With the disappointing 2025-26 campaign now starting to fade into history, our Winnipeg Jets have gathered once again for another National Hockey League season. While the players were off doing whatever they do in the summer, us True North fans were left to take in rumours & then a confirmation that starting goaltender Connor Hellebuyck wants to move on from the only NHL franchise he has ever played for. Despite the almost never-ending chatter from the media about a pending trade that has ran since the 2026 Entry Draft to date….nothing has actually occurred on that front.
While I certainly could go on to outline the background of why Hellebuyck & the Jets have come to this point, as well as offer my opinion on the whole situation…..I won’t bother. It is a brand new year and I have chosen to focus on who will be in attendance when the skating part of training camp opens up tomorrow at the Hockey For All Centre. Winnipeg’s coaching staff, led by head coach Scott Arniel, have invited a total of 51 players to camp and that has already been whittled down to 50 due to the holdout.
Besides all the Bucky trade rumours over the summer, the True North club has made a few additions that they hope will improve the on-ice performance from last year. It started at the draft when GM Kevin Cheveldayoff had the chance to grab Viggo Bjorck with the 8th overall pick, the 4th forward to go off the board, and from the sounds of it the young Swede will be given a shot to win an NHL spot. Then the Free Agency period provided Jets’ fans some atypical action when they signed veteran Mario Ferraro (3 yrs @ $4M), some insurance in the crease with Stuart Skinner (2 yrs @ $3.75M), depth defenseman Henry Thrun (1 yr @ $850k), and grinder Noah Gregor (1 yr @ $850k). And smashed in there somewhere, Chevy shipped long-time Jet David Gustafsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman Jack St. Ivany. I think this might be a decent pick up since the Pens’ fans seemed to rather like him and having his 6’3″ 201 lb frame on the 3rd pairing while young Elias Salomonsson is recovering from off-season surgery should be helpful. He certainly should challenge Haydn Fleury for that 7th defender role in training camp.
So that brings us to the 50 gentlemen who will be attending the Winnipeg Jets training camp this year. Management and the coaches have opted to bring a rather large 18 defensemen to take part with only 7 or 8 NHL spots up for grabs, while also inviting 27 forwards to fight for the 13 or 14 Jets’ roster spots. With Hellebuyck AWOL and just suspended by our club, there will be only 5 goalies to face all those pucks…but perhaps the True Northers will be able to call up their EBUG (emergency goalie) Cole Kehler to fill in. 🙂
Arniel and company will have some roster decisions when it comes to the forward position as camp rolls on, with Winnipeg in a rare situation where there is a high probability of players who have yet to play a full NHL campaign cementing slots on the Jets’ opening day roster.
The most obvious is defenseman Salomonsson, who got into 32 contests with the big club in 2025-26 and is a guaranteed starter once he returns to full health. Then there is Isak Rosen, who has scored at the expected pace of a NHL prospect at the AHL level, but wasn’t able to break out in Buffalo. Typically, a 1st round pick will starting paying dividends in the top league 4 seasons after they were drafted and unfortunately that mark has passed by the 23 yr old Swede…but guys like Nazem Kadri and Tage Thompson took longer than that, so it is possible that 2026-27 will be Rosen’s year. Another former 1st rounder is entering that vital season, as Brad Lambert will be looking to expand his 25 NHL games this year and maybe even grab a top six role. Continuing the 1st round theme, it has been 3 seasons since Brayden Yager was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins and the 2 way center has the opportunity to impress the staff enough to make the jump a year earlier than the norm. Colby Barlow was also drafted that year and he will likely have his sights a bit lower, looking for this camp to spring him towards the rediscovery of his goal scoring touch in the minors.
And then there is Viggo Bjorck. The hype around the kid drafted 8th overall has been everywhere in the Peg and while I too have high hopes for the young center…it might be difficult for him to live up to. I’ve seen various people make the Patrik Laine-impact comparison as a rookie playing immediately after being drafted and I think that is unrealistic. Past historical data suggests that anywhere in the 35-45 point range would be right there with what most of the NHL’s top players did in the same situation.
Here is the full invite list up front…..
Of course Winnipeg will be led by long-term regulars Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabriel Vilardi, Cole Perfetti, and captain Adam Lowry.
Besides those young players I mentioned before the list, three other young-ish forwards to keep an eye on throughout the shortened training camp (only 4 exhibition games instead of 6 and no fitness testing allowed) are Nikita Chibrikov, Danny Zhilkin, and Parker Ford. The trio have lost their waiver-exempt status and will be open to being claimed by another club so the coaches have to decide whether that risk is worth it. All three will be a boon to the Manitoba Moose if they clear. Veterans like Gregor, Cole Koepke, & Walker Duehr will be battling all those young players, while other experienced forwards like Nino Niederreiter, Alex Iafallo, Morgan Barron, & Vladislav Namestnikov will be looking to hold on to their places on the squad.
Finally we get to the players who will mainly be attending to gain the experience and take their first steps towards the NHL. Guys like Kieron Walton & Kevin He probably have the highest ceiling among those, as they join the likes of Jacob Julien and Fabian Wagner as players who attended last season too. Making their first appearance, besides Bjorck, is also recent later rounder Jacob Cloutier, undrafted free agent Lucas Wahlin (who impressed at rookie camp), and Davis Burnside (another undrafted FA, but signed with the Moose).
When we move over to the defensive side of things, I think there will be a lot less competition despite having more than double the needed defenders at camp. Here is the list of invitees…..
