Jets close to opening-night lineup after demoting Lemieux, Roslovic, Spacek and Lipon

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This article was published 02/10/2017 (2902 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The look of the Winnipeg Jets’ opening-night roster is getting clearer after a handful of forwards was sent down to the Manitoba Moose Monday morning.

Brendan Lemieux, Jack Roslovic, Michael Spacek and JC Lipon were all assigned to Winnipeg’s American Hockey League affiliate. Lipon must clear waivers before officially joining the Moose.

Winnipeg now has 15 forwards, eight defencemen and two goaltenders still with the NHL club, including forward Kyle Connor and defenceman Tucker Poolman.

The Jets must declare a 23-man roster by 4 p.m. Tuesday, although injuries are now a factor in who plays in Wednesday’s season-opener.

A pair of centres, Andrew Copp and Matt Hendricks, are both nursing injuries and missed practice Monday. Jets head coach Paul Maurice confirmed Hendricks will not play Wednesday against Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Bell MTS Place (6 p.m., Sportsnet, TSN 1290).

Copp is listed as day to day after blocking a Mark Giordano slapshot on Saturday in Calgary. If he stays off the injured reserve list, the Jets must trim a player before the roster deadline.

Line rushes on Monday had centre Mark Scheifele with Mathieu Perreault and Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little with Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine, Adam Lowry alongside Brandon Tanev and Joel Armia and Shawn Matthias partnered with Marko Dano and Nic Petan.

Connor was also spotted in a number of drills.

Laine, who fired five goals to tie Matthews and Edmonton Oilers rookie Kailer Yamamoto for the pre-season goal-scoring lead, said he’s pumped about the potential of his trio.

“I’ve played with both of (Little and Ehlers) last season and we had some chemistry between the three of us and got some success, so I’m excited. Hopefully, they’re as excited as I am,” said the 19-year-old Finn.

Laine’s comment generated a smart-alecky “No” from Ehlers, seated to his right in the Jets dressing room.

“OK, you’re not,” Laine said. “But I’m still excited and looking forward to Wednesday.”

Winnipeg still has eight defenceman up — Dustin Byfgulien, Toby Enstrom, Jacob Trouba, Josh Morrissey, Tyler Myers, Dmitry Kulikov, Ben Chiarot and Poolman.

Maurice said he hasn’t ruled out carrying eight blue-liners to begin the campaign.

Steve Mason is expected to start in the Winnipeg net Wednesday with Connor Hellebuyck as his backup.

Mason, signed as a free agent July 1, said the group is relieved the grind of training camp is in the rear-view mirror.

“It’s nice that it’s over and done with and we can focus on meaningful games and finally put everything we’ve been working on the last couple of weeks to use,” he said. “For the last two weeks we’ve been going at it pretty hard, working on things diligently, and making sure that each and every (pre-season) game was put to good use.

“I think our last game in Calgary (a 3-2 shootout defeat), even though we were missing a couple of key guys in the lineup, we went in there and executed a pretty good road game so that was good to end on pretty positive note and focus here now on a tough task with Toronto.”

Maurice said the players assigned to the Moose all had solid training camps.

“We’re pleased with their progress… four positive meetings (with them).,” said Maurice, noting Lipon, in particular, is very close to being an NHLer. “JC Lipon had a great camp where I have no problem putting him in the lineup now. I still have him slightly behind other guys, but… he closed that gap in camp.”

Roslovic led Manitoba in scoring last season — his first year of pro — with 13 goals and 35 assists in 65 games. Lipon had 12 goals and 30 points in 71 games, while Lemieux supplied 12 goals and 19 points in 61 games with the Moose.

Spacek had a sensational final junior year with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League, scoring 30 goals and adding 55 assists, before joining Manitoba for the last four games of the regular season. He contributed one assist.

Meanwhile, the Moose today sent three players to their ECHL affiliate, the Jacksonville Icemen, including goalie Jamie Phillips, forward Elgin Pearce and blue-liner Chris Dienes.

Manitoba opens the 2017-18 season in Grand Rapids against the defending league-champion Griffins on Friday.

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell