Puck officially drops on shortened pre-season

Nearly six minutes into his question-and-answer session, Scott Arniel took a welcome detour from the news of the day.

After exhausting the discussion around the goalie who wasn’t in training camp, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets finally got a query about the line combinations and defensive pairings that were unveiled in training camp.

And unlike past years, when exhibition games were more frequent and the training camp wasn’t this condensed, Arniel conceded these groupings were intentional and were likely staying together for some time.

The expansion to an 84-game regular season brings with it a reduction to four pre-season games and a much shorter training camp, which could limit the amount of experimentation that Arniel can do during the next two weeks.

The most noticeable change was to the top line, where Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor were joined by Cole Perfetti — whose top line promotion comes after the 10th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft inked a five-year extension during the summer.

Back to full health after dealing with a high ankle sprain for much of last season, Perfetti couldn’t contain his enthusiasm about the prospects of building chemistry with his new linemates.

“In pro sports, you’re always striving for more, you’re always trying to get more and earn more,” said Perfetti. “Now that you’re given that opportunity, now you’ve got to take your game to another level. Playing with those two guys, they’re obviously special talents. I’m going to have to ramp my game up.

“It’s a different style of play. They’re so fast, so good, they make little, quick plays that you’re going to have to read and react off of them. That’s kind of my game as well. Hockey IQ kind of stuff.”

Connor enjoyed some success on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Perfetti just as the young winger was breaking into the NHL.

“He’s a real cerebral player and reads the ice real well and kind of has all the intangibles,” said Connor. “He’s got a really sneaky shot and he can get it off quick and score goals in tight. I think he competes hard, and (has) a good stick on him, takes a lot of takeaways, too. He gets in the defender’s hands and he can just bring all that and just play his game. Doesn’t need to change much.”

Perfetti’s promotion meant that Gabriel Vilardi found himself alongside 2026 first-rounder Viggo Bjorck and Isak Rosen, who was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres at the 2026 trade deadline.

“Good opportunity for me to step into more of a leadership role,” said Vilardi, who was asked if he planned to learn a new language to communicate with Bjorck and Rosen. “No. I already told them both. I said there’s no Swedish allowed. When I’m standing beside them, at least.”

Bjorck caught Vilardi’s attention while playing against him at the IIHF men’s world hockey championship in May and he was excited to see him chosen eighth overall by the Jets back in June.

“I thought he looked really good at the Worlds, and I thought he was someone that I thought we should target,” said Vilardi. “I was watching on draft night and I was hoping that he would fall to us and then he did. And then I was really hoping they would pick him, and they did.

“At Worlds, I thought he was very strong on his stick for a young kid. And seeing him here, it’s proven that he has a really good stick. He keeps plays alive. I think he uses his size to his advantage. And he’s very low — (has) a very low centre of gravity out there. He’s a little shifty out there. Again, this is only me seeing him in skates for a week, but that’s what I’ve gotten to notice.”

Bjorck is going to garner plenty of attention during the coming weeks and his transition to the NHL game will be closely monitored, with early indications that the forward is ready to meet the moment and won’t be intimidated by it.

As for Rosen, he’s working to become a full-time NHLer after suiting up in 21 games with the Jets and another 16 with the Sabres last season.

Rosen is in a battle for ice time with a number of youngsters, including Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov and Brayden Yager, and recognizes he needs to show that his AHL production can translate to the NHL level on a more consistent basis.

“Yeah, I mean it’s all about getting to the hard spots, be in the middle of the ice and get the shot off,” said Rosen. “Then, be where the goals are scored, be around the net and get some rebounds and stuff like that. I believe it’s going to come. (It’s a) great opportunity. Viggo is very smart in setting up plays, and I think Gabe is (like) that too, and really good around the net. So, that’s good for me.”

Arguably the best news is that the Jets are mostly healthy, beginning training camp with just three players who are on the mend.

Defenceman Elias Salomonsson (shoulder) was on the ice working with Jets skills coach Matt Larke, but he remains week-to-week with Arniel saying the aim is for him to be back before the end of October and if it happens to be sooner that would be a bonus.

Garrett Brown suffered a lower-body injury in the first Prospect Challenge game last weekend in Gatineau, Que., but the diagnosis is better than doctors originally thought as there were some concerns the defence prospect might have suffered a season-ending injury when he was on the receiving end of a hard check.

Forward Walker Duehr (lower body), however, is sidelined for the foreseeable future.

Arniel wasn’t ready to reveal any of the particular findings from his off-season homework assignment, other than to reinforce the importance of playing fast and learning from last season’s shortcomings.

“We’re still a damn good hockey team. I really believe it,” said Arniel. “It’s no excuse, but everything that could go wrong went wrong last year. Whatever those things were, we have a big group of players that want to be better than what they showed last year and we have a coaching staff that wants to be better than what we did last year. We’re all motivated to do more.

“We’re not built on one or two players. We’ve never been built (like that). As much as maybe some people on the outside and maybe some on the inside think we were a one- or two-trick pony, we’re more of a collective. We’ve always been about our collective and, for me, that’s what I’m going to continue to build on.”

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