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Gabriel Vilardi Could Return On Road Trip

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Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi is nearing a return to action from an MCL sprain that’s cost him the last 14 games. Associate coach Scott Arniel said today that Vilardi will travel with the team on their upcoming three-game road swing through Tampa Bay, Florida and Nashville and is an option to play during the trip.

The 24-year-old has played in just two full games this season, sustaining the injury early in the team’s third contest of the year against his former team, the Kings, on October 17. Vilardi was the main aspect of the trade return from Los Angeles in exchange for center Pierre-Luc Dubois this summer. After a strong camp, Vilardi had earned himself a spot in the team’s top six, registering an assist through his first two contests while playing over 20 minutes per game. A first-round pick of the Kings in 2017, injuries have largely delayed Vilardi’s development, but he still managed a career-high 23 goals and 41 points in 63 games last season. He remains on injured reserve, and the Jets will need to open a spot on the 23-man roster to activate him.

Jets Recall Dominic Toninato On Emergency Basis

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After a victory over Buffalo last night, Winnipeg is back in action tonight against Arizona.  At least one forward who played Friday is questionable for this game, however, as the team announced (Twitter link) that center Dominic Toninato has been recalled from AHL Manitoba under emergency conditions.

The 29-year-old has been limited to just five games with the Moose this season due to injury although he has been productive in those appearances, notching a goal and three assists.  Toninato was similarly productive in the minors last year, tallying 19 goals and 16 helpers in 50 contests.

This is Toninato’s fourth season with Winnipeg and he has seen NHL action in the first three, including 2021-22 when he was a regular for most of the year, suiting up 77 times.  Going back to his previous teams, he has made an appearance at the top level in each of the last seven years, spanning 169 games in total where he has a dozen goals and 18 assists.

It’s unclear which forward’s availability is in question for tonight’s game and it’s worth noting that Winnipeg could easily go back to dressing seven defensemen anyway; Nate Schmidt was a healthy scratch against the Sabres.  But if they want to go with a standard deployment, Toninato might have a chance to extend that stretch of NHL appearances to eight straight seasons tonight.

Vilardi Skates, Targeting Wednesday Return

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  • While Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi took part in practice today, he still isn’t ready yet to suit up in a game, relays TSN’s John Lu (Twitter link). The 24-year-old suffered an upper-body injury in his third game of the season and has missed nearly a month since then.  At the moment, Winnipeg is targeting Wednesday for Vilardi’s return to the lineup.  He had been in their top six before the injury and will likely return to that role once he’s cleared to return.

Jets’ Rasmus Kupari To Miss 4-6 Weeks With Shoulder Injury

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5:24 p.m.: Kupari has been moved to injured reserve and winger Axel Jonsson-Fjällby has been recalled from AHL Manitoba under emergency conditions, per a team release.

2:23 p.m.: Winnipeg Jets associate coach Scott Arniel told reporters Wednesday that forward Rasmus Kupari will miss four to six weeks with a “shoulder issue” (via Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press).

It marks the continuation of a tough season for Kupari, who’s struggled in a depth role in his first season north of the border. Acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade last summer, Kupari left Tuesday’s win over the Devils after taking just two shifts due to an awkward collision with the boards. It left the Jets with just ten forwards for the remainder of the game after they opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, although they were able to post six goals against New Jersey regardless.

Kupari, 23, was a first-round pick of the Kings in 2018 but has yet to make much of an NHL impact. He did play in a career-high 66 games with Los Angeles last year, recording three goals and 12 assists for 15 points while going 54.6% in the faceoff dot, but had underwhelming possession numbers against easy competition. Through 15 games with the Jets, Kupari has just one assist and a -3 rating while averaging 9:02 per game, although that number is brought down by Kupari’s short stint in Tuesday’s game.

The Jets have used Kupari as their fourth-line center between Morgan Barron and David Gustafsson for the majority of the season, although they’ve controlled just 42.4% of expected goals, by far the worst of any Jets line with at least 30 minutes together this season, per MoneyPuck. Barron is leading the pack with three goals and five points in 15 games, while Gustafsson has two markers and no helpers in 11 games.

Kupari has not been placed on injured reserve yet, although the Jets won’t need to. They have two open spots on the active roster and ample cap space for a recall from the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. With just 11 healthy forwards on the active roster now, a recall will almost certainly come before Friday’s game against the Sabres.

