Chiarot looks for more

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This article was published 02/04/2016 (3475 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Literally half the Winnipeg Jets’ roster on any of these late-season nights is all about an audition.

The call-ups and new players are mostly in the spotlight, but one of the keenest eyes being kept by the team’s coaching staff and management will surely be on defenceman Ben Chiarot.

The 24-year-old is not quite new and sort of an incumbent, having just passed the 100-NHL-games mark earlier this month.

He’s in that spot where there’s almost a hard ceiling between himself and the team’s top four blue liners Dustin Byfuglien, Toby Enstrom, Tyler Myers and Jacob Trouba, but where every improvement or upgrade will matter.

Even if the third defence pairing is Chiarot’s destiny — and he’ll tell you he’s got more than that in mind — you won’t hear any “coasting” attitude from him.

“Every game in the NHL is proving why you’re here, why you deserve to have a spot,” Chiarot said after Saturday’s short practice at the MTS Centre. “Every game, really — and you might lose sight of it in the back of your mind sometimes — is proving yourself and why you should be here. That’s why the best players are the best players, it’s because they’re the best every night.

“When I came in last year, I was able to play 20 minutes, and that was pretty smooth for me. This year my minutes have been up and down and probably resembles what a first year would look like for an NHL defenceman, more third-pairing and limited minutes.

“It’s a good opportunity just to remind myself that I can play against the top players and be effective against them, and that’s a good confidence-booster for me going into the summer because I still feel like I’m just scratching the surface of what I can do here and how I can improve. Down the road I want to be a guy who can play against top players every night.

“I want to be that shut-down guy. This is a good time to take steps towards that.”

Chiarot’s arrival on the big stage last season was during the team’s injury crisis, and Byfuglien was his main partner at the start.

We’re back to that pairing in the late going here, with injuries ravaging the team again.

Chiarot has played more than 20 minutes in each of the last four games, including a season-high 23:22 in Buffalo a week ago. He hit 20 minutes in the season opener but then saw his time dwindle to the point where he actually lost his spot in the lineup for two weeks in November.

“The game is a lot easier at 20 minutes than it is at 10 or 12,” he said Saturday. “You’re able to get in a rhythm, just in the flow of the game as opposed to when you sit for a few minutes then go back out. Sitting long stretches of time and jumping back is kind of like jumping onto a moving train sometimes.

“When you’re at 20 minutes, you’re just playing. You’re not thinking, you’re just playing, and that’s nice.”

Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators, Chiarot had one of those dreaded moments where he fumbled the puck off the back of his own net in the third period, and the ensuing turnover wound up as the winning goal.

“I’d definitely rather have that after 100 games as opposed to 10, so it’s not like it (gets) in your mind or in others’ minds that this can happen to this guy quite often,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever done something like that in my time here. You just park it and let it go.

“That was obviously a tough one and not one I think I’d do very often, fumbles like that. Charlie (Huddy, Jets assistant) and Mo (Paul Maurice) were good about getting me right back out on the ice to make up for mistake, so that I can show I can put it in the back of my mind and forget about it.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca