Central Notes: Heinola, Stanley, Bedard, Predators
Jets defense prospect Ville Heinola has had his past couple of seasons derailed by injuries. 2023-24 saw him play no NHL games and 41 AHL games before an ankle injury that required surgery ended his campaign. The 2019 first-round pick was then expected to compete for a roster spot after Winnipeg lost Brenden Dillon to free agency and bought out Nate Schmidt, but he didn’t even partake in training camp after an infection stemming from the screws placed in his ankle to repair the fracture arose during physicals.
The 23-year-old is getting closer to a return to play, though. He started skating on his own at the end of October and was spotted at practice Tuesday without a non-contact designation, team color analyst Mitchell Clinton reports.
Heinola is on injured reserve and would require waivers to head back to Manitoba on a full-time basis. However, the Jets could allow him to get back up to game speed in the AHL by assigning him on a conditioning loan, which could last for up to two weeks.
The left-shot Finn has never logged more than 12 NHL appearances in a single season. He has 35 career games under his belt more than five years after being drafted, recording 11 points with a -6 rating while averaging 15:15 per contest.
It’s not all good injury news for the Jets, though. Logan Stanley sustained a mid-body injury in Saturday’s win over the Stars and isn’t traveling with the team on their three-game road swing this week, head coach Scott Arniel said (via Clinton). The hulking 6’7″ defender already missed the first four games of the campaign after undergoing minor knee surgery. When in the lineup, he has three points and a +6 rating in 11 games while averaging 15:13 per night. His customarily poor possession numbers haven’t changed despite Winnipeg’s hot start – he’s only managed to control 45.5% of shot attempts at even strength, a career-low.
Elsewhere in the Central Division:
- Blackhawks sophomore Connor Bedard is off to a slow-ish start with just three goals through his first 16 games, although he has added 10 assists for 13 points. A horrid 5.8 shooting percentage will ultimately improve and he likely deserves to be on the score sheet more than he is, but he’s still looking to jumpstart his game and has a sense of urgency about doing it. “You can look everywhere, but just feeling like I’m having more impact on the game,” Bedard told The Athletic’s Scott Powers on Monday. “I felt like earlier in the year, I was making a lot of plays, pretty dangerous out there. Lately, I’ve been (making) less of an impact and not really making a difference, so hopefully I can contribute more.”
- The Predators are still last in the league with a 5-9-2 record, but general manager Barry Trotz foresees improvement on the horizon, he told Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com after yesterday’s overtime loss to the Avalanche. “We got off to a bad start,” Trotz said. “We tried to be something that we weren’t. I think we’re coming around. After the 0-5 start, we’re 5-4-1 in the last 10. We’ve played some good teams. I see us being more consistent, getting more balance in our game.”
Afternoon Notes: Ullmark, Sogaard, Stanley, Blumel, Petrovic
Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark has returned to full health, prompting the team to return Mads Sogaard to the AHL, shares Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. Ullmark has been working back from a muscle strain that’s held him out of the team’s last three games. Previous reports shared that Ottawa wanted to be patient not to aggravate the injury as they worked Ullmark back to full speed.
Ullmark has been strong in the two games he’s played with Ottawa, saving 53 of 58 shots faced en route to a 1-1-0 record and .914 save percentage. The same hasn’t been true for Ottawa’s other goaltending options, with Anton Forsberg allowing 10 goals on 73 shots (.863 save percentage) and Mads Sogaard allowing four goals on 17 shots (0.765) in Ullmark’s absence. The Senators have managed to win in front of all three goalies regardless, largely thanks to each of Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, and Jake Sanderson recording seven points through the first five games of the season. Ullmark’s return could give Ottawa the back-end consistency to ramp up their early winning-record, though it seems the team could still be in the process of easing their franchise goaltender back to strength.
