Ehlers eyes opening night return

WINNIPEG – Following a two-day break, the Winnipeg Jets stepped back on the ice with 23 players on the ice.

On Sunday, the Jets put goaltender Collin Delia, defenceman Kyle Capobianco and forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on waivers to get down to the league maximum.

“We’re thrilled for us the best for the organization is all three players that we put on waivers cleared. Because they’re all-important pieces to us even though we had to put them on waivers based on keeping 23 around. Collin (Delia) didn’t want to get picked up, he’s thrilled to be here and we’re very happy to have him,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness.

“With Capo, the injuries, the plan was to play him a few more games because he didn’t play in enough last year but then that injury sidelined him. So, I think that probably hurt him on waivers and then Axel, listen he had a good camp, didn’t do anything wrong, didn’t play himself out of here but again its numbers. So, you can only have 23 guys as of yesterday at 1 o’clock. Again, you’ll see Axel up here, you’ll see Capo up here and you’ll see Colin up here. It speaks volumes for the depth that we now have in our organization.”

The other big news of the day from practice was seeing Nikolaj Ehlers in a white jersey and with his linemates Cole Perfetti and Nino Niederreiter. It’s been a roller coaster for Ehlers dealing with neck spasms since the beginning part of training camp.

“It’s just been a lot of back and forth, just trying to figure out how to best deal with this thing and not make it blow up like it did in the beginning,” said Ehlers.

“Try to get it to settle down and make it feel good enough.”

The Jets had been hoping that the two days off would be helpful in getting the Danish forward back on the ice with the main group. But it’s still not clear at this time if Ehlers will be on the ice when the Jets open the season in Calgary on Wednesday.

“If he feels he’s good enough to play, then he’s good enough to play. The medical staff has done a wonderful job with him, they’ve been patient with him,” said Bowness.

“If he comes to us, we’ve been saying all along if he comes to us and says he’s ready to play, then he’s ready to play.”

The lines and defence pairings looked like this on Monday morning:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi

Niederreiter-Perfetti-Ehlers

Iafallo-Lowry-Appleton

Barron-Kupari-Namestnikov

Gustafsson

Morrissey-DeMelo

Samberg-Pionk

Dillon-Schmidt

Chisholm-Stanley

Hellebuyck

Brossoit

Ehlers was asked if chemistry is overrated and it’s a good question because he, Perfetti and Niederreiter have not had a lot of time together as a line throughout camp and the preseason.

“Us three, we know how to play hockey. We can go out there and can score three goals in the first game and everyone’s going to say, ‘Ah chemistry, you don’t need that.’ We haven’t played a game together. We could go out there and do absolutely nothing the first game and everybody’s going to say ‘Ah, you needed the chemistry and you needed to play and all that.’,” said Ehlers.

“I think it is what it is. We go out there, we play the same game. We try to obviously support each other in all areas of the ice, and we try to read off each other. It’s a game that happens so fast, there’s going to be new situations all the time that you have to read them. Obviously the more you play together the more you get to know each other. I think, this early, we’ll figure it out.”

FULL CREDIT TO GUSTAFSSON

David Gustafsson will begin the year with the Jets for the second consecutive season. The 23-year-old played 46 games with the Jets in 2022-23 and ended up with six assists. Bowness gave Gustafsson a lot of credit for the work he put in during the offseason to get ready for this fall’s training camp.

“Well, when I called him during the summer, I made it very clear to him that because he didn’t score last year that he’s going to have to come in and earn a job. The job was not going to be given to him,” said Bowness.

“And I give him credit, he worked very hard, and it was nice to see him score three goals, so that always helps. He came in with the attitude where he knew he did not have a job here. He knew he had to earn it and then, give him full marks. He worked very hard.”

EXTENSIONS FOR SCHEIFELE AND HELLEBUYCK

Just over an hour since the Jets had their post practice media availability, the team announced that Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele both signed seven-year contract extensions with average annual values of $8,500,000. Both extensions will kick in at the start of the 2024-25 season.