Illness sweeping through Jets locker room

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This article was published 02/10/2023 (738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hockey players typically get sick of training camp as it drags on. The Winnipeg Jets, however, are simply getting sick.

Mark Scheifele and Morgan Barron are the latest players to fall victim to a non-COVID virus that is working its way through the NHL team’s dressing room. The forwards were set to play the club’s penultimate preseason game Monday night in Calgary, but neither made the flight.

Scheifele left Monday morning’s skate early, while Barron stuck it out but was separated from his teammates as a precaution.

“We don’t know what we’re going to look like when we get off that plane,” said Jets coach Rick Bowness. “This thing seems to pop up pretty quickly. We might get off that plane and have more guys under the weather.”

Forwards Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi were also held out of action after being stricken late last week, although they’re on the road to recovery and skated on a separate sheet Monday at the Hockey For All Centre.

Throw in the fact forward Nikolaj Ehlers and defencemen Nate Schmidt, Declan Chisholm and Kyle Capobianco are all nursing injuries and Bowness’ grand plan to play close to his full NHL lineup in the final two exhibition games this week took a major blow.

“There’s absolutely nothing we can do. Totally out of our control,” said Bowness. “Our job is to find solutions. Not use excuses. Some guys are going to get into a game that weren’t supposed to get another game. That’s the reality of the situation we’re in. We’re going to make the best of it.”

Winnipeg’s most recent first-round draft pick, Colby Barlow, was the first to be felled by the flu just as camp got underway. He ultimately missed the first four preseason games before being returned to his junior club Sunday.

Forwards Dominic Toninato and Brad Lambert, who had been cut from training camp on the weekend and assigned to the Manitoba Moose, were the immediate beneficiaries. Both were called back up on Monday to fill the spots of Scheifele and Barron.

Aches and pains aside, the organization took another hit Monday when forward Jansen Harkins was claimed on waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Harkins, 26, would have been sent to the Moose had he cleared. The 2015 second-round draft pick played 154 career NHL games with the Jets, with 13 goals and 14 assists in that span. He cleared waivers on two occasions last year and put up 50 points (25 goals, 25 assists) in 44 games with the Moose.

All of the other Jets players put on waivers Sunday — Toninato, Kristian Reichel, Jeff Malott and Ashton Sautner — cleared. Reichel was sent to the Moose, while the other three remain with Winnipeg, for now.

Defenceman Elias Salomonsson and forward Danny Zhilkin, who had been dealing with minor injuries, were also sent to the Moose.

Add it all up and the Jets now have 34 players (20 forwards, 11 defencemen, three goaltenders) left in camp. Of those, Scheifele, Barron, Connor, Vilardi, Ehlers, Schmidt, Chisholm, Capobianco and forward Henri Nikkanen are in the “unavailable” category.

The only completely healthy scratches Monday were backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit, captain Adam Lowry and defenceman Dylan Samberg, along with Sautner and Malott who were brought to Calgary as a precaution.

Nikkanen and Ehlers were the only two players who didn’t skate at all Monday. While Nikkanen is destined for the Moose when he recovers, Ehlers’ potential absence is looming large.

“We’re being very, very cautions with him,” Bowness said of the flashy winger, who began experiencing neck spasms after a gym workout on the first day of training camp.

“We need to get this thing fixed. If that means more time off, then it’s more time off.”

Ehlers is unlikely to play on Thursday when the Jets wrap up their six-game preseason slate by hosting the Ottawa Senators at Canada Life Centre.

MOOSE GET LOOSE: With the Jets getting down to the nitty gritty with the roster, the farm club got going on Monday as American Hockey League training camps officially opened.

The Moose have 29 players — 16 forwards, 10 defencemen and three goaltenders — in the fold. Of those, 12 are Jets draft picks and prospects, 10 are on AHL-only deals, and seven are on professional tryouts.

Those numbers will grow in the coming days as Winnipeg gets down to a maximum of 23 skaters prior to the start of the regular season on Oct. 11.

The Moose will play a pair of exhibition games against the University of Manitoba Bisons (Oct. 5, 7 p.m. at Wayne Fleming Arena and Oct. 9, 1 p.m. at the Hockey For All Centre) to get ready for the start of their season on Oct. 11.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg