Connor excelling in time with Jets

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This article was published 31/10/2017 (2874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Kyle Connor has impressed the right people over the past two weeks, as the effectiveness of his NHL game takes a major leap forward.

The second-year pro has been a solid contributor since his Oct. 16 promotion from the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to the Winnipeg Jets, when forward Mathieu Perreault was sidelined with a lower-body injury.

Connor, 20, said his current comfort level is high as he shares time and space with centre Mark Scheifele and right-winger Blake Wheeler, a pair of talented, heavily counted-on performers for the Central Division squad.

“I’m reading off them and getting more familiar with certain ways they play, for sure,” Connor said Tuesday, prior to the Jets’ battle with the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Connor opened the scoring in a 2-1 Jets win against the Wild.

“Nothing in this league is easy, but playing with two great players like that you can learn so much from them (over the full surface of) the ice, so I feel I’m getting better every game,” said Connor. “For me, whomever I’m playing with, I try to play my game — play with speed and have that creativity in the offensive zone, but also playing the game the right way. You can’t cheat for anything in this league.” 

Connor made his season debut on a line with Bryan Little and Patrik Laine Oct. 17 against Columbus, but was bumped up to the top line, replacing Nikolaj Ehlers, with the contest half over and the Blue Jackets ahead 2-0. The move paid immediate dividends as he scored his first goal of the season, although Winnipeg eventually registered a 5-2 home-ice defeat.

The product of Shelby Township, Mich., has been a fixture on the line ever since. On Tuesday, he was the recipient of a favourable bounce off a deflection by Scheifele, collecting the puck and netting his second tally of the season as Winnipeg opened the scoring. He’s also provided three assists for the team, now 3-0-2 in its last five contests and 6-1-2 since beginning the year with resounding defeats to Toronto and Calgary.

Wheeler said Connor’s solid work habits and heady offensive game have made him a terrific fit on the top trio.

“He’s great. He’s so smart, that’s the thing that Scheif and I have really been impressed with, just how he thinks the game. He makes the right plays, he plays a direct game — a north and south game,” said the Jets’ captain. “For him, the biggest thing was confidence. It’s really difficult for a young player to build confidence in this league.

“He’s a guy that’s used to having offensive success. I think every step of the way for him he’s put up huge numbers, so good offensive players need to make plays, they need to build confidence that way. I think he came up and scored against Columbus and you could see his confidence was there right away. So, that’s it. He’s playing fast, he’s playing direct and he’s fit in nicely.”

Unlike last season, Connor didn’t make the Jets directly out of training camp. The big club’s top-six was all but chiselled in granite well before the pre-season games were waged, and the powers that be felt it was in his best interest to begin the season in the minors.

If there was some chagrin on the part of the 2015 first-round draft pick (17th overall), he disguised it well. Connor, 6-1 and pushing 190 pounds, scored three goals and added a pair of assists in four games with the Moose before being recalled.

Points haven’t been the only distinguishing marks of improvement by the former University of Michigan sniper. Blessed with tremendous speed, Connor is winning races to pucks, using his smarts and his frame to retain possession and orchestrating scoring chances with his dynamic linemates.

He reads angles well and has been effective at tying up opposing players, taking away passing lanes and knocking down pucks, all by virtue of an extremely active stick. Finally, he’s more willing to endure some punishment while battling for pucks, a characteristic that was absent from his game and led to his reassignment to the Moose in mid-December. 

“It comes with experience and learning to use your body a certain way or use your stick, all those little skills,” said Connor. “For me, when I’m moving my feet I’m at my best. That comes with maturity. I had a really great summer and I feel good out there and feel strong.”

Connor has a history of getting the best of goaltenders. He scored 35 goals during the 2014-15 junior season with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, 35 in his only season (2015-16) with the U of Michigan Wolverines and 25 with the Moose last season.

Connor has embraced the notion being a one-dimensional forward won’t help your cause of sticking in the NHL, said Jets head coach Paul Maurice.

“So much of playing in the NHL is all the other pieces: in on the forecheck and using that quickness and getting physically involved. I’m not talking running guys through the boards, but coming up with loose pucks on the forecheck,” Maurice said.

“Mark and Blake do that as a base of their game because of the way they skate, and having another guy on that line that can do it takes some pressure off those guys to be first all the time, to be driving, to create that game.

“Where his game has made an improvement is just that — when he’s the first forechecker to get in and get on it. All the hard things that sometimes aren’t asked of the elite guy off each team when they come out of amateur, there’s certainly a need to do that here.” 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell