- Winnipeg Jets analyst Mitchell Clinton is reporting that Winnipeg Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov will join the team on their upcoming road trip but is unlikely to play in Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. The 31-year-old has missed the Jets’ last two games after suffering a lower-body injury during a puck battle with Darnell Nurse in the Jets’ 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers last Thursday. Namestnikov signed a two-year deal with the Jets in the summer and has had a decent start to the season with two goals and nine assists in his first 22 games.
Jets Rumors
Ville Heinola Returns To Skating
- Suffering an ankle injury during this year’s preseason, the rehab for Winnipeg Jets’ defenseman Ville Heinola was expected to be between two and three months. In an update on his progression, reports are confirming that Heinola has returned to skating, although he is still not skating in full equipment (X Link). The timeline should still be accurate to project his return, but it is nonetheless a positive that he has not experienced a setback in his recovery process.
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Jets Sign Nino Niederreiter To Three-Year Extension
The Winnipeg Jets have signed forward Nino Niederreiter to a three-year contract extension. The new deal carries a $4MM annual average value (AAV) and will begin next season. Niederreiter is in his first full season with Winnipeg, after joining the team via a trade with the Nashville Predators last season.
Niederreiter has appeared in 23 games with the Jets this season, recording six goals, 14 points, and a +9. He managed similar stats after joining the Jets last season, appearing in 22 games and scoring six goals and 13 points. He also added four points in five playoff games.
Winnipeg is the fifth franchise that the 31-year-old Niederreiter has played for across his 13-year career. He was originally drafted fifth overall by the New York Islanders in the 2010 NHL Draft and went on to make his NHL debut at the end of the 2010-11 season, joining the Islanders roster after the end of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks season. His rookie season came in 2011-12, and was marked by a string of challenges, with Niederreiter only recording one goal and a -29 through 55 games. He bounced back from the shaky start, though, going on to record 833 career NHL games and 423 career points. He ranks sixth in the 2010 Draft class in career games.
Niederreiter is averaging just over 15 minutes of ice time this season, providing strong support to Winnipeg’s middle-six. He is one of nine Jets with 10 or more points this season. The roster currently ranks third in the Central Division, with a 13-8-2 record. They also rank 11th in goal-differential, with a +10.
Jets Activate Gabriel Vilardi
The Winnipeg Jets activated forward Gabriel Vilardi off injured reserve Thursday, per a team announcement. Head coach Rick Bowness told reporters this morning, including Jets radio commentator Mitchell Clinton, that Vilardi will be a game-time decision tonight against the Oilers.
Vilardi, 24, had missed the past six weeks and 19 games with an MCL sprain sustained in the Jets’ third game of the season. Vilardi, who had notched one assist in his first two games as a Jet, was injured early in an October 17 contest against the Kings, his former team.
If he does play, it’s unclear where he’ll slot in the lineup. Vilardi began the season in a prominent role, skating on the first line alongside Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele. It’s evident the Jets have high expectations for the young forward as he continues to overcome significant injuries, a common theme in his development since the Kings selected him 11th overall in 2017.
The most valuable piece sent to Winnipeg in exchange for forward Pierre-Luc Dubois last summer, Vilardi was coming off a breakout season in which he scored 23 goals and 41 points in 68 contests, all career-highs. He posted strong underlying numbers in the process and put up a solid 52.5% Corsi share at even strength. He continued his strong play in the postseason, notching four points in five games in the Kings’ first-round loss to the Oilers.
After missing significant time, don’t expect Vilardi to return to his previous first-line role, at least not immediately. Vilardi took line rushes with Morgan Barron and David Gustafsson on the team’s fourth line in practice today, likely indicating where he’ll skate tonight if he returns to the lineup. He’ll have to unseat Nikolaj Ehlers, who’s currently riding shotgun with Connor and Scheifele. Ehlers has had a somewhat disappointing start to the season, though, recording just 11 points in 21 games.
Vilardi is in the first season of a two-year deal signed with Jets post-trade, earning him $3.44MM per season. He will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2025.
Snapshots: Vilardi, MacEwen, Foudy, Willman
The Winnipeg Jets have shared that Gabriel Vilardi is not yet ready to return, although he is continuing to progress in his recovery from a knee injury. The forward is expected to be a game-time decision for the Jets’ Thursday night matchup. Vilardi suffered an MCL sprain early on in the season and was expected to miss four to six weeks.
The 24-year-old Vilardi has only managed three appearances with Winnipeg this season, netting one assist and a -1. It’s his first year with the club after joining via trade in June, moving to Winnipeg alongside Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari in the deal that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings. Winnipeg tendered a qualifying offer to Vilardi and was headed towards salary arbitration, before the avoided arbitration with a two-year, $6.9MM contract.
Vilardi had the best season of his young career last year, netting 23 goals and 41 points in 63 games with the Kings. He also added four points in five playoff games. The scoring brings his career totals up to 41 goals and 79 points through 155 games, stretched across the last four seasons. Vilardi was previously drafted 11th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft and made his NHL debut in the 2019-20 season. He is one of four players from the 2017 draft class’ Top 15 to not yet eclipse 200 career NHL games, alongside Cody Glass, Cal Foote, and Lias Andersson.
Other notes from around the league:
- Ottawa Senators forward Zack MacEwen has been fined $2,018.23 – the maximum allowed under the CBA – for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty taken in Monday’s game against the Florida Panthers. MacEwen targeted Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk late in the game, receiving a five-minute match penalty for a check to the head in the game. MacEwen has appeared in six Senators games this season, scoring one assist and totaling 25 penalty minutes.
- Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar shared that forward Jean-Luc Foudy is suffering from a lower-body injury. Bednar also shared that the team doesn’t yet know when to expect Foudy back. Foudy has yet to play this season and is currently on the team’s injured reserve. He scored 36 points in 46 AHL games last season. He was also rewarded his first nine NHL games last year, going without a point and recording a -3.
- The New Jersey Devils have assigned forward Maxwell Willman to the Utica Comets of the AHL. Willman has appeared in four games with the Devils this season, netting one goal. He’s also appeared in seven AHL games, scoring four goals and seven points. The 28-year-old forward has totaled 54 NHL games and seven points across his career, making his debut with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2021-22 season.
Jets Assign Dominic Toninato To AHL
Earlier this month, the Jets recalled Dominic Toninato from AHL Manitoba under emergency conditions and then converted him to a regular recall one day later. His time with Winnipeg is up at least for now as the team announced (Twitter link) that the center has been sent back down to the Moose.
The 29-year-old has played in five games with the Moose this season and has been productive in those contests, collecting four points. Toninato produced at a similar rate in Manitoba last year with 19 goals and 16 helpers in 50 contests, helping him earn a two-year contract this offseason which featured a $400K guaranteed salary in each one.
Toninato is in his fourth season with Winnipeg, suiting up in 84 games for them. He also had stints with Colorado and Florida; all told, he has played in 169 NHL contests, collecting 12 goals and 18 assists.
The veteran has been up for two fairly long stretches with the Jets without seeing any NHL action. Between being up for 19 days on his October recall and eight more (on regular recall) this time around, Toninato was getting close to the 30-day threshold which would have necessitated him being placed on waivers to go back down. That clock is now on hold again, at least for the time being.
Dylan DeMelo Hoping To Stay With Jets
- Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo is a pending UFA for the second time in his career as he can hit the open market this summer. He told Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press that his uncertain contract status affected his play last time when he was with Ottawa, who eventually moved him to Winnipeg. DeMelo’s desire is to remain with the Jets but noted that he knew he was lower on the priority list to re-sign. However, with extensions for Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck done, it’s possible that talks about a new deal for DeMelo could be in the works before long.
Jets Recall Declan Chisholm From Conditioning Stint
It has been an interesting start to the season for Jets blueliner Declan Chisholm as he has yet to see any action with Winnipeg. Last week, the team sent him to AHL Manitoba to get some playing time and today, they announced (Twitter link) that they have recalled him from that loan which was capped at a maximum of two weeks.
Last season, the 23-year-old was quite productive with the Moose, notching 43 points in 59 games after recording 30 in 53 appearances the year before but didn’t see any NHL action. Unsurprisingly, Chisholm was productive in this six-game AHL stint, collecting five assists.
However, despite making Winnipeg’s roster out of training camp, Chisholm is still waiting to play his first game of the season with the big club and has just two career NHL appearances to his name. It’s clear that internally, the team doesn’t think he’ll pass through waivers unclaimed and would like to avoid a repeat of last year when they waived a player in a similar situation in Johnathan Kovacevic who has since gone on to become a regular with Montreal.
His best path to playing time in Winnipeg is an injury but the Jets remain healthy on the back end, meaning that Chisholm is set to reprise his role of being eighth on the depth chart. With Ville Heinola showing that he’s ready for an NHL look when he returns from his ankle injury next month, it appears that Chisholm will continue to be stuck in a numbers game for a while yet.
Afternoon Notes: Bowness, Vasilevskiy, Perry
The Winnipeg Jets have announced that head coach Rick Bowness has returned to the team after taking a leave of absence to be with his wife following a medical emergency. Bowness left the team a month ago and associate coach Scott Arniel served as interim head coach while Bowness was with his family.
Bowness will officially re-join the team and serve as head coach today when the Jets take on the Florida Panthers. Winnipeg surprisingly sits in third place in the Central Division with an 11-5-2 record, they trail division leaders the Dallas Stars by just two points.
Bowness met up with the Jets in Sunrise, Florida today and the team posted a video of the 68-year-old circling the clubs dressing room and greeting the players. The Jets rallied after a slow start to the season and managed to go 9-2-2 in Bowness’s absence. With their head coach now back in the fold, the Jets appear poised to go on a run as one of the feel-good stories in the early part of the NHL season.
In other afternoon notes:
- Tampa Bay Times writer Eduardo A. Encina is reporting that Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy will make his season debut today when the team takes on the Carolina Hurricanes. Vasilevskiy was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate today signalling that he will make his return from back surgery. The 2019 Vezina Trophy winner has yet to dress this season and should provide a jolt to a team that has been treading water early in the year. Tampa Bay is 9-6-5 which is good enough for third in the Atlantic Division and impressive for a team that had to play a quarter of the season without one of the best goaltenders in the world.
- Chicago Sun-Times writer Ben Pope tweeted today that Chicago Blackhawks forward Corey Perry will not play again today and that no further updates have been given. Perry missed practice after being a healthy scratch on Wednesday for what was deemed an ‘organizational decision.’ It appears he will remain a healthy scratch for the time being as the Blackhawks take on the Toronto Maple Leafs this afternoon. Perry has four goals and five assists in 16 games this season and has registered a -6.
Thomas Milic Assigned To ECHL Norfolk
- Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate in Manitoba announced that they’ve returned netminder Thomas Milic to ECHL Norfolk. The 20-year-old was drafted in the fifth round by the Jets back in June following a stellar season with Seattle of the WHL and has split the season between the Moose (four games) and Admirals (six appearances).