Winnipeg’s top six is pretty much set with Josh Morrissey, Dylan Samberg, and Ferraro holding the first 3 LD spots. The other side of the ice will be covered by some order of Dylan DeMelo, Neal Pionk, and Elias Salomonsson. So that leaves veterans Fleury, St. Ivany, & Thrun fighting older prospects like Isaak Phillips & Tyrel Bauer for the extra defenseman role. The Jets may opt to carry as many as 8 defensemen, but I suspect the majority of those players will be Manitoba bound.
Three prospects that I will be watching during the exhibition games will be former 2nd rounder Alfons Freij, 3rd rounder Garrett Brown, and undrafted FA Lukas Gustafsson. Freij showed his ability to skate the puck up the ice in the Prospects tourney, but also made it apparent that he still needs to work on the defensive side of the game and will be headed for his first full AHL campaign after getting a small taste late last season. I really liked the quiet defensive game from Brown with the Moose after he also joined the club after graduating from the NCAA, especially during their short playoff run. He could be a future 3rd pairing guy at the NHL level and will be worth tracking throughout 2026-27. Then I am not sure what Gustafsson’s ceiling is, but I have always noticed his play whenever I have watched him. Looking forward to seeing if he can strengthen Manitoba’s defense this year….though offense was their main issue.
We round out the group with a pair of recent late round draft picks in Alexandre Taillefer & Noa Ta’amu and a pair of AHL signed d-men in Ashton Sautner & Dysin Mayo.
And then we end with the goalies…who happens to have both the most questions and least questions heading into camp. The “most” part is whether Hellebuyck will get traded or show up eventually to join his teammates, while the “least” part is that it seems likely that Skinner will be Winnipeg’s starter…at least in training camp. Who knows after that?
At this point without Bucky in camp, it leaves fellow prospects Thomas Milic & Dominic DiVincentiis to fight it out for the back up position. Milic has had more NHL experience with 3 games last year, though he did get pumped pretty badly by the 2nd best Carolina Hurricanes, 4th best Buffalo Sabres, & 14th best Edmonton Oilers. DiVincentiis, on the other hand, was unbelievable for Manitoba in the playoffs, putting up a 1.45 GAA & a .945 sv%. If he can carry that level of play over to this season and keep it there…Jets’ fans may quickly forget that goalie who demanded a trade.
I don’t think neither Isaac Poulter nor Alex Worthington have any shot at getting into that race and will focus on either providing the Moose depth or trying to become the starter with the ECHL’s Bloomington Bisons. It is too bad that Samuel Hrenak wasn’t able to attend as the NCAA is likely on his path to the NHL and that precludes playing in any official games if you want to keep your eligibility. The 2026 draft pick was excellent in his start in the Prospects tournament, stoning multiple Montreal Canadiens.
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To make it easier for the coaching staff to work with that number of players, they have been broken into 2 groups. The “A” squad has high end players like Scheifele, Connor, Perfetti, & Morrissey to go along with veterans like DeMelo, Ferraro, Namestnikov, and sophomore Salomsonsson. In net it is Skinner teamed up with Milic.
The “B” team includes some notable players as well, led by the captain Lowry, Barron, Samberg, Pionk, and perhaps surprisingly Vilardi. Does that mean the coaches won’t keep trying to put all 3 of their best players on the same line again this year? Not sure, but hopefully as they need to create more secondary scoring if they hope to compete…or at least be entertaining. This squad also seems to have the prospects with the highest immediate upside, including Bjorck, Yager, He, Walton, & Freij, while the “A” group has youngsters like Barlow, Chibrikov, Julien, & Zhilkin. In the crease, it DiVincentiis that has the clear edge over Poulter & Worthington on the depth chart for Group B.
If you want to check out the full breakdown of the squads….here is the link:
2026 Winnipeg Jets Training Camp Roster.pdf – Google Drive
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Camp will run from September 17th to the 25th and that period will include the four exhibition games against the Edmonton Oilers and the Colorado Avalanche. Stiff competition to kick things off and perhaps that is not a bad thing…since the 2026-27 NHL schedule wasn’t that kind to the Winnipeg Jets early in the season.
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All NHL franchises need to have their rosters cut down to the allowed 23 players by September 27th, so the True Northers might have a chance to add someone through a waiver claim. At this point, the Jets have $4.4M in cap space left, but that will increase by $8.5M if Hellebuyck doesn’t show up by the time the paychecks start being earned (i.e. regular season). If a trade opportunity to Chevy’s liking hasn’t come along by then, management & the coaches could be monitoring the waiver wire to find a better back up goalie option that Milic or DiVincentiis. From a brief look at other NHL team’s depth charts, here are some masked men that may become available (* including 4 guys who have already played for Winnipeg).
Two names with a “/” between them mean one or the other, while a “&” means both.
ANA: Brossoit*
BUF: Ellis/Lyon
CLM: Copley
EDM: Jarry/Levi **once Andersson healthy
MIN: Pickard **once Gustavsson healthy
MTL: Montembeault
NJ: Rittich*
NSH: Matt Murray
NYI: Vanacek
OTT: Merilainen/Ersson
SJ: Comrie* & Samsonov
TB: Hildeby/Johansson
VAN: Driedger*
For the most part the above tenders are true back ups and not the 1A/1B type guy that the Jets are hoping to team up with Skinner…but they might do in a pinch. I am probably highest on the Sabres’ goalies, as both had .900+ save percentages last year in the NHL. Hildeby from the Bolts would be nice too, but I think they might go with Johansson instead since the former Leaf put up a .914 sv% in 20 games compared to .884 sv% from the veteran Swede.
Well that is the end of my ramblings about the Jets heading into camp. Hope you found it informative and be sure to share your ideas of what lines you would like to see in the exhibition games. Hockey is back…..and Winnipeg is already facing turmoil We could be in for a long year….lol.