Other notes from around the league:
- Winnipeg Jets defenseman Logan Stanley has been activated off of injured reserve and will step into the lineup for Haydn Fleury, per Mike McIntyre of The Winnipeg Free Press. Stanley missed the first four games of the season with a knee injury that required surgery during training camp. Stanley has played in just 44 games over the last two seasons, recording five points, 57 penalty minutes, and an average of 13:45 in ice time. He faces an uphill battle to an everyday role, but will get a chance to take the first step when the Jets take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
- The Dallas Stars have returned forward Matej Blumel and defender Alexander Petrovic to the AHL. Blumel stepped into one game with Dallas during his recall, recording eight minutes of ice time and two shots on net. Petrovic spent the extent of his time in the press box, leaving two games and one point in the AHL as his only stats this year. The Texas Stars will get two big additions with this move – readding the stout, veteran presence of Petrovic and the 30-goal upside of Blumel back to the lineup.
Defensemen Notes: Gudbranson, Durzi, Stanley
The early prognosis for the upper-body injury keeping Columbus Blue Jackets’ defenseman Erik Gudbranson on the injured reserve isn’t positive. Frank Seravalli of DailyFaceoff reports that Gudbranson is potentially set to miss months due to the injury but the team will have an exact timeline tomorrow after tests are performed.
It’s unfortunate news for an organization that can’t seem to catch a break. Columbus entered the season with injuries to captain Boone Jenner and Dmitri Voronkov up front and will now have to contend with a weakened blue line for the foreseeable future.
The Blue Jackets will reintroduce veteran Jack Johnson into the lineup tonight against the Buffalo Sabres in Gudbranson’s stead rather than former sixth-overall pick, David Jiříček. The young defenseman was the obvious choice originally to replace Gudbranson as he hasn’t factored into any games yet this season. Despite being the second defenseman taken off the board in the 2022 NHL Draft Jiříček sits fourth amongst defensemen in his draft class in games played.
Other happenings from the blue line:
- Earlier this afternoon, the Utah Hockey Club gave a vague injury update regarding defenseman Sean Durzi. The organization announced Durzi “would be out for the foreseeable future” with an upper-body injury without any additional context. Durzi’s prognosis could be similar to that of Gudbranson’s where the organization won’t have a firm recovery timeline until more tests are performed.
- The Winnipeg Jets should get some welcome news regarding their back end shortly. Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun reported earlier that defenseman Logan Stanley was a full participant at practice this morning. Stanley has been rehabbing a knee injury that’s kept him sidelined for much of training camp and the regular season. Once he is fully healthy, he should have a home in the Jets’ bottom-pairing next to Colin Miller.
Jets Reassign Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, Place Two On IR
Forwards Brad Lambert and Nikita Chibrikov won’t be on the Jets’ opening night roster when it’s announced later today. They’ve been sent to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to begin the season, relays team color commentator Mitchell Clinton. Defensemen Ville Heinola and Logan Stanley have also landed on injured reserve, per the league’s media portal.
Lambert, 20, was in a tight competition to land a second-line role in Winnipeg but will return to the minors for additional development time. Winnipeg selected the Finnish forward with the 30th overall pick in 2022 out of Liiga’s Pelicans, immediately signing him to his entry-level contract and bringing him over to North American juniors for his post-draft season. After one season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, Lambert jumped to the pros full-time this past year, breaking out in a big way with 55 points in 64 games to lead the Moose in scoring.
The Jets allowed Lambert to make his NHL debut in the final game of the regular season, calling him up to play 13:51 against the Canucks. He logged an assist and a +1 rating while going 3-for-7 in the faceoff dot. He was an early candidate to take on top-six duties and push veteran Vladislav Namestnikov out of the 2C spot, but line rushes the past few days indicated he was trending toward being cut. However, it’s hard to imagine him not adding some NHL games to his resume throughout the season.
Chibrikov was a longer shot for a roster spot, but his impressive camp had him under consideration for one until the end. A second-round choice in 2021, the 21-year-old winger is also coming off his first full AHL campaign. The Russian forward finished fourth on the team in scoring with 47 points (17 G, 30 A) in 70 games but had a -18 rating, second-worst on the team. It was still a strong first step for Chibrikov, who needed to take a big step in his development last year after being buried in Russian pro and minor-pro lineups the past couple of seasons.
