Well, we are at that time of the year where summer begins its preparations to depart the Canadian province of Manitoba, setting the scene for the arrival of another wintery period at some point over the next few months. Fortunately, along with the incoming colder temperatures, the return of hockey will help us deal with the forced indoor confinement that accompanies the season of winter in our northern climate.
This will be the last National Hockey League regular season that kicks off in early October, as the 2026-27 campaign is expected to start up in late September from now on. However, when it comes to this NHL season, we will have to wait until October 9th before our Winnipeg Jets hit the ice for their season debut. Yet before that date on the calendar rolls around, there will be plenty of other action to monitor……with the Prospects Showdown just six days away and the start of the pre-season action occurring on September 21st (14 days).
Recently the True North organization released the young prospects that will be taking part in the activities in Quebec next weekend and they included 14 players the Jets drafted or own the hockey rights to. Here is the entire list:
Prospects Showdown Roster: (WPG signed/drafted players bolded)
FORWARD: Brayden Yager, Kevin He, Colby Barlow, Danny Zhilkin, Fabian Wagner, Jacob Julien, Owen Martin, Kieron Walton, Jacob Cloutier, Nikita Chibrikov, Reggie Newman, & Chase Yoder.
DEFENSE: Elias Salomonsson, Edison Engle, Graham Sward, Ben Zloty, Kaleb Hartmann, Seth Fryer, Reese Hamilton & Conor Walton.
GOALIES: Domenic DiVincentiis & Alex Worthington
Winnipeg’s prospect depth at the defensive position isn’t as bad as the above lineup makes it look….as the club couldn’t include Garrett Brown who is ineligible to participate due to NCAA rules and Swede’s Sascha Boumedienne & Alfons Freij already starting their seasons in Europe. That lack of depth worked out well for the Walton brothers at least, giving the Jets’ drafted Kieron the opportunity to play a few games with his twin brother Conor. Since the two find themselves playing for different OHL clubs (Sudbury Wolves & Windsor Spitfires respectively), it might be nice to be teammates instead of rivals for a change. The 8 unsigned invitees by Winnipeg include a couple veteran Manitoba Moose players (Sward/Zloty), plus a new addition to the minor league affiliate (Yoder). The remaining 5 are all WHL players of varying ages:
- Reggie Newman – RW – 20 yrs – 6’2″ 200 lbs – Victoria Royals
- Seth Fryer – RD – 19 yrs – 6’7″ 209 lbs – Victoria Royals
- Conor Walton – LD – 19 yrs – 6’5″ 205 lbs – Windsor Spitfires
- Kaleb Hartmann – LD – 18 yrs – 6’1″ 181 lbs – Seattle Thunderbirds
- Reese Hamilton – LD – 18 yrs – 6’1″ 170 lbs – Regina Pats
Haven’t heard why Brad Lambert isn’t participating, but maybe he has done the prospect tournament enough times already since being drafted in 2022 (though Chibby was drafted a year prior to that & is attending). I guess only having two matches scheduled made it unnecessary to bring along a 3rd goalie, i.e. Thomas Milic. It will be the first chance we get to see three of the newly drafted players like Owen Martin, Jacob Cloutier, & Edison Engle in a Winnipeg Jets’ jersey, as well as marking the debut of newly signed AHL goaltender Alex Worthington.
I’m not sure how well our young prospects will stack up against the systems of the Montreal Canadiens & Ottawa Senators, since both of those franchises have spent a lot of the past 5 years making selections much higher up in the draft than the Jets have. Regardless I am looking forward to watching them all play next weekend (believe the games will be at 6 pm Central on Saturday & Sunday).
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If you are into video games, you might have heard that EA’s NHL 26 released their player ratings for the upcoming game and it showed plenty of respect to some of Winnipeg’s players. Most recently the creators unveiled that Connor Hellebuyck will be the highest ranked goaltender in the NHL this season, sitting at a lofty 94 rating. Three other Jets’ skaters hit the 90 overall plateau as well, with forward Kyle Connor at 92 (tied for 6th highest winger), his pivot Mark Scheifele at 91 (tied for 10th best center), and Josh Morrissey landed at a 90 rating (tied for 8th best defenseman).
Other True North players ratings were as follows:
87: Neal Pionk
86: Gabriel Vilardi
84: Adam Lowry, Cole Perfetti, Nino Niederreiter, Dylan DeMelo, Dylan Samberg, & Luke Schenn
83: Gustav Nyquist & Vladislav Namestnikov
82: Alex Iafallo
81: Tanner Pearson, Colin Miller, & Eric Comrie
80: Morgan Barron
79: David Gustafsson, Haydn Fleury, & Logan Stanley
77: Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Mason Shaw, & Ville Heinola
While I could probably nit-pick about some of the ratings like Samberg not getting enough respect, but the biggest puzzle may be how Schenn ended up ranked that high? I know some of you are thinking what about the young prospects’ ratings? Well, they didn’t release those so we will just have to guess where players like Brayden Yager, Elias Salomonsson, Nikita Chibrikov, & Brad Lambert may end up.
The players’ ratings have led to some interesting overall rankings for the NHL clubs at one website that did the calculations. It seemed to indicate that the New York Rangers will have the highest rating (93) with the Boston Bruins a step behind them (92). The Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, & New York Islanders were up next (91), with our Jets and the Vancouver Canucks at 90. The Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, & Vegas Golden Knights sit at 89 and teams like the Cup Champion Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings, & Washington Capitals only reached the 87 mark.
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The Winnipeg Jets’ training camp will official kick off on September 20th, but already players are trickling into the city to get an early start on things. The initial informal skates have seen local boy Jonathan Toews donning the True North colours for the first time along side some of his teammates in Dylan DeMelo, Tanner Pearson, & Haydn Fleury. The Moose also had a large contingent with players like Nikita Chibrikov, Danny Zhilkin, Reece Vitelli, Tyson Empey, Ethan Frish, & tender Isaac Poulter. And players have & will continue to trickle in to join those getting a jump on the season at the Ice Plex.
Here is ESPN’s pre-season schedule for the Winnipeg Jets this year:
Well, that is all I can think of to say about our hockey club at this point. Time to finish this up and go enjoy a busy Sunday of stacking up the cord of firewood I just had delivered. Hope everyone had a good summer…..but it is time to start stoking the flames of your hockey fandom because the next season is almost upon us.
Unfortunately, just as I was about to download a new picture for this article….I discovered that Arctic Ice Hockey’s account with Imagn.com is no longer active. Not sure if that is a sign that AIH won’t be around for much longer or not, but it certainly isn’t a great omen. Will try to find out more & keep you updated.
