Samberg back on the blue line

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This article was published 09/01/2025 (242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been nearly seven weeks since Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg stepped in front of a Steven Stamkos slapshot and paid a very painful price.

“I had that feeling where you just know it was broken,” Samberg said Thursday as he spoke for the first time since the Nov. 23 injury against the Nashville Predators.

The 25-year-old defenceman spent about two seconds on the ice before he jumped up, hopped to the front of the net on his right foot and somehow completed a penalty killing shift — including getting in front of another Stamkos one-timer that mercifully missed him.

“Sometimes there’s not much you can do about it, where you get hemmed in the zone there and you don’t want to leave your team to a five-on-three,” Samberg said of gutting it out. “Sometimes you just have to battle it out.”

A hockey player’s mentality, no question.

“I don’t know, it all happened so fast, I was more worried about my foot than the next shot. I happened to be in the lane. Sometimes you’ve got to block two,” Samberg said.

“Sometimes you just have to battle it out.”–Dylan Samberg

“At that point there’s not really much you can do. Just take it with a grain of salt and work hard to try and get back in shape. Now we’re here.”

The Jets will welcome Samberg back to the lineup on Friday night as an eight-game homestand that is 1-1-1 so far hits the midway mark with a visit from the Los Angeles Kings. He got through a pair of full-contact skates this week without issue and will take his usual spot on the second-pairing beside fellow Minnesotan Neal Pionk.

“What did I miss most? How quiet it was in the locker room,” Pionk said with a chuckle. “No, we missed his presence, especially on the PK, shot blocking stuff. Obviously as a D partner, we have a lot of chemistry, so you miss some of that stuff.”

The Jets went 11-8-2 in the 21 games without Samberg after going 17-4-0 in the 21 games with him in the lineup.

“He has earned the opportunity to become a top four defenceman the last few years,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said of Samberg, who has six points (3G, 3A) along with 18 penalty minutes and a plus-12 rating this season.

“Him being able to go against top-six forwards, his footwork, his ability to close, be physical and be heavy on those guys makes such a difference. He is a key piece for us and when you lose those guys, they are hard to replace.”

There was more good news on Thursday, as Josh Morrissey was a full participant in practice and is good to go against the Kings. Winnipeg’s No. 1 blue-liner left Tuesday’s 5-2 win over Nashville after running into teammate Mark Scheifele and crashing into the post. It appears the damage was limited to a charley horse and nothing more.

Haydn Fleury initially took Samberg’s spot beside Pionk, only to suffer his own injury on Dec. 23 which has kept him out of the lineup. That opened the door for Logan Stanley to move up, and the towering blue-liner has really struggled at times — especially in the most recent outing against the Predators.

Now, Stanley moves down to the third-pairing with Dylan Coghlan — who has taken the spot of the injured Colin Miller — while Ville Heinola will be a healthy scratch after arguably his best outing of the year against Nashville beside Coghlan which included recording his first point (an assist) in 14 games.

“We’ve got a good team in here. They were an easy watch over the past six weeks.”–Dylan Samberg

“I really liked how they both played. But I really liked what Cogs did, more than anything,” Arniel said, noting he wanted a lefty-righty combination against the Kings.

Heinola-Coghlan would have checked off that box, of course, but it’s clear the team’s priority is to keep playing Stanley at this point. Arniel said he’s “not married to” Stanley and Coghlan together, which potentially opens the door for a Stanley-Heinola pairing that we’ve seen a few times so far this year.

It’s worth noting Fleury (non-contact jersey) and Miller (on his own) have resumed skating in recent days, so the blue-line could soon be extremely crowded provided nobody else gets sidelined.

As for Samberg, he knows his role and that means getting right back in shooting lanes and hoping for the best despite having ample recent evidence of the risk involved.

“I’ll always have that one shot in the back of my mind, but that’s part of the game, that’s part of my role to block shots on the penalty kill. You gotta do what you gotta do,” he said.

However, to help the cause he’s now added an all-encompassing shot blocker to his skates, after previously leaving the top part uncovered (which is where Stamkos’s shot hit him).

“I’ve got a Transformer skate now, pretty much,” said Samberg.

The 43rd-overall pick from the 2017 NHL draft previously broke his right foot playing hockey several years ago, which helped him anticipate what this process would be like.

“Recovery was pretty much the same. There’s only so much you can do, it takes a while to get back on the ice, you have to make sure it’s healed a certain amount,” he said.

“There’s only so much you can do in the gym for that time. It’s not like a muscle where you can do all this needling stuff and other stuff. It’s just a bone. You have to wait for it to heal and take it day-by-day.”

That can be tough mentally, although Samberg said his team’s continued solid play made it easier to digest.

“We’ve got a good team in here. They were an easy watch over the past six weeks,” he said.

Samberg also credited his wife, Destiny, who convinced him to make some TikTok videos over the last few weeks, including ones where Samberg was lip-syncing and dancing.

“I had a feeling that was going to come up,” he said when asked if he’s now a social media star. “My wife’s big into it, and she’s been bugging me for a while to do it. It was more of a late Christmas present for her. We had a lot of fun doing it.”

At 28-12-2, the Jets are certainly enjoying life. Now, after playing just once in the past five days, they will face the Kings, followed immediately by the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night in a rare back-to-back on home ice.

With no travel involved, the Jets may switch up the usual order and have backup Eric Comrie face the Kings, with starter Connor Hellebuyck going against the red-hot Avalanche who have been climbing the Central Division standings and just beat Comrie and the Jets 5-2 on New Year’s Eve in Denver.

“It’s a great test. Two really good teams in the West. We’re excited for it,” said Pionk. “We’ve got to bring our best against these two teams.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg