure there will be a few growing pains, but the rewards for exceed the risks IMO.

I'm still not sure how much of the "slow play" of prospects is Chevy, and how much is on the coaches. I think it's also a function of where the Jets' management and coaches see the team and its contention window.

Recall that after the 2015 playoffs (Jets swept by Anaheim) the Jets realized that they didn't have enough talent in their core and needed to spend a couple of seasons transitioning to younger and more talented players. Over the next 3 seasons they traded Ladd and transitioned to younger players (Ehlers/Copp, then Morrissey/Hellebuyck, Connor/Laine, etc.). At the time, Chevy and Maurice were clear that they were transitioning to their youth because they realized the core wasn't good enough.

The big question right now is what Chevy and the coaches think about the potential of this roster. Do they think they can take another run in the next couple of seasons with this core, or do they think they need to add some youth and skill to get to the next level? I think they are much more confident in this core / roster than they were after 2015, which might mean that they slow-play Lambert and some of the youth a bit more than they did in the seasons after 2015.

I think this will be a pivotal season. If they have another really strong regular season, then I think they'll try again to make a run (which might mean rentals or "own rentals"). If they look like they aren't really competitive, then I could see them making fundamental changes mid-season or at the TDL to accelerate youth and maybe to change the roster structure (i.e. add a top RD and/or 2C). That might mean trading a core player (Ehlers?) or selling at the TDL (Iafallo, Pionk, Appleton, etc.) to get some draft pick capital for off-season restructuring.

 

[DRW204]

Too early to say a young player like Salomonsson isn’t going to play a meaningful amount in NHL until camp ends and season begins imo. Freij, absolutely, he’s not even coming over and is years away.

Any line that has Perfetti, won’t be a burner line. But with Scheifele it won’t be pedestrian either. If you want to keep CSV together, then a Perfetti-Lambert-Ehlers line (or with Names) would be faster than a 2nd line with Toffoli and Monahan. You’re sacrificing size for speed.

So who is coming out of the lineup, not injury related, where Salomonssen plays over 50% of the nhl season in 24-25?

Honestly think your lineup ideas are a bit far fetched.

 

[DRW204]

There is a lot of debate on when to insert young players into the lineup, and I am far from a prospect hawk, but IMO Chevy needs to find a balance here. I'll argue over and over again for the importance of development, but IMO Chevy slow plays the introduction of young players to too great of an extent. I'll take Lambert as an example. He is now going into his D+3 season after a breakout AHL season. This is the same season Schiefele and Connor became regulars. Ehlers and Perfetti a year earlier. Just my opinion, but if you have a prospect ready you need to let him jump to the next level. Sure there will be a few growing pains, but the rewards for exceed the risks IMO.

The lineup is better far better now than when scheifele or ehlers started playing. The Jets are a win-now team with Helle (and Scheifele, but mostly Helle imo) still playing at a high level, so they'll continue to go for it while they have elite goaltending - the hardest thing to come by in the league.

10 years ago, Ehlers couldn't play in the AHL and pretty sure anyone who watched QMJHL knew he was done there along with a clear spot on the Jets team in 2015 (frolik ufa). The Jets center depth when Scheifele broke in was Little and a rag-tag group of players, and still took an injury to Little for his ascension to 1c.

Ladd refused to re sign here same with Frolik so there were openings for players. Although it took Perreault to get hurt for Connor to be a regular in 2017. Then add Laine who was a 2OA pick that was going to play right away in 2016.

Compared to today, essentially the entire Jets fwd group to start last year is back. Don't think any of the current prospects at fwds are comparable to Connor, Ehlers or Laine at similar age or prospect status (I'll defer to others here though). IMO next year will be likely the year for Fwd openings with some potential UFAs

 

[Bob E]

So who is coming out of the lineup, not injury related, where Salomonssen plays over 50% of the nhl season in 24-25?

Honestly think your lineup ideas are a bit far fetched.

Lambert and Salomonsson in the lineup during the 24-25 season is far-fetched?

 

[bumblebeeman]

Puffed wheat… big, but not tough. Last year you had Dillon and Lowry when things got ugly. We lost half that now.

We have size at forward for puck battles and forechecking. On defense we have Stanley (spot duty with the slowest fists in the league, Samberg (not tough), Morrissey (undersized), Pionk (undersized)…

My point is that Dillon left a hole. He brought an element to the team that will be missed.

Dillon was a liability in the playoffs against the Avs, not that most the team was much better. Maybe if he had a stronger partner than Pionk it could've been ok tho.

 

[Buffdog]

The lineup is better far better now than when scheifele or ehlers started playing. The Jets are a win-now team with Helle (and Scheifele, but mostly Helle imo) still playing at a high level, so they'll continue to go for it while they have elite goaltending - the hardest thing to come by in the league.

10 years ago, Ehlers couldn't play in the AHL and pretty sure anyone who watched QMJHL knew he was done there along with a clear spot on the Jets team in 2015 (frolik ufa). The Jets center depth when Scheifele broke in was Little and a rag-tag group of players, and still took an injury to Little for his ascension to 1c.

Ladd refused to re sign here same with Frolik so there were openings for players. Although it took Perreault to get hurt for Connor to be a regular in 2017. Then add Laine who was a 2OA pick that was going to play right away in 2016.

