Lambert ready to find permanent home with Jets

WINNIPEG -- Brad Lambert's suitcase has put on some miles in the past year, but the 19-year-old center knows it's all part of his development toward making the Winnipeg Jets roster this season.

"I'm obviously going to do everything I can to make the team," Lambert said during Jets development camp last month. "I guess you never know exactly where you're going to end up."

There's little surprise to Lambert's sentiments following a two-season span that saw the No. 30 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft wear the uniform of two professional and two junior teams.

"In (Jets) training camp (in 2022) I got to see the level of play I got to play at and I got to learn a lot from the older guys there," said Lambert, who was born in Lahti, Finland. "I got to watch some of them for a couple weeks and then going down to the (Manitoba) Moose (of the American Hockey League), kind of got to experience the second level of pro here and that was good, too. Then Seattle (of the Western Hockey League), obviously, playing against my own age group was good. I got to be more of a leader on the team, and help the team win. (It was) probably the biggest thing that I've won in hockey so far so, I've learned how to win, I guess."

After a strong preseason with the Jets a year ago, Winnipeg signed Lambert to a three-year entry level contract and assigned him to Manitoba, where he had three points (two goals, one assist) in 14 games before being loaned to his country's national team for the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship; he had one goal in five tournament games.

The Jets then assigned him to Seattle of the WHL in January, and his offensive game took off. Lambert's 38 points (17 goals, 21 assists) in 26 regular-season games and 26 points (six goals, 20 assists) in 17 playoff games helped Seattle capture a WHL championship and advance to the first Memorial Cup Final in its history, where it lost 5-0 to Quebec of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

"Understanding how to play under pressure on a bigger scale -- those experiences, not everybody has," Winnipeg director of player development Jimmy Roy said. "And if you've experienced it, it just gives you the advantage the next time you're going through it. Hopefully they can take that experience, how long and how deep they went in the playoffs and the Memorial Cup, and it'll help them down the road -- hopefully with us."

Playing alongside grown men in a professional league is not foreign to Lambert. Entering Liiga, Finland's top professional league, at the age of 15, Lambert played 99 Liiga games (four with HIFK, 70 with JYP and 25 with Pelicans) before being drafted by the Jets.

"(It can be) hard for young players to get different kinds of opportunities to accentuate their talents over there (in Europe)," Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said. "But the positive is he's played with men. He knows what it's like to play in a men's organization and a men's league."

And now the Jets are hopeful Lambert is ready to take the next step in North America and the NHL soon.