What we saw and learned on Day 2 of Winnipeg Jets training camp
WINNIPEG — Coaches make plans. The hockey gods laugh.
For the second straight season, Ville Heinola has an ankle injury that will almost certainly keep him out of the Winnipeg Jets' opening-night lineup. Heinola, who had surgery last year to repair a broken ankle suffered against Ottawa in Winnipeg 's final preseason game, now has an infection in that same ankle. The infection related to the screw that was inserted as part of his surgery has caused swelling in Heinola's ankle and needs treatment before Heinola can play again.
"It hits you in the gut, especially after what happened last year," Scott Arniel said following Day 2 of training camp. "He was so excited about coming back."
It's not a short-term injury. Arniel said Heinola will be re-evaluated next week. Surgery is a distinct possibility, with the screw and infected tissue being removed, with antibiotics to address the infection. Heinola will probably miss several weeks of playing time, although we won't know for sure until the doctors get a closer look. For the 23-year-old left-handed defenceman who skated with Colin Miller on Thursday and whose roster spot was a virtual certainty, it must feel like a haunting case of deja vu.
For Logan Stanley , Haydn Fleury and Dylan Coghlan , it must feel like opportunity. Stanley was already expected to make the team out of camp and now it looks like the No. 6 job belongs to him. For Fleury and Coghlan, though, their odds of making Winnipeg's team just skyrocketed. If Stanley opens the season in the starting rotation, the Jets will need either Fleury, 28, a right-handed veteran of 268 NHL games, or Coghlan, 26, who has played 106 NHL games, to step onto the big club. This weekend's preseason games against Minnesota and Edmonton were already going to be important for Brad Lambert , Colby Barlow , Elias Salomonsson and other top prospects; the stakes soar with a job so clearly on the table.
Heinola's diagnosis was the most striking piece of negative news from Day 2 of Jets camp. One overwhelmingly positive storyline is about Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele and their treatment of Jets youth.
'When it comes from their peers, that's powerful stuff'
Mark Scheifele held court with Brayden Yager for several minutes after Friday's practice sessions were complete, outlining passing drills and then executing them with his 19-year-old teammate. For several minutes, Scheifele and Yager took turns passing pucks from the left faceoff circle to Gabriel Vilardi 's office beside the net, with the pass recipient walking the puck in front of goal before shooting. Scheifele and Yager are both right-handed shooters, meaning they can attack the net on their forehand coming out of the left corner. Vilardi is the master — see his wide variety of power-play assists — but Scheifele is a pro and Yager made an excellent student.
In between drills, Scheifele would give Yager pointers, seeming to want Yager to move the puck toward the middle of the ice with his first touch, taking the pass off the heel of his stick. He cheered when Yager incorporated his tips, emphatically celebrating Yager's successes. I watched until it was time for Arniel's scrum, leaving the stands to the sound of Yager's shot-making, and couldn't help but think that this was exactly the same kind of thing Adam Lowry had done with Colby Barlow and Brad Lambert earlier in the day.
There was an era under Winnipeg's previous leadership group when Jets veterans were far less welcoming of young players. Blake Wheeler was many good things as Jets captain; one old-school approach he took was maintaining a sort of power distance between himself and Winnipeg's younger players.
To see Lowry and Scheifele integrating top prospects so enthusiastically — and to know that Josh Morrissey and Connor Hellebuyck are doing the same with defenders and goaltenders, respectively — was to be inspired by Winnipeg's new leaders. It's possible that none of Yager, Barlow, Elias Salomonsson, Thomas Milic , Dom DiVincentiis and even Lambert make the Jets roster out of camp. They're still valued members of the organization and the leadership group has made a point of making them feel valued, no matter their place on the depth chart. I believe this sort of behaviour leads to long-term success, however difficult its impact might be to measure.
I asked Arniel if he'd had any role in the leadership we saw on the ice.
"I've talked to all our veteran group about being mentors," Arniel said, "(But) I'm not saying I had anything to do with that. They did that all on their own."
Arniel did speak with Lowry, Morrissey and Scheifele in the offseason and they did discuss what it means to be leaders on an NHL team. The extracurricular sessions they ran on Friday were all their doing, though, and little details like the way Yager taking the puck off the heel of his stick led to just a few extra inches of puck protection are things only veterans like Scheifele can teach.
"Anytime you can have that, whether it's teaching somebody how to handle the puck to make a play, whether it's Low talking to them about certain situations, whether it's goalie type things, if it's Helly talking to these young guys, that just speeds up the process," Arniel said.
"A coach can tell them all sorts of things as they move along, as they grow, but when it comes from their peers themselves, that's powerful stuff."
Stock watch: Five players that have caught my eye
Kevin He tried to warn us: He's not just a 30-plus goal scorer in the OHL. He's not just the first player born in China to be drafted into the NHL, either. He's as feisty as they come, giving no ground to players bigger and stronger than he is in high-traffic areas.
"I'm a hungry player. I want to win," He said at the draft in Las Vegas. "I always play with a chip on my shoulder. I'm skilled as well. I can skate well and shoot."