It will be intriguing to see if they opt for a more veteran option such as center Dominic Toninato, who has 169 NHL games under his belt over the past six seasons, or if they opt to give a younger player a shot. If they opt for the latter, 2022 first-round pick Brad Lambert could get a nod after lighting up the minors with ten points in ten games this year.

Winnipeg Jets Assign Declan Chisholm To AHL On Conditioning Basis

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Winnipeg Jets defenseman Declan Chisholm has been loaned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, for conditioning purposes. The move will put Chisholm in a position to make his 2023-24 debut, having exclusively played in the preseason to this point.

Chisholm, 23, starred for the Moose last season scoring 43 points in 59 games. The 23-year-old is now waiver-eligible, meaning the Jets would have to risk exposing him to 31 other teams in order to have him return to the Moose on an outright assignment.

So instead, they will assign him to Manitoba on a conditioning basis (as they are allowed to due to how little he’s played in the AHL) with the assignment likely to last for two weeks at maximum.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press’ Mike McIntyre, Chisholm’s “only immediate path to playing time” in Winnipeg “is an unfortunate injury or two,” given the Jets’ depth at the defensive position. Chisholm has maintained a positive outlook on his situation, telling the media that despite not playing, “being a sponge” around the Jets players has helped his development.

He’ll surely be happy to get back into some games thanks to this assignment, though, just as the 4-4-0 Moose will be happy to have their best defenseman from last season back on their roster.

Jet's Dominic Toninato Loaned To AHL

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Patrick Johnston of The Vancouver Province is reporting that Vancouver Canucks center Teddy Blueger is getting close to making his Canucks debut. The 29-year-old has yet to dress this season after he was injured in a preseason game in early October while blocking a shot. Neither Blueger nor the Canucks have specified what the issue is with Blueger, but Johnston believes the injury is a bone bruise.

Blueger practiced with the Canucks today for their full practice, it was the first time he has done so since he suffered the injury on October 6th. The native of Riga, Latvia skated with a group of fourth liners in Sam Lafferty, Nils Höglander, and Anthony Beauvillier. The Canucks could certainly use Blueger’s penalty-killing prowess as they have been as bad shorthanded this year as they were last year with a success rate of just 77.3%.

The Canucks take on the Ottawa Senators tomorrow night in Ottawa, and if Blueger can’t make his return then, it could happen before the end of their road trip.

In other West notes:

  • The Winnipeg Jets have returned forward Dominic Toninato back to their AHL affiliate the Manitoba Moose. The 29-year-old was called up by the Jets on October 20th but did not dress in an NHL game and will now head back to the AHL where he has a goal and an assist in two AHL games this season. The Duluth, Minnesota native is just two years removed from dressing in 77 games for the Jets in a single season and will likely receive another call-up later in the season should the Jets run into injury issues.
  • The Arizona Coyotes have recalled defenseman Michael Kesselring from their AHL affiliate the Tucson Roadrunners as they get set to head out on a five-game road trip. Kesselring has yet to dress in an NHL game this season but has spent some time with the Coyotes. The club made the move today to add emergency depth in case they need it while they are away from home. Kesselring has dressed in six AHL games with the Roadrunners this season and has been held scoreless. Last season, the 23-year-old played nine games with Arizona, posting three assists.

Nino Niederreiter Hoping To Sign An Extension With Jets

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Getting players to sign extensions in Winnipeg has been a hit-or-miss proposition for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff.  In recent months, clearly, Pierre-Luc Dubois wanted no part of that but he got Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to sign on the dotted line.  When those two did so, it took care of their two more prominent pending unrestricted free agents.

One notable among the list still needing a new deal is Nino Niederreiter.  Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun reports that the winger’s camp has made it known to Cheveldayoff that he’d like to stick around and that his agent Andre Rufener will be in town this week to discuss a possible new contract for his client.

The 31-year-old didn’t have a particularly strong market in his last trip through unrestricted free agency in the 2022 offseason.  It took more than a week for him to land a two-year, $8MM contract with Nashville, a move that represented a $1.25MM cut in pay despite putting up a 24-goal showing with Carolina the year before.

