One more decision looms for the Winnipeg Jets as they try to narrow their roster down to 23 for opening day by tomorrow.
Putting the pieces together, it looks like the final decision will be wheter to cut Thomas Raffl loose or offer him a contract and end Anthony Peluso’s time in Winnipeg. Head coach Paul Maurice said today that Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp and Nic Petan are likely on the 23 for Thursday’s game in Boston, leaving Raffl and Peluso to battle for the 13th forward spot and possibly the final roster spot.
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The team could also keep both Raffl and Peluso and waive either Adam Pardy or Paul Postma, although that does seem like a less likely scenario at this point. But if the Jets were to keep both Raffl and Peluso, it would likely be Pardy getting placed on waivers – a fate that happened earlier today to Jay Harrison.
While Harrison sits on waivers, JC Lipon was also reassigned to the American Hockey League to bring the Jets to their current roster size of 24. Lipon had a bright camp but was squeezed out by numbers and will likely benefit from the extra playing time with the Manitoba Moose.
Getting back to the final decision that looms for the Jets, popular thinking would be that it is Peluso that goes but the Jets have been reluctant to do that in the past. If the decision was to keep Peluso over Pardy, that would sit okay with some but getting rid of Raffl over Peluso would strike me as a bad decision. Raffl has looked good at points this preseason and as I said yesterday, “remains as an intriguing piece as when the Jets offered him a tryout before camp.” It’s hard to picture keeping a one-dimensional player like Peluso over a potential contributor but that may be the decision the Jets are right now contemplating.
Who goes? Have your say in the comments!
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