It's all there in the quote, but it was a treat to watch the 18-year-old forward drive the net and fire a pair of shots a foot off the ice, scoring post-and-in on one and straight into the net on the other. It was even more fun to watch him engage in one-on-one net-front battles with a collection of Jets opponents. That level of competitiveness adds dimension to He's game and gives him versatility that increases his odds of becoming an NHL player. He could make the Jets as an energy player, contributing on any line, as opposed to being limited to a top-six role. He'll go back to OHL Niagara this year and look to improve upon a season that saw him score 31 goals and 22 assists in 64 games.
Nikita Chibrikov is 21 and feeling more confident on and off the ice. Chibrikov's English language skills are solid, his shot is as dangerous as ever and he's not afraid to get into battle situations in the corners. In some ways, that makes Chibrikov a best-case, better-developed version of He (although Chibrikov's shooting is hard to match) — it's easy to see him making the NHL anywhere in the top nine even if he doesn't develop into a dominant top-six scorer. Chibrikov particularly excels at taking hits to make plays that move the puck out of his team's zone and into the opponents' end; I see the AHL in his immediate future, a return to the NHL sometime this season, and an opening-night job in 2025.
When Jacob Julien and Kieron Walton were taken in the fifth and sixth round of the 2023 and 2024 drafts, respectively, each player seemed like a bit of a project to me. Julien had only played part of his draft season in the OHL, scoring nine goals and seven assists in 40 games, while Walton's 43 points in 65 games looked more impressive but still unlike the totals posted by more highly touted prospects.
Julien had a tremendous post-draft season in the OHL, scoring 78 points in 67 games en route to an OHL championship with London. Now 20, the 6-foot-4 forward looks AHL-capable to me and more promising as a long-term NHL prospect, too. Walton, 6-foot-6 at 18, will return to junior but stands out for his ability with the puck; he can take passes and make them in tight quarters.
The next step for both of these players is to make their play and then have a plan for the next one; chaining reads together, one after the other, so as to make the most of every second of available ice time is something AHL veterans do better than OHL stars — and the NHL is exponentially faster in this regard.
Lambert and the difference between impressive and impactful
This brings us to Brad Lambert.
Lambert's speed and skill make him a disproportionate generator of hype. In 2022, at his first camp, Lambert dazzled with a goal and an assist in an array of high-speed moves. His speed was most evident at three-on-three in overtime against Edmonton, while he looked like an instant fit on the power play. Back then, though, Lambert was still 18 and prone to tunnel vision as he carried the puck up ice. His speed put him in positions to look dangerous but his decision making was that of a raw rookie — which he was, and which was reasonable.
That was the season Lambert got his swagger back, though, dominating the WHL and winning the league championship with Thomas Milic. He's only continued to develop in the intermediary time and now makes decisions at a level that has him knocking on the door of an NHL job.
I asked Arniel about the difference between a player at Walton's stage of development versus that of an AHL player versus that of an NHL regular — and he waxed delightedly about Lambert's growth.
"The two practices that we just had, there's a lot of compete in them in the sense that you're going head-to-head," Arniel said. "You're either going head-to-head with somebody of your equal peer or you're going against one of those veterans and they can embarrass you at times. But it's interesting how a lot of guys can start that way and then, as the week goes on, they start to catch up to what the speed is."
As Arniel spoke, Danny Zhilkin came to mind. I'd noted him going right at Neal Pionk in a couple of drills with the fearlessness and competitiveness of a professional as opposed to that of a junior.
Arniel went in a different direction.
"When they catch up to what (NHL players are doing), that's when you see young players that really start to excel," Arniel said. "Just an example: Lambert two years ago. Last year. This year. You see him now, if he's going head-to-head — not yet, but if he goes ahead against Scheif, you can see that he's grown. He realizes, 'How do you angle better? How do you put yourself in position so you don't get caught in a speed situation (against the wrong player) or a physical situation against a Lowry?'"
That's the thing, isn't it? When we watch Lambert against his peers, he's too fast for them to handle. He's faster than NHL players, too, but veteran defencemen can handle him when they take the right angles, overpower him or skate more physical routes.
But he's gaining on them. And the more effectively he plays to his strengths, the more NHL-ready he'll be. Watch for it in his first preseason game this weekend — how does Lambert solve problems for himself and create them for his opponents?
"These guys learn as they go," Arniel said. "But the best part is you hear them comment, 'Wow. I didn't know that they were that fast. I didn't know that things happened so quick.' It's what you hear all the time from junior to pro hockey, American League hockey to the NHL game. It is a faster level every (step.) They learn on the fly and it's interesting because some great young players learn to pick it up quick and then they get themselves up to speed faster."
I think Lambert is NHL-ready — or darned close. If all goes according to the coaches' plan, there will be a lot of NHL competition standing between him and a roster spot on opening night. Plans go awry; opportunity emerges. One of the best stories of camp will probably be Lambert showing us how much more ready he is to seize that opportunity today than he's been at any point before now.
(Photo of Scott Arniel: John Woods / The Canadian Press via AP)
