Winnipeg Jets going into the 24/25 season

[surixon]

We will see what Arniel does but giving Lambert some middle 6 opportunities on wing would be a good way to ease him into the lineup.

I don't disagree, but this oeg has run the exact same lineup deployment since 2018 spanning 3 coaches. Not optimistic we see any different.

 

[Whileee]

After hearing Scheifele’s interview today I think Lambert would be a serious candidate to start the season with the Jets. If he struggles early, then he’s back to the Moose. The players seem to be anticipating young guys stepping in, if they are ready.

Did Chevy try to get veteran FAs to sign to fill a few spots? Yes. But the org and players seem to be embracing plan B, having the kids come in to fill spots.

Will be an interesting preseason.

And is it just me or does Heinola look like he’s aged 5 years this offseason?

I think it's easier to imagine Lambert starting the season with the Jets if you think of the Lowry line as line 2, which is how they were used by ice-time. Move Ehlers to RW with Scheifele or Lowry and run a 3rd line with Lambert on RW to start.

Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Nino-Lowry-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Lambert
Iafallo-Gus-Appleton

 

[KingBogo]

Who's spot at wing does he take in the top 9? The org seems to greatly overvalue Appelton. Or do you believe the org will be ok with him playing 8 to 10 minutes on the fourth?

We will see what Arniel does but giving Lambert some middle 6 opportunities on wing would be a good way to ease him into the lineup.

I don't disagree, but this oeg has run the exact same lineup deployment since 2018 spanning 3 coaches. Not optimistic we see any different.

Well this is the time for optimism. Let’s see if Arniel changes things up. From his interview Scheifele was sure lobbying for the kids to be given opportunities going into the season.

 

[LowLefty]

We will see what Arniel does but giving Lambert some middle 6 opportunities on wing would be a good way to ease him into the lineup.


Well this is the time for optimism. Let’s see if Arniel changes things up. From his interview Scheifele was sure lobbying for the kids to be given opportunities going into the season.

There are also injuries - and we have a guy on wing on the top line who is accustomed to them.
We also have a few small guys in our top 9 that could drop out with an injury at any time - Ehlers, KC, Perfetti,

We don't necessarily need to start Lambert off with a spot -

 

[KingBogo]

I think it's easier to imagine Lambert starting the season with the Jets if you think of the Lowry line as line 2, which is how they were used by ice-time. Move Ehlers to RW with Scheifele or Lowry and run a 3rd line with Lambert on RW to start.

Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Nino-Lowry-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Lambert
Iafallo-Gus-Appleton

That’s almost my ideal lineup though I’d have Barron in for either Gus or Apples.

 

[surixon]

We will see what Arniel does but giving Lambert some middle 6 opportunities on wing would be a good way to ease him into the lineup.


Well this is the time for optimism. Let’s see if Arniel changes things up. From his interview Scheifele was sure lobbying for the kids to be given opportunities going into the season.

I will be pleasantly surprised if that comes to pass. I'm juat a bit disenfranchised with the org atm.

 

[Weezeric]

I think it's easier to imagine Lambert starting the season with the Jets if you think of the Lowry line as line 2, which is how they were used by ice-time. Move Ehlers to RW with Scheifele or Lowry and run a 3rd line with Lambert on RW to start.

Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Nino-Lowry-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Lambert
Iafallo-Gus-Appleton

If you want to get really crazy…

Perfetti-Scheifele-Ehlers
Connor-Lambert-Vilardi
Nino-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Names-Iafallo

Arniel even gets to keep his shutdown line!

 

[surixon]

I think it's easier to imagine Lambert starting the season with the Jets if you think of the Lowry line as line 2, which is how they were used by ice-time. Move Ehlers to RW with Scheifele or Lowry and run a 3rd line with Lambert on RW to start.

Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Nino-Lowry-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Lambert
Iafallo-Gus-Appleton

If the org had shown any inclination of playing an offensive guy on the Lowry over the past half decade I'd agree with you, but I doubt we see anyone other then Appelton in that spot given how much the org seems to value him.

 

[KingBogo]

I will be pleasantly surprised if that comes to pass. I'm juat a bit disenfranchised with the org atm.