Heinola and Stanley heading to IR is a formality more than anything else. Head coach Scott Arniel told reporters last month that Heinola would be out long-term with an infection in the ankle he had surgically repaired last season, while Stanley underwent minor knee surgery over a week ago and isn’t expected back until the end of the month at the earliest. After avoiding waivers yesterday, it’s clear that Dylan Coghlan and Haydn Fleury will open the season on the NHL roster in their stead after both signing two-way deals in Winnipeg this summer.
Logan Stanley Out Four Weeks After Knee Surgery
The Winnipeg Jets’ worst fears regarding their defensive core are coming to fruition. There was some speculation yesterday that Logan Stanley may be out longer than day-to-day which is now confirmed to be accurate. Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press reports Stanley will be out for the next four weeks due to knee surgery.
Stanley becomes the second Winnipeg defenseman to get surgery within the last week joining Ville Heinola who underwent surgery to remove an infection from his ankle. McIntyre gave a follow-up report indicating Stanley tweaked his meniscus during an off-ice warm-up routine.
The former-18th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft was hoping for a larger role with the Jets this year after being sparingly used over the last few seasons. He was often used as the team’s seventh defenseman since 2022 despite scoring one goal and 14 points in 58 games during the 2021-22 NHL season. Stanley has scored two goals and five points in 44 games from 2022 to 2024 while averaging 13:45 of ice time per night.
Standing at 6’7″ Stanley should be an effective shutdown defenseman carrying an uncommon reach with his stick. He’s managed a solid on-ice save percentage in all situations throughout his career at 91.7% but most of that can be attributed to his linemates and the goaltending behind him. He’s mustered a +17 rating over 139 regular season contests but Hockey Reference shows an E +/- of -5.7 indicating Stanley is not living up to his shutdown role when he is on the ice.
The injury news almost assures defensemen Dylan Coghlan and Haydn Fleury will make the Jets opening night roster out of training camp unless the team seeks help from outside the organization. Stanley should still be destined for a more regular role in Winnipeg this season upon his return as their defensive depth continues to be tested.
Winnipeg Dealing With More Injuries On The Blue Line
It’s been nearly a week since Winnipeg Jets’ defenseman Ville Heinola‘s season was put in question due to an infection in his surgically repaired ankle. It doesn’t appear there’s any room for optimism in Manitoba after today’s meeting between head coach Scott Arniel and the press.
Arniel indicated that Heinola underwent surgery to remove the infection from his ankle and the team would have a clearer picture of his recovery timeline shortly. The team’s bench boss also shared that defenseman Logan Stanley “tweaked” something in yesterday’s preseason contest against the Edmonton Oilers and he will need testing over the next few days. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press reports there is worry within the Jets organization that Stanley will be out longer than day-to-day.
It would be a major three-month swing for Winnipeg’s blue line if Stanley can’t start the season on time. The team hoped Heinola and Stanley could fill valuable spots on the back end after losing Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon this offseason through a buyout and free agency, respectively. Now, it appears depth defensemen Dylan Coghlan and Haydn Fleury will carry more responsibility than expected to start the year.
This could create major challenges for a Jets organization that has largely relied on their defense to win games over the last two years. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, Winnipeg’s offense has finished 21st and 15th in goals per game, respectively, and 21st and 17th in shots compared to the rest of the league. They’ve had much better results on the flip side by finishing 10th and 1st in goals against per game over that same span and finishing 10th and 11th in shots against.
If the Jets are put into a situation early in the year where Coghlan and Fleury are expected to maintain even bottom-pairing minutes these results shouldn’t be expected to last. Winnipeg does have the benefit of deploying Connor Hellebuyck between the pipes but a weak defense has impacted even his performance in the past.