Compared to today, essentially the entire Jets fwd group to start last year is back. Don't think any of the current prospects at fwds are comparable to Connor, Ehlers or Laine at similar age or prospect status (I'll defer to others here though). IMO next year will be likely the year for Fwd openings with some potential UFAs

Lambert and Connor are comparable IMHO

In his D+2 year in the AHL, Connor had 44 points in 52 games (0.85 PPG)

Lambert in his D+2 year on the Moose put up 55 points in 64 games (0.86 PPG) - but also while trying to learn the defensive side of the C position

I think the learning curve going from the AHL to the NHL is steeper at C, so another year on the Moose may not be the worst thing for Lambo. But it's also possible that he could go down there and tear up the AHL

 

[tbcwpg]

Lambert and Salomonsson in the lineup during the 24-25 season is far-fetched?

Playing more than 50% of the games is pretty far-fetched.

 

[Bob E]

Playing more than 50% of the games is pretty far-fetched.

Ok. I guess I’m on an island with my take. Perhaps I’m reading too much into Chevy’s comments about opportunity for young players. If a young player doesn’t have a chance to crack the lineup this year, then his comments ring pretty hollow.

 

[Royale With Cheese]

Ok. I guess I’m on an island with my take. Perhaps I’m reading too much into Chevy’s comments about opportunity for young players. If a young player doesn’t have a chance to crack the lineup this year, then his comments ring pretty hollow.

I'm with you on his comments - he was purposefully stating that the youth will have an opportunity. How that plays out of course depends on the performance of the younger players themselves and the coaching staff's willingness to use them. But I'm very hopeful that one or two players can become a regular.

 

[macmaroon]

Puffed wheat… big, but not tough. Last year you had Dillon and Lowry when things got ugly. We lost half that now.

We have size at forward for puck battles and forechecking. On defense we have Stanley (spot duty with the slowest fists in the league, Samberg (not tough), Morrissey (undersized), Pionk (undersized)…

My point is that Dillon left a hole. He brought an element to the team that will be missed.

Just remember, we still have Nikolaj Ehlers for fisticuffs if need be...

 

[WolfHouse]

I'm still not sure how much of the "slow play" of prospects is Chevy, and how much is on the coaches. I think it's also a function of where the Jets' management and coaches see the team and its contention window.

Recall that after the 2015 playoffs (Jets swept by Anaheim) the Jets realized that they didn't have enough talent in their core and needed to spend a couple of seasons transitioning to younger and more talented players. Over the next 3 seasons they traded Ladd and transitioned to younger players (Ehlers/Copp, then Morrissey/Hellebuyck, Connor/Laine, etc.). At the time, Chevy and Maurice were clear that they were transitioning to their youth because they realized the core wasn't good enough.

The big question right now is what Chevy and the coaches think about the potential of this roster. Do they think they can take another run in the next couple of seasons with this core, or do they think they need to add some youth and skill to get to the next level? I think they are much more confident in this core / roster than they were after 2015, which might mean that they slow-play Lambert and some of the youth a bit more than they did in the seasons after 2015.

I think this will be a pivotal season. If they have another really strong regular season, then I think they'll try again to make a run (which might mean rentals or "own rentals"). If they look like they aren't really competitive, then I could see them making fundamental changes mid-season or at the TDL to accelerate youth and maybe to change the roster structure (i.e. add a top RD and/or 2C). That might mean trading a core player (Ehlers?) or selling at the TDL (Iafallo, Pionk, Appleton, etc.) to get some draft pick capital for off-season restructuring.

Chevy tried to sign both monahan and henrique... so that wasn't really signaling a youth movement. I fully expect ehlere as an own rental and a TD trade to add.

 

[tbcwpg]

Ok. I guess I’m on an island with my take. Perhaps I’m reading too much into Chevy’s comments about opportunity for young players. If a young player doesn’t have a chance to crack the lineup this year, then his comments ring pretty hollow.

I'm sure they'll be given opportunity, I'm very doubtful either of them will be good enough to a) play more than 41 games this year with the Jets and b) supplant players on existing contracts on a regular basis.

If they are playing 20ish games this year with the Jets it's because the team is out of the race and has traded away the Iafallo's of the roster to make some room.

I'm much more convinced that's the case for Solomonsson than Lambert. I think Lambert might get a few more games. But not close to half the year.

 

[DRW204]

Lambert and Salomonsson in the lineup during the 24-25 season is far-fetched?

Maybe far fetched is a bit strong. But id say Low probability. And basically all of it?

Connor being displaced for Perfetti on the top line. and Salo playing significant or meaningful amount (I'm considering this 40+ games) to start the year.
Lambert I think has the highest chances but they're planting the seeds of Names at 2C already and there's no top 6 wing spot for him. Maybe third line with Lowry but don't think that's a good spot for a high skill prospect tbh.

If they're out of the PO's of course there'll be opportunity if they trade out of pending UFAs like Iafallo, Ehlers or Names. But to supplant anyone from the current opening roster I think is pretty low as @tbcwpg mentioned.

 

[JetsFan815]

Ok. I guess I’m on an island with my take. Perhaps I’m reading too much into Chevy’s comments about opportunity for young players. If a young player doesn’t have a chance to crack the lineup this year, then his comments ring pretty hollow.

Chevy practically says that every season so for me that is either just motivation for young players or the coach/GM are not on the same page. If these guys have good camps and still don't make the team that would lead me to believe that the words are just that as Scott Arniel is not the type of coach who can override the GM at this stage of his career.