Today I ended up having a bit of time to explore how some of the Winnipeg Jets’ prospects are doing early in their seasons. Since I figured I would let the players in the American Hockey League with the Manitoba Moose play some more games before I attempted to see how they were doing…that left me with the young men suiting up outside of the minor leagues. These include a lot of the True North franchise’s most recently drafted players, including 2025 1st rounder Sascha Boumedienne and other promising prospects.
So let us begin our journey with the 3 players signed to contracts with the Winnipeg Jets, yet aren’t playing in the American Hockey League (AHL). All of these players were drafted in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, as Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff selected Alfons Freij in the early 2nd round, Kevin He in the 4th round, and Kieron Walton is the 6th.
With only a total of 4 picks that year and none in the 1st round, the Jets should probably consider themselves lucky if just one prospect turns out to be a NHL regular. Yet, the outlook appeared to be sunny after the past hockey campaign suggested that everybody except Marcus Lopenen might be on a collision course with hockey’s highest league.
For the 2025-26 season, here is how the inked prospects have performed so far: (courstesy of PuckPedia)
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Okay, when you see the prospects’ offensive production, you might start hearing Meatloaf’s song, “Two out of three ain’t bad” playing in your head….or maybe that’s just me?
6th round Kieron Walton was selected by Winnipeg after he put up a 0.662 pts/gm pace with the OHL’s Sudbury franchise. Since then, the 6’6″ forward has worked his way up from being a secondary depth scorer to being one of the main offensive threats for the Wolves. Last year Kieron exploded offensively, doubling his pts/gm to 1.39 as he finished as one of the OHL’s top 10 scorers. The big guy did have to deal with a head injury sustained in training camp to kick off this season, so has missed a bit of playing time. Yet, the 19 yr old has produced since he stepped on the ice with Sudbury, pocketing 19 pts to sit in 17th in league scoring (top ten if you went by pts/gm).
4th rounder Kevin He has also consistently improved since being drafted, improving from a 0.83 pts/gm pace to 1.21 last year with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. A feisty winger that plays with intensity, the 19 yr old has shown that he can make defenders pay for mistakes with back-to-back 30 goal campaigns. The Chinese-born forward has continued that progression in 25-26, picking up 9 goals & 20 points so far, looking good for another 30 goal season before he gets the chance to try his hand out in the AHL.
With Walton & He’s production and NHL level skating abilities, their potential to become middle-sixers at the NHL level is promising at this point in their development. But what about 2nd round pick Alfons Freij? If you are like me, seeing all those 0’s across his stat line doesn’t inspire a lot of hope at first. However, after I reminded myself that Alfons is a 19 yr old playing in Sweden’s highest men’s league, I decided to dig in a bit further to see what other people were saying about the young Swede. I first discovered that the defenseman has suited up for every one of Timra IK’s 18 contests and when you consider that the club is 6th in the 14 team league, Freij must be doing something right to stay in the line up. The Swedish squad has 9 defensemen on its roster, so they do have other options….yet they have relied on three very young prospects to play key roles. Carolina’s Simon Forsmark (22 yrs old), Edmonton’s Albin Sundin (21 yrs), and Freij (19 yrs) are all playing significant minutes. I even went a bit further by translating a few articles that mentioned Alfons and everything I read was positive. The head coach raved about the young kid’s skating abilities, even going as far as saying they might be the best he has seen. Other things were also mentioned about Freij, including that he frequently makes smart decisions with the puck and the fact that he is also getting some powerplay time. So, maybe if the coaching staff isn’t worried about the lack of offense….I guess I shouldn’t either? Dobber Prospects had him rated just under the NHL level going into this season, so it will be interesting to see how that rating looks after this year. One last note about the Swedish prospect….he will be representing his country at the upcoming World Junior Championships so we should get to watch Freij play over the holiday season.
The unsigned recent draft pick list is much longer, with 8 or 9 prospects playing in Junior, College, or European leagues (murkiness around the Jets retaining the rights to Connor Levis).
