Winnipeg Jets NCAA Prospects Start Their Seasons This Weekend
The Winnipeg Jets NCAA prospects start their seasons this weekend. Here’s all you need to know at the start of the college hockey season.
The Winnipeg Jets are currently in the midst of their preseason and we are only a couple of short weeks away from the Jets beginning their 2021-2022 regular season, but there will be plenty of hockey to watch this weekend as the college hockey season starts.
There are a number of mainstays on the Jets roster who have played collegiate hockey including Blake Wheeler, Connor Hellebuyck, Neal Pionk, Andrew Copp, Kyle Connor, Nate Schmidt, and Paul Stastny. Not to mention, there are a bunch more players in the Jets organization that have played collegiately.
In the past couple of drafts, Winnipeg has taken a number of NCAA players or players who were committed to play college hockey the fall after the draft.
Most of these Winnipeg Jets draft picks who are playing college hockey and their respective schools kick off their seasons this weekend.
This slideshow will mention each Jets prospect who currently plays college hockey, the school they represent, a thing or two to watch for, and when their opening games are.
Chaz Lucius
The University of Minnesota
To kick off this list we start with the Jets’ first-round pick from this past summer’s NHL Entry Draft, Chaz Lucius.
After two years at the United States National Development Program, Lucius will begin his collegiate career this season at Minnesota when they host the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a pair of games (on Saturday and Sunday) at the 3M Arena at Mariucci.
The eighteen-year-old is known to be an offensive talent and goal scorer. His skills will be on full display and he should be fun to watch in his freshman season.
Lucius is looking to follow in the footsteps of Winnipeg Jets players who have formed outstanding NHL careers after playing collegiately for the Golden Gophers including Jets captain, Blake Wheeler and, newly acquired defenseman, Nate Schmidt.
Nathan Smith
Minnesota State Univ. (Mankato)
Nathan Smith is looking to post his third consistent season in a row after having outstanding freshman and sophomore campaigns, which included making it to the Frozen Four last season. Smith played outstanding in the semi-finals but his two goals were not enough as Minnesota State Mankato lost in the semifinals to St. Cloud State.
In his first two seasons for the Mavericks, the centerman has 18 goals and 34 assists for 52 points in 63 games played. Last season, the Florida native was named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team.
There is a great reason to watch Smith at the beginning of this season because he will be tested. Tomorrow and Sunday, Smith and the Mavericks will play a two-game set on the road at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who are the reigning NCAA Division 1 champions. Then the following weekend the Mavericks will host, the same team who beat them in the Frozen Four and the Divison 1 runners-up, St. Cloud for two games.
The twenty-two-year-old has a high upside and potential and has all the makings to be a mainstay in the future for the Winnipeg Jets.
Logan Neaton
Miami University (Ohio)
The first player on our list that will be suiting up for a new school is goaltender, Logan Neaton. For his first two years at the collegiate level, the Jets’ former 2019 fifth-round pick was at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
In his two years at UMASS-Lowell, Neaton only appeared in six games and had an 0-3-0 record with a 4.29 goals against average and a .862 save percentage. Neaton then transferred to the Miami University of Ohio.
Neaton will definitely be looking to turn his stats around and get consistent playing time for the Redhawks.
The Redhawks and Neaton will be on the road to start their season with a two-game series at Ferris State. Game one is scheduled for tomorrow night and the series will conclude on Sunday afternoon.
Jared Moe
University of Wisconsin
The second Winnipeg prospect that will feature for a new school this year is Jared Moe who transferred from the University of Minnesota to fellow BIG Ten rival, the University of Wisconsin.
Moe performed admirably in his freshman year putting up outstanding numbers and being named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. During 2019-2020, Moe had a 7-5-1 record with a 2.46 goals against average, .915 save percentage, and one shutout.
Unfortunately for Moe, he only appeared in three games last season to no fault of his own. Jack LaFontaine was named the starting goaltender for Minnesota at the beginning of the season and played so great, that the coaching staff could not take him out. In the three games that Moe played in last season, he had a 2-0-0 record.
The former 2018 sixth-round Jets draft choice will be looking to take the reigns of the Badgers’ number one goaltender and it will be interesting to see if he can return to his form from two seasons ago.
Wisconsin has an exhibition game Sunday against Minnesota Duluth and then will kick off their season next weekend as they host Michigan Tech for two games.
Harrison Blaisdell
University of New Hampshire
The third and final transfer player on this list is Harrison Blaisdell. No, Blaisdell is not a goaltender like the other two, he is a forward. Blaisdell spent his first two years at the University of North Dakota but now will feature for the University of New Hampshire.
Winnipeg’s fifth-round pick from the 2019 draft, had two goals in his first three games at North Dakota but failed to score in his next 48 games. Blaisdell finished his career with the Fighting Hawks with 16 points in 51 games and a plus-16 plus/minus.
Blaisdell is known as being a strong two-way center with a great shot. He has done extremely well on the defensive side on the puck in his first two NCAA seasons and maybe a change of scenery can ignite his scoring touch.
We will have to wait another weekend to see Blaisdell in action with his new as UNH will begin their season next weekend (October 8-9) with a pair of home games against Union.
Austin Wong
Harvard University
The last player to be featured is Austin Wong. The reason why Wong is listed last is because he will not be starting his season until the last weekend of October. This is simply because Harvard does not start their season until October 29 with a matchup against Dartmouth College.
Wong will be back in action this year for Harvard after playing for the school in 2019-2020 and leaving the school to play in the USHL last year because the IVY league canceled their winter sports due to the pandemic.
The Jets 2018 seventh-round pick only appeared in 21 out of the 31 games for the Crimson in his freshman year and registered six points.
Last year, Wong had 15 goals and nine assists for the Fargo Force in the USHL. The Alberta native is more of a power forward who can pick up a decent amount of points. In Wong’s junior career in the AJHL, he has amassed 549 penalty minutes in just 155 games played.
It may be worth keeping an eye on Wong to see how he adjusts back to the collegiate style of play of spending last season with Fargo, but we have just a little less than a month till we see Wong take to the ice with Harvard.
Stay tuned to our site we will have Jets prospect updates throughout the upcoming season!
Winnipeg Jets Fans: Which Winnipeg Jets prospect playing collegiate hockey are you most excited to watch this season? Leave your comments below!
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*All Stats Provided by Elite Prospects*