Jets drink at fountain of youth
Rookies Ehlers, Petan, Copp crack the big team's roster
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/10/2015 (3654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Three rookies have made the Winnipeg Jets, but it’s only the continuation of the team’s youth movement, not the start.
Two seasons ago Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba broke in as full-time players and Anthony Peluso played more than half a season as an official rookie.
Last season, the Jets used freshmen Adam Lowry, Michael Hutchinson and, once he was recalled in December, Ben Chiarot in full-time roles.
For 2015-16, three more rookies, Nikolaj Ehlers, 19, Nic Petan, 20 and Andrew Copp, 21, have all made the club to start the year.
“We’ve got enough strength around them,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said, asked about the continuing rookie flow into the team with the three forwards this season. “We have gotten younger by design.”
It was a reference to the team’s draft-and-develop commitment.
“There’s challenges with that,” Maurice said. “So there’s some unknowns at the start of each year. We believe we have enough depth in our blue-line. So what’s not changed is our back end is… veteran status, that they’re older than the other guys so that makes them veterans.
“So that’s the strength. That back end is going to have to be real strong and buy time for some of these younger players to learn about the other team.
“We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again.”
Ehlers, the ninth pick of the 2014 draft, has cracked the lineup as a 19-year-old.
“I feel great,” he said. “Of course, I’m still here and I’m just happy for sure. I’ve worked hard for this and I’m here.”
It appears his first assignment will be on a line with Mark Scheifele and Mathieu Perreault.
Jets vets,on the rookies: ‘It’s just kind of the way it works out sometimes. But they’ve obviously earned a spot and done a lot of good things to be where they are right now. It’s exciting to have some fresh faces in the lineup and look at the skill level they bring to the table’
— Andrew Ladd
‘If you look back at last year, look at what those rookies, Ben and Hutch (and Lowry) did. We have a lot of young kids banging on the door, which is good. It pushes the older guys, too, to compete harder. Looking at the roster this year, we have three new kids coming in and knocking on the door. I think it’s looking good for the future’
— Toby Enstrom
‘That’s a good thing, no? We have a young team and a lot of talent in this dressing room. It’s going to be a fun year. This is going to be good’
— Alex Burmistrov
‘This year is my future watch. Look around the league, it’s getting younger every year. You have to have your young guys ready to contribute from Day 1. That’s partly on the young guys to come in and be ready and wiling to adapt to what we do, and partly on the older guys to get them up to our speed, to try to be a sounding board for them if they have any questions, to make them feel comfortable so they’re not out there feeling overwhelmed.’
— Blake Wheeler
“It’s pretty good,” Ehlers said, asked about joining a line centred by Scheifele. “I felt like the last game we played against Calgary here we played really well together. So that feels very good to be playing on a line with.”
Petan, who had a long look at camp last fall and was one of the final cuts, said the feeling was a good one on Monday.
“Last night, not much sleep but now, knowing a little bit more, just got to stay focused and have the same mindset as coming into camp,” Petan said. “It was pretty exciting. You think about it all the time growing up, whether in junior, so it was good to hear (it) from him.”
Petan said he feels good about what he showed during his six pre-season games.
“My ability to play, ability to keep up, ability to fit in with the team,” he said.
His role to start may well be on the fourth line, but that’s no issue, he said.
“I think right now I’m happy with what I’ve got,” Petan said. “I think I could get a little bit of power-play time, so that helps out with some touches on the ice.
“I’m excited to get that game going.”
Maurice was a little more cautious about the decisions Monday.

“I’ll be a little bit careful with these young guys,” he said about his rookies. “The Moose are right down the road and for anybody in that situation, it’s not really making the team, it’s surviving your first year.
“They’re fighting for days. But they’ve had a good camp. So we’ve picked the team that we think gives us the best chance to win a hockey game.”
Without including whatever solution may come to the Thomas Raffl case — his tryout arrangement was still in effect Monday and he practised with the team — the 23 players with contracts make the Jets’ average age 26.5 years.
That will place them well to the low side in the NHL, possibly in the youngest two or three teams again this season when final rosters are sorted out.
Last season, no NHL team had more than three rookies who played at least half the season.
tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca
History
Updated on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 7:56 AM CDT: Photo added.