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Morrissey Will Not Return To Game Three

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As the Winnipeg Jets look to take back the lead in their first-round matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights, they will have to do it without Norris candidate Josh Morrissey. The team announced that Morrissey will not return to Game Three due to a lower-body injury.

On the heels of far and away the best season of his career, Morrissey will be a huge missing presence on the ice for the Jets. The team hasn’t made any mention of his status for Game Four in their series, as they will likely give updates after tonight’s game or tomorrow. In two games played so far for Morrissey in the playoffs, he has managed one assist, dishing the puck to teammate Kyle Connor for the opening goal in this series.

Although it will be near impossible to replicate the kind of offense that Morrissey is able to bring from the back end, the one player who could hold down the fort in the meantime is defenseman Neal Pionk. Pionk has been a steady presence on the blue line for the Jets over the last four seasons, hovering around 30 points every year, including a 45-point season in 2019-20.

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Jets Hopeful Nikolaj Ehlers Will Play In Game Three

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  • The Jets are hopeful that winger Nikolaj Ehlers will be available for today’s third game against Vegas, relays Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun. Ehlers, who last weekend declared that he expected to be ready to start the playoffs, hasn’t suited up in the first two games of the series.  He’d be a welcome addition to Winnipeg’s lineup as, when healthy, Ehlers was certainly productive this season, collecting 38 points in 45 games despite averaging a career-low 15:39 per contest.

Winnipeg Jets Extend Dominic Toninato

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The Winnipeg Jets signed forward Dominic Toninato to a two-year, two-way contract extension Wednesday, the team announced. The contract carries the league minimum cap hit of $775,000.

Toninato, 29, was a full-time fixture on Winnipeg’s fourth line in 2021-22. With younger talent forcing Winnipeg’s hand during training camp, though, Toninato has instead been relegated to an AHL role for the most part this season.

In his third year in the Jets organization, Toninato played 50 games in the minors after playing just five combined the previous two years. He’s done well enough with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, notching 35 points in 50 games. He also appeared in five games with the Jets during the first part of the season before clearing waivers in December.

Initially a 2012 fifth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it took Toninato another five years to land his first NHL contract – an entry-level commitment with the Colorado Avalanche after wrapping up four seasons at the University of Minnesota’s Duluth campus. After two seasons in the Avs’ system, Toninato, then a restricted free agent, was dealt to the Florida Panthers in exchange for depth defender Jacob MacDonald.

With Florida in 2020, Toninato would record 11 points in 46 games before making his playoff debut in the team’s Qualifying Round loss to the New York Islanders. Florida opted not to qualify Toninato at the end of the season, paving the way for him to sign as an unrestricted free agent with the Jets.

Now on his third contract with Winnipeg, Toninato is an experienced call-up option if needed in a pinch, with 175 regular-season and playoff games under his belt.

PHR Playoff Primer: Vegas Golden Knights vs Winnipeg Jets

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With the start of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs upon us, PHR makes its first foray into playoff series analysis with our 2023 Playoff Primers. Where does each team stand in their series, and what storylines could dominate on and off the ice? We continue our look with the matchup between the Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets.

The #1 vs #8 seed in the Western Conference is not going to be a walk in the park for the top-seeded Vegas Golden Knights. They were able to hold off the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche for the top spot in the Western Conference, and while that gives them home-ice advantage throughout the first three rounds, it does not give them an easy matchup in any of those potential series.

The Winnipeg Jets were able to hold off the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators for the final playoff spot in the west. A 7-3-0 run just before their final game of the season was enough to clinch that spot. Vegas was even hotter down the stretch, finishing 9-1-3 in their final 13 games.

Who can keep the hot streak alive for two more weeks and emerge victorious in a much tighter #1 vs #8 series than we are used to seeing in the opening round?

Regular Season Performance

Vegas: 51-22-9, 111 points, +43 goal differential
Winnipeg: 46-33-3, 95 points, +22 goal differential

Head-To-Head

October 20, 2022: Vegas 5, Winnipeg 2

October 30, 2022: Vegas 2, Winnipeg 1 (OT)

December 13, 2022: Vegas 6, Winnipeg 5

Vegas takes the season series 3-0

Team Storylines

Which Winnipeg Jets team shows up? We have seen a few different versions of the Winnipeg Jets this season. The first version was terrific, as the Jets were the best team in the Western Conference for the first half of the season. They started the year with a 29-14-1 record which put them fourth in the NHL on January 16 but leading the west. A couple of tough road trips to the east followed and a bit of a free-fall began in Winnipeg.

Between January 16 and March 20 the Jets went 10-15-2 to fall to the edges of the playoff race. Instead of talking about the top seed or even home-ice advantage, they were just scrambling to try and get in at all. Then they got hot again and finished the season 7-4-0 to get into the playoffs as the final wildcard seed.

