While the Winnipeg Jets as a team will be taking a break during the Sochi Winter Olympics, many individual players may not be. At the very least, many of them have been invited to their country’s respective orientation camps to put on a show for the brass in hopes of making the final cut.
Andrew Ladd is the lone Jets representative at the Canadian camp, as he was one of the 46 players invited today by Hockey Canada to take part in their camp in Calgary this August. In what might be a slight surprise, Evander Kane will not be given a look at the camp.
Team USA has a chance to be littered with Jets players though, as Blake Wheeler, Zach Bogosian, Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba all made the list of 48 Americans who will be at the U.S. Men’s National Team Orientation Camp in Arlington, Va. in August. Ron Hainsey’s name was not included on that list for some reason.
Olli Jokinen made Finland’s list of 54 players invited to their camp, which is in itself an interesting development. Perhaps even more interesting is that former Jet Antti Miettinen also made the list.
Michael Frolik and Ondrej Pavelec have been listed as representatives for the Czech Republic camp as well.
Winnipeg Jets’ representatives at 2014 Olympic Orientation Camps
Player Name | Position | Nationality |
Andrew Ladd | LW | CAN |
Michael Frolik | RW | CZE |
Ondrej Pavelec | G | CZE |
Olli Jokinen | C | FIN |
Zach Bogosian | D | USA |
Dustin Byfuglien | D | USA |
Jacob Trouba | D | USA |
Blake Wheeler | RW | USA |
In what could be considered a major surprise is the fact that Tobias Enstrom was not among the 35 Swedes invited to Swedens camp. In an ironic twist of fate for Jets fans, Johnny Oduya was.
And one final interesting omission from a camp was the lack of one Alexander Burmistrov on the Russian list, as the list of 35 names did not include the former (or still current?) Jet. This should give lots of ammo the the haters here in Winnipeg…
We wil update this list as further evaluation camps are released, as we expect a few more Jets to be invited to their camps.