Niederreiter’s stay with the Predators was fairly short-lived as he was moved to Winnipeg in the days leading up to the trade deadline back in February for a second-round pick.  He finished up the season relatively well with 13 points in 22 games while adding four more in their five-game first-round exit at the hands of Vegas.

Now, with a full training camp with the Jets under his belt, Niederreiter is off to a strong start to his 2023-24 season, notching five goals and four assists in his first 11 games, good for a share of the team lead in points.  With that in mind, it’s not surprising to see him want to extend his stay as the fit with Winnipeg appears to be a good one.

Speculatively, for Niederreiter to justify signing an extension this early in the season, it might take a bit more than his current price tag to get him to put pen to paper on a new deal.  On top of that, it stands to reason that a contract longer than two years will likely be required.  But if Winnipeg likes the way that he’s fitting in, an early extension would make a lot of sense on their end as well.  If one happens, it’ll be a pretty good longer-term outcome for a trade deadline pickup that largely went under the radar last season.

Paul Stastny Announces Retirement

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Free agent forward Paul Stastny has confirmed his retirement from the NHL after a 17-season, 1,145-game career in an interview Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic published Tuesday.

The 37-year-old was a key two-way center for most of his career.  Drafted in the second round by Colorado back in 2005, Stastny went on to play in eight seasons with the Avs where he made an immediate impact offensively, averaging nearly a point per game in his rookie season, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting.  By the time his tenure with Colorado wrapped up, he was more of a defensive threat than an offensive one but that didn’t stop him from having a long career.

Stastny signed with St. Louis in time for the 2014-15 season where he spent parts of four seasons before being traded to Winnipeg as a rental at the trade deadline in 2018.  After a two-year stop in Vegas in 2018-19 and 2019-20, he went back to Winnipeg for two more seasons before joining Carolina last season where he was down to 22 points in 73 games while playing exclusively in their bottom six.

Stastny acknowledged to LeBrun that there was some interest in him during the summer but he decided he wanted to wait it out for a bit to see how he felt.  Then, as time progressed, he felt that retirement was the right choice for him.  It wasn’t his intention to make his decision public, telling LeBrun that “I kind of came into the league quietly and I’m leaving the league quietly. That’s the way I like it.”  He hasn’t ruled out returning to hockey in some sort of front office capacity down the road but that’s not on the immediate horizon.

Stastny hangs up his skates after 1,195 career NHL games where he had 293 goals and 529 assists.  His 822 points put him in 20th place among U.S.-born players in league history.

Jets’ Coach Rick Bowness Takes Leave Of Absence

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The Winnipeg Jets received some awful news this morning that head coach Rick Bowness’ wife Judy had suffered a seizure and is in hospital. Winnipeg announced this morning that Bowness would be taking a leave of absence to attend to the health of his wife and asked for privacy for him and his family.

For now, it appears as though associate coach Scott Arniel will take over coaching duties until such time that Bowness is able to return. Arniel is familiar with being a head coach as he was the bench boss for the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2010-12, compiling a record of 45-60-18 over the course of two seasons. Since leaving Columbus, Arniel has served primarily as an assistant coach with the New York Rangers (2013-2018) and the Washington Capitals (2018-2022).

Bowness is in his second season behind the Jets bench after spending three seasons with the Dallas Stars, where he took the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2020 in what was a feel-good story during the 2020 playoffs that were played in the pandemic bubble.

PHR sends its best wishes to the Bowness family and the Jets community and wishes Judy a speedy recovery.

Dominic Toninato Recalled

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that forward Radim Zohorna has been recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. In addition, forward Jansen Harkins has cleared waivers and been assigned to Wilkes-Barre Scranton. Harkins, 26, arrived in Pittsburgh via a waiver claim from the Winnipeg Jets, and has played in four NHL games for the Penguins. He hasn’t registered a point in that span and most recently was playing on head coach Mike Sullivan’s third line alongside Drew O’Connor and Lars Eller.

  • The Winnipeg Jets have recalled veteran center Dominic Toninato from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. With Gabriel Vilardi now out for an extended period, the Jets were in need of a new player to serve as the organization’s 13th forward. Toninato, who has 37 points in his last 52 AHL games, is a reliable veteran pivot for head coach Rick Bowness to work with, and he’s likely to fill in on the team’s fourth line should he end up dressing for games.

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