So which Jets team do we see in the next two weeks? The best team in the west like we saw for more than three months to begin the season? The struggling team that showed up for about two months late in the year or the back-against-the-wall squad that was able to grind out wins in the final couple weeks?

Will Mark Stone return to make a difference? While the Jets were the top team in the west at some points, the Golden Knights were right behind them. The difference was the Golden Knights were able to remain consistent throughout the season, even while dealing with some huge injuries. One of the biggest injuries they suffered was to Mark Stone, a fantastic two-way winger who is capable of scoring at a point-per-game pace and is better defensively than offensively. He has been out of the Vegas lineup for the second half of the season and the team began the year 28-13-2 with Stone in the lineup. He was cleared for contact recently and could be back as soon as Game 1. If so, the team that finished the season at the top of the Western Conference just got a whole lot better.

Can Connor Hellebuyck continue late-season heroics? Hellebuyck’s season kind of mirrored the Jets season. He was fantastic for the first three months of the season, but then slipped a bit and did not have great numbers in January, February or March. However, he was able to recapture his magic late in the season and helped the Jets clinch a playoff spot with some spectacular play in their final handful of games. In his last ten games he had a 1.80 GAA and a .936 SV% to propel the Jets into the playoffs. If he can keep up that terrific play, the Jets will be in great shape.

Can the Knights find a reliable starting goalie? While the Jets have one of the NHL’s most reliable, and busiest goaltenders, the Knights had a hard time finding a consistent goaltender most of the season. Adin Hill and Logan Thompson played the most games for the Golden Knights this season in goal, and were steady as they each posted a .915 SV%. However, Hill was hurt over a month ago and has not played a game since March 7. Thompson has also dealt with injuries and has only played one game since February 9.

The Kings acquired veteran Jonathan Quick at the trade deadline but he doesn’t appear to have the same Stanley Cup winning magic he had a decade ago. Quick played ten games with the Golden Knights, posting a 3.13 GAA and a .901 SV% in that time.

It appears their starter could be Laurent Brossoit, who recently served as Hellebuyck’s rarely used backup for three seasons. Brossoit played most of this season in the AHL with the Henderson Silver Knights before being called up due to Hill and Thompson being injured. He played great down the stretch, winning his five April starts while posting a 1.59 GAA and a .946 SV%. Can he continue that hot streak into the postseason? Can he stare down his former teammate in the opposite goal and match him save for save? If so, the Golden Knights have a terrific chance of advancing.

How does Jack Eichel perform in first ever playoff series? Golden Knights leading scorer Jack Eichel is 26 years old and has had a great career so far, but he will suit up for his first ever playoff game when this series begins. He has scored 446 points in 476 career regular season games, but the playoffs are a different entity.

Whose depth proves to be greater? While Eichel was the team’s leading scorer, he only had 66 points. He did also only play 67 games so it was a great season for him, but there are no Art Ross Trophy candidates on this roster. That doesn’t mean they can’t score, as they have plenty of depth with Chandler Stephenson, Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, Alex Pietrangelo and William Karlsson all scoring more than 50 points and Mark Stone certainly would have if healthy.

The Jets roster is built similarly. Kyle Connor had nearly a point-per-game season with 80 points in 82 games and Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, Nino Niederreiter and Cole Perfetti can all contribute plenty of offense.

It will be a difficult task for both teams defensive pairs to shut down all three of the opposing team’s top lines and should lead to some depth players stepping up to play big roles in this series since neither team is leaning on just a couple of players to provide scoring. Both teams are set up for balanced scoring and it will be interesting to see if anyone can step up and score over a point per game in the series to give their team the edge.

Prediction

The prediction: On paper, the Jets look just as good as the Golden Knights, and they were at times, but they found ways to be inconsistent throughout the season. The Knights on the other hand were able to continue their winning ways even with key players out of the lineup for long stretches. The Golden Knights will outlast the Jets in a long, hard-fought series and win in seven games.

Winnipeg Jets Recall Dominic Toninato

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The Winnipeg Jets have recalled forward Dominic Toninato from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. After playing 77 games last season, Toninato has spent most of this season in the AHL, save for a run of four games in November that he spent with the Jets.

The move puts the veteran forward back on the Jets’ roster in advance of tonight’s regular-season finale against the Colorado Avalanche, and serves as a nice reward for the quality season he’s turned in with the Jets’ farm squad. In 49 AHL contests this season Toninato has scored 19 goals and 33 points, and he’s helped the Moose land comfortably as the third seed in the AHL’s Central Division.

At the NHL level, Toninato registered one assist in the four-game run he had in November, although he played under seven minutes of ice time in three of the four games he drew into. Last season, Toninato spent almost the entire season at the NHL level and ended up playing in 77 games, registering 14 points.

He did average about a minute and a half of short-handed ice-time per game, but seeing as the Jets had the fourth-worst penalty kill last season it’s understandable that Winnipeg’s new coaching staff under Rick Bowness didn’t see Toninato occupying the same role this season.

