This season all NHL teams are required to have a Taxi Squad which is them carrying players who will essentially act as the teams first call-ups, but also practice with the team and earn a NHL salary. It is basically a squad of players on extended call-ups who only practice with the team. Depending on what happens with the AHL this year, this might be the ideal place for younger prospects who you would normally want playing in the minors.
Taxi Squad details for the 2020-21 #NHL season:https://t.co/XpdrFRgPbt pic.twitter.com/5qNa7lA2ZL
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) December 20, 2020
The AHL does have plans to return to play this year, but there is the potential to opt out and much like the NHL the need to realign the divisions especially because the AHL uses buses to cross the border vs. the NHL that does fly, but either way any plan will be reliant on provincial health approval and as in the case with the NHL that is not fully granted; the provinces still have to make some changes to their orders for games to commence.
The Taxi Squad is basically the NHL working around quarantine rules. It is a sensible short-term solution to what is hopefully a relatively short-term problem. As more people get vaccinated, more things will open up with borders eventually being opened and hopefully quarantine requirements no longer being needed.
So who will be on the Jets Taxi Squad? Someone like Dylan Samberg would make a lot of sense. Samberg is talented and would be high on the call-up list in the AHL. Without knowing the specifics of the AHL’s current status team to team it might be better for his development. The same goes with someone like Mikhail Berdin if he is healthy. Most years I would advocate for Berdin to be in the AHL playing, but we do not know what the AHL will look like this season and it might be better for the Jets to have him up with the team just to be safe.