The Jets may need to pivot relatively soon to one of the existing free-agent options to hold their blue line steady or pick up one of the inevitable blue liners to hit the waiver wire over the next few days. The team will have a clearer picture of what they’re dealing with over the next couple of days and it could impact their decision-making leading into the start of the regular season.
Winnipeg Hoping To Get More From Younger Players
While at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton, Alberta earlier today, the general manager of the Winnipeg Jets, Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke very candidly about the younger players on the roster (Article Link). According to TSN, Cheveldayoff said, “The ball’s in their court. If you’re a young player in our organization right now, it’s all in front of you, there for the taking“.
The only GM in team history wasn’t speaking generally either as he specifically called out Logan Stanley, Ville Heinola, Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, and Cole Perfetti. The quote is significant given that new head coach Scott Arniel is instituting a major change in philosophy to the Jets’ organization.
Winnipeg has long been known to slow-play prospects to the professional level. Most quality prospects in the organization spend several years in the minor or junior levels before finally being graduated to the NHL where they will sometimes sit in depth roles for much of the season.
Heinola, Lambert, and Chibrikov spent all of last year (besides one game a piece for the latter two) in the minor leagues. The Jets kept an impressively healthy blue line through the 2023-24 regular season which prohibited Heinola from receiving a call-up. With several key players leaving through buyouts and free agency this summer — a strong training camp performance could earn them a full-time role at the NHL level.
The quote from Cheveldayoff is a bit more interesting when considering the career trajectories of both Perfetti and Stanley. Perfetti has been a full-time member of the Jets for two years now and played in 71 games last year. It was his most productive season to date as he scored 19 goals and 38 points in total.
He was still tremendously underutilized in the forward group as he averaged 13:35 of ice time each night which ranked 12th on the team for forwards with 15 or more games played. Perfetti has arguably already worked his way into a top-six role in Winnipeg and it will be intriguing to see how Arniel utilizes him this season.
Stanley, on the other hand, could be a bit jealous of Perfetti’s situation with the team. The 6’7″ defenseman went from averaging 15:39 of ice time over 58 games in 2021-22 to averaging 13:46 of ice time over 25 games this past season. Stanley has already proven himself as an adequate shutdown defenseman and could play himself into the former role of Nate Schmidt.
This fate felt inevitable for the Jets. Arniel is now in charge of plugging the holes left by Schmidt, Sean Monahan, Tyler Toffoli, and potentially Nikolaj Ehlers. If Winnipeg hopes to compete in a rugged Central Division, they must give their young players more responsibility.
Jets Re-Sign Logan Stanley And David Gustafsson
The Jets took care of a pair of their restricted free agents on Saturday, announcing the re-signings of defenseman Logan Stanley and center David Gustafsson to two-year contracts. Stanley will carry a $1.25MM AAV while Gustafsson checks in at $835K. Both players were eligible to file for salary arbitration but elected not to do so on Friday.
Stanley was a first-round pick by Winnipeg back in 2016, going 18th overall. At the time, they were hoping that they’d secured a key cog of their future back end. However, that has yet to become the case.
Playing time has been hard to come by for the 26-year-old in recent years. He played in just 19 games in 2022-23, leading to an indication that he wouldn’t mind a change of scenery. He wound up re-signing the following summer but the lack of playing time continued as Stanley got into just 25 games last season where he had one goal and one assist while logging less than 14 minutes a night. He also saw action in three of their five playoff contests.
However, with Brenden Dillon departing in free agency, there could be an opportunity for Stanley to play more of a regular role next season although Ville Heinola (who is now waiver-eligible) is likely to be in the mix there as well. This deal gives him a $250K raise while Winnipeg gets an extra year of club control to see if Stanley can become at least a regular part of their back end.
As for Gustafsson, the 24-year-old was a late second-round pick in 2018 (60th overall) and spent most of last year with Winnipeg, albeit in a limited role. He suited up in 39 games last season, picking up three goals and four assists in just over nine minutes a night of action while winning more than 54% of his faceoffs. He got into four postseason contests, scoring once. Gustafsson also played in six regular season games with AHL Manitoba where he collected three assists.