Toninato’s stay on the Jets’ active roster could extend into the team’s first-round playoff series, assuming the organization prefers keeping him around as a reserve player for their NHL squad rather than having him return to the Moose to play in their AHL playoffs.

For what it’s worth, the Moose added two forwards to their roster today (Thomas Caron via recall from the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions and Carson Golden via an ATO from the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets) though those additions should not be seen as any sort of barrier to Toninato being sent back down for the AHL playoffs.

Assuming Toninato draws into the lineup tonight against the Avalanche, his game and any minutes he plays in the playoffs represent an important opportunity for his playing future. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in a few months after the expiry of his league-minimum two-way deal, and any quality games he has from this point forward will help him earn his next NHL contract.

Ryan Hartman Suspended One Game

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2:13 pm: Hartman has been suspended for one game as a result of the play, NHL Player Safety announced Wednesday afternoon.

9:07 am: The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman will face a hearing today for interference against Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers during last night’s game.

The incident occurred with 8:30 left in a contentious game between the Central Division rivals. Hartman received two minor penalties on the hit, one for interference on Ehlers and one for roughing after the play. He laid an open-ice check on Ehlers after playing the puck, with Ehlers leaving the ice surface holding the back of his head. He did not return to the game.

This isn’t Hartman’s first time in hot water with the Department of Player Safety. The 28-year-old forward has been suspended once before, for a high hit in 2018 when he was playing for the Nashville Predators.

The Wild have nothing left to play for this season with one game remaining. A regulation loss last night and a Colorado overtime loss locked them into third place in the Central.

Still, a potential Hartman absence from the lineup harms the Wild at their most vulnerable position. With Joel Eriksson Ek already sidelined week-to-week and not expected to be ready for the beginning of the playoffs, the team could be involuntarily without their top two centers for their final game of the season against Nashville on Thursday.

Neal Pionk Avoids Suspension, Earns Fine For Cross-Checking

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Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk has been fined $5,000 for cross-checking Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Johansson during a heated game between the two teams last night, the NHL Department of Player Safety said Wednesday morning. This is the maximum allowable fine under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The incident occurred late in the third period of the game, which the Jets won 3-1. Pionk received a major penalty for cross-checking Johansson, but the league felt that the infraction deserved further punishment.

Johansson was in obvious discomfort after the play, which caused him to fall to the ice. His injury status is currently unknown.

The game between the Jets and the Wild was a physical affair, with other incidents drawing the attention of the league. Wild forward Ryan Hartman is facing a potential suspension for a hit on Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers, which occurred earlier in the game. The league is expected to make a ruling on Hartman’s status later today.

The decision to hold a hearing for one incident but not the other is sure to draw ire from some. Both incidents had some perceived level of intent, depending on who you ask, and both resulted in potential injuries to the opposing players.

Josh Morrissey Expected Back Next Game

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After missing last night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, Winnipeg Jets’ defenseman Josh Morrissey is expected back Sunday according to John Lu of TSN. As the Jets look to hang onto the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference, Morrissey is projected back into the lineup as the team faces off against the New Jersey Devils next.

Since the trade deadline, the Jets have gone 7-7-1, holding their spot as the last wild-card team in the West. As the season concludes, the Jets hold a two-point advantage over the Calgary Flames and a three-point lead over the Nashville Predators. The Jets will play both teams this upcoming week, and having Morrissey back in the lineup will help their odds considerably in those matchups.

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Jacob Quillan Invited To Winnipeg Jets Training Camp

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  • Lastly, Divver reports that Quinnipiac University forward Jacob Quillan will be attending the Winnipeg Jets’ training camp this summer. As the team prepares for its second-round matchup against the Big Ten’s Ohio State University, Quillan has impressed with 16 goals and 17 assists throughout 38 games this season. The sophomore is currently undrafted and unsigned by any organization within the NHL.

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Jets Sign Parker Ford

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The Jets have dipped into college free agency, announcing the signing of forward Parker Ford to a two-year, entry-level contract.  The deal will carry an AAV of $925K and will begin next season.  Ford has also agreed to an ATO deal with Manitoba of the AHL and will finish up this season at the minor league level.

The 22-year-old recently wrapped up his four-year college career at Providence.  His offensive numbers in the last two seasons were nearly identical; he posted 12 goals and 14 assists in 37 games this year after putting up 13 goals and 14 helpers in 38 contests in 2021-22.  Over his career with the Friars, Ford had 94 points in 131 contests, putting up a higher point per game average at the NCAA level (0.71) than his time in the USHL (0.62).  He was Providence’s captain this season and finished as a Hockey East Third Team All-Star.

Winnipeg has already moved three of its draft picks for the upcoming draft and had a three-year stretch between 2019 and 2021 where they made no more than five selections in a single draft.  Accordingly, their prospect pool has been thinned out so it makes sense for the Jets to look to fill some of those gaps in college free agency.  At 5’9, Ford is a bit undersized but can play both center and the wing, bringing them some positional versatility.

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