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Winnipeg Jets Season Review: Back End of the Blue Line

By Kyle McCarthy

ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 17: Joe Morrow #70 and Connor Hellebuyck #37 of the Winnipeg Jets celebrate after defeating the Minnesota Wild in Game Four of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Xcel Energy Center on April 17, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 17: Joe Morrow #70 and Connor Hellebuyck #37 of the Winnipeg Jets celebrate after defeating the Minnesota Wild in Game Four of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Xcel Energy Center on April 17, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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As you may have noticed, depth is what separates good teams from great teams. The Winnipeg Jets depth deserves its due.

The Winnipeg Jets know depth is so important in the NHL. Everyone does. High-end depth. Look at the recent Pittsburgh Penguins. A team with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang underperforming?

Well, they turned that team around by just pulling dudes off the farm team who really performed beyond what you could expect. They had people to fill in the extra spots when the stars couldn’t.

You don’t win two Cups in a row by accident. We’re just hoping the Jets start with one. The Jets offensive depth is ridiculous, and their defensive depth is there. It’s not non-existent. It’s not subpar. Fine. They’re fine.

The back end of the defense mostly consisted of Dmitry Kulikov, Ben Chiarot, Toby Enstrom and Tucker Poolman. Kulikov, Enstrom and Chiarot all played over half of the team’s games. Poolman played in 24.

The team also acquired Joseph Morrow at the deadline to help out. He’s notable for one reason, and that was scoring the game-winning goal against Minnesota in the playoffs. One playoff win? Well, it was the new Winnipeg Jets first win in the playoffs. Joe Morrow has been etched into the history books.

He also added one goal in 18 regular season games. The others? A combined seven goals in 186 games. Defenseman who don’t get in on the powerplay aren’t there to score. And it’s hard to evaluate them otherwise.

All of them, save for Kulikov, had positive Corsi%. And he was only just a shade under. It’s hard for back end dudes to have good Corsi, so I’ll take that as a good sign.

Look, none of these dudes appeared to hurt the Jets in their limited time. They’re workmanlike. Nobody gives credit to the back end of the blueline. These guys are all helping the Jets in limited minutes.

Trust me, you know if a defenseman is hurting your team. Every team seems to have that one guy the fan base hates. I don’t know who fills that spot for Winnipeg, and that’s good.

Next: Jets Whiff on FA

The only one of these players without a contract is Toby Enstrom, who is a UFA. I’m surprised he hasn’t been brought back yet. Who knows.

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