Both Dillon and Heinola are left-handed, but the young Finn has been playing on the right side.
"He's got lots of skill. I want to give him the puck. He can have it all day long," Dillon said. "We've only had a couple of scrimmages and a couple of practices but already you can just feel when there's chemistry there."
In his experience both on the ice and off it, Bowness has found that left-handed defencemen tend to have an easier time playing on the right side than vice versa.
"It's to give him the best chance to play," Bowness said of Heinola. "Versatility on defence is good to have, there's a couple guys that can play both sides. Every team has them, you can move them to the right, if you lose a guy in a game they've got to play on the right side, you're down to five D."
Heinola played his first NHL game in 2019, and has split his time between the NHL and AHL ever since.
He has 25 NHL games on his resume compared to Dillon's 733. However, Dillon's first couple seasons also saw a split between the NHL and the AHL.
His biggest piece of advice for Heinola? Patience.
"Patience is so tough to have, especially when it feels like it's already your 10th year in the league when really, it's only your second or third," said Dillon. "He's really stuck with it. He was up a bunch last year. Maybe he didn't get into as many games as he'd want to but you can tell he's put the work in."
ICE CHIPS
Forward Brad Lambert, who led the Jets in scoring with four points at the Young Stars Classic in Penticton, BC last weekend, didn't skate on Friday.
Bowness said he hopes the forward can get back on the ice tomorrow, saying the upper-body injury is minor and that Friday was more of a maintenance day.