Gustafsson won’t have the option of returning to the Moose next season without going through waivers first. The likelier scenario is that he once again stays in the mix to anchor the fourth line or hold onto the 13th spot on Winnipeg’s forward group. He will still have another year of RFA eligibility once this contract ends.
With these signings, the Jets are down to four remaining restricted free agents. On the back end, Heinola, newly-acquired Dylan Coghlan, and Simon Lundmark need new deals while up front, Cole Perfetti still needs to be signed. They have a little over $4.25MM in remaining cap space, per CapFriendly.
Jets Receiving Interest In Logan Stanley
Playing time has been hard to come by for Jets defenseman Logan Stanley this season. Accordingly, teams have started to call around to ask about his availability, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.
The 6’6 rearguard was the 18th selection in the 2016 draft but has failed to live up to his draft billing. Stanley has just 119 career NHL appearances under his belt, only four of which have come in 2023-24 as he has been a frequent healthy scratch. More of a stay-at-home player, the 25-year-old has 20 career points along with 157 blocks and 228 hits.
Stanley was frustrated with his situation last season, one that saw him limited to just 19 appearances between injuries and scratches. The end result was a reported trade request although clearly, that didn’t come to fruition. This summer, Stanley accepted a one-year, $1MM contract in August, the amount of his qualifying offer. He’ll once again be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights in July, owed that same amount as a qualifier.
With Declan Chisholm finally seeing some NHL action in recent weeks, Winnipeg is currently carrying eight blueliners on its active roster with Ville Heinola – ready for an NHL look himself – on injured reserve. They also have Kyle Capobianco – a regular on the roster last year – at AHL Manitoba. Accordingly, it might make sense for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to explore selling off some surplus depth although Garrioch does point out that Stanley is not being shopped.
Of course, it’s fair to say that Stanley’s value is far from being at its peak. Seventh or eighth defensemen generally don’t yield much of a return on the trade market so it’s fair to say they’d be selling low. That’s not something Cheveldayoff typically does as he’s well-known for his patience to find the right move.
Stanley’s level of performance hasn’t changed much over the years so it’s fair to question how much upside he has left with Winnipeg. However, given where he was picked, it’s likely that there are organizations who believe a change of scenery could do him some good and that they can unlock his potential, so to speak. If there are enough of those, the Jets could get a good enough offer to be persuaded to move on at some point in the coming weeks. Otherwise, his extended stint in the press box seems likely to continue.
Jets Healthy Scratch Defender Nate Schmidt
The Winnipeg Jets are expected to healthy scratch defenseman Nate Schmidt in their Thursday game against the Vegas Golden Knights. This will be only the second time that Winnipeg has scratched Schmidt, with his last scratching coming on March 4th of last season. Schmidt slotted back into the lineup immediately after, scoring a goal in his first game back and recording seven points in 18 games through the rest of the season.
The 32-year-old Schmidt is in his third season with the Winnipeg Jets, joining them via trade after Winnipeg dealt a 2022 third-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for the defender. His first year with the Jets was a career year, with Schmidt recording 32 points in 77 games, good for the second-highest scoring season of his career. He also averaged 20 minutes of ice time, confidently operating in the team’s top four. But his role, and his scoring, dwindled last season, with Schmidt netting 19 points in 71 games while serving on the team’s third pair. He’s maintained this latter role into the 2023-24 season and currently sits without a point, and with a -3, through three games this year.
Logan Stanley will appear in his season debut in light of Schmidt’s scratching, likely lining up next to Dylan Samberg. Stanley, 25, appeared in 19 games with the Jets last season, tallying three points and 21 penalty minutes. It was his third year of operating as Winnipeg’s seventh defenseman, with Stanley appearing in 114 games and scoring 20 points through that stretch. Winnipeg traded up to select Stanley 18th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft and awarded him his NHL debut during the 2020-21 season.