Jets Prospect Report - October

WINNIPEG – You could say the theme of this year’s training camp for the Winnipeg Jets is opportunity.

Brad Lambert is one of many of the Jets prospects that still remains with the big club with the regular season looming. The Finnish forward will be playing in his fourth game of the preseason for the Jets. Head coach Scott Arniel has been impressed with the growth in the 20-year-olds game from last year’s camp.

“He took major strides last year as season with the Moose, and then coming in here, he knew what he's going up against. He knew that he had to be at his best here and show us what he can do. His biggest challenge and he and I talked about is how he goes along and how he lines up against, if it's Scheifele in a practice in a five-on-five drill, it's against a Lowry, because those are the guys he's going to see, those type of skill sets, those types of experience,” said Arniel before the Jets faced the Flames on Wednesday.

“And he's been, like all the young guys, they've been really good in camp, grasping on to what we're trying to get them to do. Mistakes are made, but then it's what you do next. You come back and repeat that mistake. And that's where I've been impressed with all of our young guys.”

Lambert had a tremendous rookie campaign in the American Hockey League last season with the Manitoba Moose. He represented the Moose at the All-Star game and at the end of the 23-24 season was named to the All-Rookie team, becoming the seventh member of the Moose to be given the honour.

Lambert got a head start by choosing to attend the 2024 Young Stars Classic in Penticton in mid-September. The confidence he gained from a solid couple of games at that tournament has carried over into Jets training camp and on top of that, Lambert understands that he has to be more than just an offensive minded player.

“Same thing I’ve tried to show all of camp, just trying to show that I’m trying to play the responsible 200-foot game,” said Lambert.

“Show the coaches that they can trust me and there’s a lot to do without the puck and obviously with the puck, just play my game and try to make stuff happen.”

MOOSE UPDATE

On Sunday, the Moose opened their 2024 training camp ahead of their 25^th anniversary season. They will play a couple of exhibition games on October 3^rd and 8^th and one intrasquad contest on October 5^th. As this report is being written, Simon Lundmark, Ty Bauer, Nikita Chibrikov and Thomas Milic are Moose regulars that remain with the Jets at their training camp. Elias Salomonsson will be playing in North America this season but it hasn’t been decided if he will start with the Jets or the Moose.

OTHER PROSPECT NOTES

• Jacob Julien recently returned to his junior team, the London Knights and while the stats aren’t there just yet, Julien has won over 60 per cent of his faceoffs in his first two games. Big things are expected from the 20-year-old and the Knights once again are one of the OHL favourites, Julien had 78 points in 67 games in 2023-24.
• Brayden Yager had a successful Young Stars Classic tournament and scored a goal and added an assist in his two preseason games with the Jets. Yager and the Moose Jaw Warriors are the defending WHL champions and went all the way to the Memorial Cup last season.