Jets could learn from their little AHL brothers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2022 (1310 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s no secret the Winnipeg Jets have leaned heavily on the farm this season, turning to the Manitoba Moose time and time again to help bolster their depleted roster as injuries and illness take a major toll.

But it says here the big club might want to consider calling up more than just the best available forwards, defencemen and goaltenders from their AHL affiliate. How about the work ethic, structure, systems and “all for one, one for all” mentality that has made the Moose one of the great hockey stories that not a whole lot of folks are talking about.

Consider this: Manitoba currently has the fifth-best winning percentage in the entire AHL, now with a stellar 24-11-3 record following a 2-1 shootout victory over Texas on Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre. And they’ve done that despite using a whopping 40 different players through the first 38 games, including a slew of call-ups from the ECHL. Their leading scorers — forward Jeff Malott and defenceman Leon Gawanke — have just 20 points, which puts them in a tie for 124th in the AHL scoring race as of Sunday.

Despite all those challenges, head coach Mark Morrison hasn’t allowed a “woe is us” sentiment to creep into the room. The Moose keep defying the odds and winning games that, on paper, they have no business being in. Short on talent, but long on effort. It’s truly impressive. And, one would hope, infectious.

Contrast that by what’s happening with the parent club. When we last saw the talented but highly inconsistent Jets, they had limped into the All-Star break last week by losing seven of their past eight games, leading veteran Paul Stastny to launch a bit of an internal grenade and suggest the team is not on the same page, with “different guys showing up some nights, some guys not.”

“100 per cent. 100 per cent,” Morrison told me on Sunday when I suggested you won’t find any such talk around the Moose these days.

While it’s technically true that they routinely have different guys showing up, that’s entirely a product of an incredible revolving roster door they have no control over. That includes a whopping 11 players who have played games with both the Moose and the Jets, including four who have already made their NHL debuts this year.

But it’s long been said that effort trumps talent, and that’s certainly been on display for Manitoba this season. So what’s the magic formula, and can it be bottled up and shipped to the big club ASAP?

“Even though there’s guys that go in and out, we’ve always had this core group that really gets along, likes each other and takes everybody else, all the new players that come in, and makes it inclusive. And they become part of it pretty quick,” said Morrison, who is no doubt working his way on to the NHL coaching radar with the job he’s done.

You’d think the NHL and AHL clubs, especially ones like the Jets and Moose that play under the same roof, would pretty much be in lock-step with each other. But it’s striking how different the current paths of both clubs appear right now. Winnipeg is wilting under increased expectations, while Manitoba is making massive strides despite being severely shorthanded.

The top line on Sunday against the Stars was Greg Meireles centering Haralds Egle and Isaac Johnson. None of those guys are on NHL deals, and it’s safe to say even hardcore hockey fans would have trouble picking them out of a lineup. Same goes with a slew of other skaters on the active roster right now, from Matt Alfaro, Tyler Boland and Thomas Caron to Nicholas Jones, Ty Pelton-Byce and Evan Polei.

It got so thin at one point that defenceman Nelson Nogier, who has been a healthy scratch for large chunks of the year, was forced to play forward. How did he respond? By scoring two goals, of course, in an improbable victory over Chicago, who happen to be one of the four AHL teams with an even better record than Manitoba.

During one recent stretch, the Moose were without netminders Mikhail Berdin and Arvid Holm, defencemen Gawanke, Ville Heinola, Declan Chisholm, Johnathan Kovacevic, and forwards Kristian Reichel and Mikey Eyssimont. All six of those players were back in the lineup Sunday, with NHL taxi squads now dissolved. Reichel and Eyssimont, it should be noted, are the only two of the 12 forwards who played against Texas that are currently under NHL contracts.

More help could soon be on the way, with forwards David Gustafsson and C.J. Suess currently up with the Jets but recovering from injuries. And should Winnipeg fail to make the playoffs — a scenario looking more and more likely with each passing loss — it creates the potential for forwards like Cole Perfetti and Austin Poganski, who began the season with the Moose, to return for what could be a long and prosperous postseason run.

Of course, winning a Stanley Cup is the primary goal of the organization, but a Calder Cup would be a pretty sweet consolation prize.

Moose assistant coach Eric Dubois — father of Jets top centre Pierre-Luc — recently spoke about the pride he’s taken in what his group has accomplished this year, from being decimated by Jets call-ups to their own COVID outbreaks and injuries. Malott, for example, missed Sunday’s game with a lower-body injury, and Luke Johnson, a veteran of 32 NHL games signed by the Jets last summer for organizational depth, has been limited to just 11 Moose games (three goals, four assists) as he now deals with his second major injury of the year.

“They’ve done whatever it takes to win games. To battle every night, knowing that we have a shortage of players. There’s a lot of character in that dressing room,” said Dubois. “They like each other, they like to play each other. They’re happy for the success of the guy next to them.”

Sounds like the kind of culture a certain NHL team could sure use, doesn’t it?

As the Jets get back to business today, returning from the All-Star break to face a daunting challenge over the last 40 games, perhaps they might want to look to the Moose for a little inspiration — and perhaps motivation — about how it’s done.