I think we all have our frustrations, but this is the time to be hopeful. I am encouraged to see Scheifele lobby for the kids to be given opportunities. IMO the core players know they need to inject young skill into the lineup over safe depth.

 

[ello]

If we’re going to compete for the Cup this year we NEED surprises internally, which is most likely going to be from prospects. Not saying they should be gifted spots but give them every opportunity to learn and grow into those positions this year. If we run it back with the same roster minus the vets we lost we’re going nowhere lol

 

[Whileee]

That’s almost my ideal lineup though I’d have Barron in for either Gus or Apples.

Yes, I agree that Barron deserves a roster spot based on his profile and performance last season. I could see the Jets trading Iafallo at some point to make room on the roster.

I think the Jets have under-utilized the Lowry line by forcing Appleton to RW. Nino can drive offense and adding another offensive winger on the right side could make that a multi-faceted line that can drive play and defend and score. You could even put Ehlers on that RW and he could cook with Nino with Lowry doing heavy lifting on D and on the forecheck. Adding another offensive player to that as a 2nd line unlocks more of Nino's offense.

 

[Whileee]

If the org had shown any inclination of playing an offensive guy on the Lowry over the past half decade I'd agree with you, but I doubt we see anyone other then Appelton in that spot given how much the org seems to value him.

Alas, I think you're right, but I think it's shortsighted if the Jets are going to play that line 2nd line minutes. Jordan Staal had Jarvis or Svechnikov on his RW (with Martinook on LW) a lot last season. The Panthers put Bennett (a defensive C) alongside Tkachuk and Verhaeghe. Bennett is a bit stronger offensively, but not by much when you consider his linemates.

 

[surixon]

Alas, I think you're right, but I think it's shortsighted if the Jets are going to play that line 2nd line minutes. Jordan Staal had Jarvis or Svechnikov on his RW (with Martinook on LW) a lot last season. The Panthers put Bennett (a defensive C) alongside Tkachuk and Verhaeghe. Bennett is a bit stronger offensively, but not by much when you consider his linemates.

I fully agree that it is short sighted. I've wanted three offensive lines for ages now.

 

[KingBogo]

I fully agree that it is short sighted. I've wanted three offensive lines for ages now.

I think we are in the best position in years to run 3 scoring lines if we can add another offensive player like Lambert.

 

[NA Hockey]

I think we all have our frustrations, but this is the time to be hopeful. I am encouraged to see Scheifele lobby for the kids to be given opportunities. IMO the core players know they need to inject young skill into the lineup over safe depth.

Also interesting in Scheif’s interview with Billeck that he said the core was Helle, Morrissey, KC, Fly, Perfetti and Lowry

“When you’ve got a goalie like (Connor Hellebuyck) in net you’ve got a chance every single night,” Scheifele said. “With (Josh Morrissey), one of the best defenders in the league. With (Kyle Connor), (Nikolaj Ehlers), (Perfetti) coming into his own, (Adam Lowry), our core is still intact.

 

[surixon]

Also interesting in Scheif’s interview with Billeck that he said the core was Helle, Morrissey, KC, Fly, Perfetti and Lowry

“When you’ve got a goalie like (Connor Hellebuyck) in net you’ve got a chance every single night,” Scheifele said. “With (Josh Morrissey), one of the best defenders in the league. With (Kyle Connor), (Nikolaj Ehlers), (Perfetti) coming into his own, (Adam Lowry), our core is still intact.

Wonder if he knows something about contracts that we don't know. I'm not surprised he mentioned Cole as Chevy has talked about him working his way into that group, but the Ehlers add is interesting.

Wonder if we get a joint contract announcement before the end of the week once Cole gets back from Vegas. Is Ehlers over here yet after the qualifiers?

 

[Flair Hay]

I think the Jets playoff performance vs. the Avs was also related to some self-inflicted problems. First, by replacing Namestnikov and Perfetti in the top 9 with Monahan and Toffoli they became a lot slower. They had already lost pace of play by reuniting Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi. So they went from a fast, pressure team to a slow cycling team. Avs just turned it into a track meet with efficient retrievals, fast transition, and activating their D. The Jets forwards had no answer.

Second, they inexplicably broke up a very effective and mobile D pair in Samberg-Schmidt and inserted Stanley. Stanley can play okay in some situations, but he was outmatched in speed and took a couple of bad penalties at crucial times. By the time Bowness swapped him out, the series had turned.

I still think the Avs were a better team and would have been a first-round challenge for any team. They tired in round 2 by using McK and Makar so much, and losing Nikishkin hurt them.

It's hard enough grinding through playoffs when margins are thin. When you actively hurt your own cause things can go bad real quick.

Bones brought a solid system, structure and culture here. But hopefully some of the lineup choices were personal hunches and not anything more systemic...

I don't disagree, but this oeg has run the exact same lineup deployment since 2018 spanning 3 coaches. Not optimistic we see any different.

Yeah unless Arniel is a lot more outside the box than we are expecting...

Jets have operated this way since the beginning

 

[lanky]

Lines if I were calling the shots...

Ehlers - Scheifele - Vilardi
Connor - Perfetti - Namestnikov
Niederreiter - Lowry - Appleton
Barron - Lambert - Iafallo
Kupari
Gus

 

[surixon]

Lines if I were calling the shots...

Ehlers - Scheifele - Vilardi
Connor - Perfetti - Namestnikov
Niederreiter - Lowry - Appleton
Barron - Lambert - Iafallo
Kupari
Gus

Whish we had someone with some size and grit to play with KC and Cole in this scenario. Otherwise I like it a lot.

 

[TS Quint]

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.

Lambert was somewhat of a broken prospect that needed rebuilding. The Jets plan for him seems to be going pretty good, i see that as a credit to the Jets development system not a debit. Each prospect is their own person and player so just following the same path as any random player never mind guys who are in the top 5% of the league is poorly thought out. You might as well throw a blindfold on and throw darts to choose a development path.

I’m just not a person who has seen the Jets screw over or break a bunch of prospects or seen this supposed slow play of prospects. Maybe it’s unfortunate for some that the Jets had a good team last year and they don’t get to toss out some young players to let them screw around like the Blackhawks, but I’m ok with that.

 

[TS Quint]

I'm on the same page. I also don't see it as some sort of youth movement. I see it as promoting your best young players on your farm team that are clearly better than the worst players on the NHL team. Our forward group is not some sort of juggernaut that can't be messed with. We have 5 point Axel and 1 point Kupari still listed on our roster. Both players with little value now and no role in our future. If we look at Lambert and Chibirkov, neither are still fresh faced kids. They are in D+3 and D+4. One will be 21 in a couple months the other 22 in February. Both have played multiple years of pro hockey in Europe and in the AHL. Just my opinion, but we need to start inserting our next generation of skilled players if we ever hope to mesh the older core with a group of young players with enough skill to actually compete.

There are 6 players from Lambert’s draft class with more than half a season played. He’s still a fresh faced kid. Talking about his pro hockey in Europe like it was developmental in the least is completely out to lunch. His pro European years were steps backwards not forward.

 

[tbcwpg]

Wonder if he knows something about contracts that we don't know. I'm not surprised he mentioned Cole as Chevy has talked about him working his way into that group, but the Ehlers add is interesting.

Wonder if we get a joint contract announcement before the end of the week once Cole gets back from Vegas. Is Ehlers over here yet after the qualifiers?

I think he's just talking about this season. Ehlers is here, Perfetti is here. He strikes me as more of a season by season guy.

 

[WolfHouse]

Not sure I see the benefit of playing Lambert at wing... might as well leave him in the AHL at C - then move Lucius to RW and Chib on his left - then he's the first injury callup in top six

I know everyone is clinging onto the Perfetti at C dream here... but I just don't see it. He seems like a guy far more effective on the edge than net front. If there was any experiment, I'd take a look at Vilardi as 2C - bit confused why our velvet hands net front guy wouldn't get a shot

 

[surixon]

I think he's just talking about this season. Ehlers is here, Perfetti is here. He strikes me as more of a season by season guy.

Very well could be that. I think Cole's contract is done but they are waiting until the optimal time to announce it. No clue on where the team is leaning vis a vis Fly.

 

[Buffdog]

Whish we had someone with some size and grit to play with KC and Cole in this scenario. Otherwise I like it a lot.

You could flip Names and Nino