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Starting off with Winnipeg’s most recent 1st round draft pick, Sascha Boumedienne…the young defenseman is entering his second NCAA campaign with Boston University after he put up 13 pts in 40 games last year (.325 pts/gm). I haven’t been able to find anything recent online about the 18 yr old Swede, other than his stat line of 2 goals & 2 assists in 9 contests (.444 pts/gm). Last season, BU was one of the league’s better teams (14-8-2), but have started off this season slow (3-5-1) with Washington Capitals’ 2nd round selection Cole Hutson leading the way with 13 pts. Sascha is known for a booming shot and great skating abilities, so will be interesting to see how he develops in his second North American season.
To be honest, after a couple seasons with injury and playing time issues for Garrett Brown, I kind of had mentally written the big right-handed defenseman off. Now 21 yrs old, the Buffalo native has had a maximum of 4 points in his two previous seasons, with an injury shortened rookie campaign (8 gms) and then in a limited role last year (42 gms). Yet the 6’3″ American has started off his 3rd year off fairly well, already tying his career-high point total. Way too early to tell if Brown can work his way back into the legit Jets’ prospects conversation…though Winnipeg will retain his rights to August 2027.
Before I move onto the forwards, I might as well discuss the Jets’ 6th round selection from the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, Edison Engle. The 18 yr old defenseman spent last year playing in the USHL, where his 13 pts in 34 games (.382 pts/gm) was enough to get Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff’s attention. The 6’2″ American opted to move to Canada’s OHL for the 2025-26 campaign and his time with the Brantford Bulldogs has started off very well. First off, his club sits atop the league with a 13-0-3 record, the only team without a regulation loss remaining. And Engle has played his role in the Bulldogs’ success, as he has produced at a point per game pace (14 in 14). Did the Jets’ scouting department find another late round gem? We will have to keep watching Edison’s development to see.
Obviously Viktor Klingsell’s gaudy 1.79 pts/gm pace will jump out in the Forward section of the above chart. A 5th round pick last season, the 18 yr old winger has stepped up his game from his first full year with Skelleftea AIK (U20) where 39 pts in 43 games (.907 pts/gm) got him drafted by Winnipeg. This year, the Swede has feasted on the competition, with an impressive 9 goals in 14 games. Another potential late round gem by the Jets’ scouts? Possibly…the 5’10” winger still has a long road to reach the NHL, but it will be worth keeping an eye on how he does this season.
For me, I am perhaps more excited about Zachary Nehring’s continued development, as the forward has had a bit of a bumpy road since being drafted in the 3rd round of the 2023 NHL draft. The American showed a lot of promise in the high school prep league before being selected by Winnipeg, yet the following season saw him struggle with an injury and limited offense (14 pts in 44 gms). The 6’5″ right winger still made the jump to the NCAA last year and had a bounce back season (.714 pts/gm) with Western Michigan University. Looking like Nehring has continued where he left off this year with 6 pts in 8 games (.750 pts/gm). The Jets certainly could use more big forwards with a scoring touch….so cross our fingers that Zachary continues to grow his skills.
Jacob Cloutier was Winnipeg’s last draft pick (7th) in June after putting up 47 pts in 67 games (.701) with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit. The 5’10” forward has continued along the same pace this season (.710), which is a good start towards trying to reach his goal of playing in the NHL. Still likely a long shot…but worth following his progression.
I won’t bother talking about 3rd round pick Owen Martin, 5th rounder Markus Loponen, & 7th round selection Connor Levis….as their stat lines didn’t interest me enough to dig into their campaigns. Possibly later in the season. I also am not going to write much about the final graphic from PuckPedia, which outlines the years from the players the Winnipeg Jets retain the rights to yet likely will never join/re-join the organization.
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Rasmus Kupari hasn’t played much for some reason (-3 in 1 game might be the answer), Kristian Vesalainen & Dmitri Rashevsky are putting up similar numbers to previous seasons (nothing spectacular), and possibly the only player who might join the Winnipeg Jets or Manitoba Moose some day, 24 yr old Harrison Blaisdell, has increased those odds with a good start to the ECHL campaign (.667 pts/gm) after only pocketing 10 pts in 50 contests last year (.200 pts/gm). The 5’11” center is still probably a long shot considering the depth the True Northers have at forward in the minors.
Hope you enjoyed this little peak into the Winnipeg Jets’ prospects beginnings to the 2025-26 hockey season. Thanks for joining me on the journey.
