Winnipeg Jets 2021-2022 Depth Chart 3.0: The Season is Almost Here

Training camp is almost at a close for the Winnipeg Jets and the Jets opening night roster is starting to take shape.

On Monday, the Jets reassigned eleven players to their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, and now they only have 26 skaters and two goaltenders in their training camp.

That means the Jets will have to trim down their roster down to 23 players for their season-opening roster. So far our site has released two different depth charts for the Jets, but with the roster trimmed down, we will give an updated projection.

Do not expect many changes regarding the Winnipeg Jets depth chart

First, let’s take a look at the players that will be the first ones to miss out on making the Jets. To start off, Bryan Little will be headed to the long-term injured reserve. This then brings the roster down to 27.

Dylan Samberg, Nelson Nogier, and CJ Suess are all injured and all have different return timetables. Samberg suffered a high ankle sprain during the first day of camp and will be out for at least the next month. Nogier and Suess are both week-to-week and should be returning soon.

It will be extremely interesting to see who the final two roster cuts are and there is no telling yet what may happen (our prediction is below). The Jets may carry two extra forwards and one extra defenseman on their roster.

Forwards

The Jets’ top three lines have been extremely consistent since camp has begun and there is no indication that those lines will change, but there has been a great battle for the final spots upfront.

Riley Nash and Jansen Harkins are also roster shoe-ins, so that leaves four players for the remaining three spots.

Both Evgeny Svechnikov and Cole Perfetti have played extremely well throughout camp and there is a great chance to see both of these players on the final roster. Especially when you consider Mark Scheifele will be suspended for the first game of the season, leaving these two players gives the Jets coaching staff offensive options to adjust their opening lineup to fill Scheifele’s void.

But then upon Scheiefle’s return or sometime soon after, we could see Perfetti get sent down to the Moose to get some valuable top-line minutes in the AHL.

David Gustafsson has yet to play a full season with either the Jets or Moose and since he is still a younger player, he may be sent down to start the year to get game time rather than being scratched with the Jets.

Below is a potential forward depth chart:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Copp-Dubois-Ehlers
Stastny-Lowry-Vesalainen
Harkins-Nash-Svechnikov
Extras: Toninato-Perfetti

Defense

The Jets defense looks set for the upcoming season. From before training camp started it was projected that Neal Pionk would play alongside Brandon Dillon, Josh Morrissey would be on a pair with Nate Schmidt, and a combination of Logan Stanley and Dylan DeMelo would be the third pairing. This is set to come to fruition in less than a week’s time.

The question is who will make be the odd man out of the roster, Nathan Beaulieu or Ville Heinola? There is a good chance that it will be Heinola that gets sent down to the AHL.

The twenty-year-old is one of the top prospects in the Jets’ organization and he falls victim to the Jets having a defensive corps with an immense amount of depth this year. Heinola may benefit from being the number one defenseman in Manitoba playing a considerable amount of minutes a night compared to a small workload if he were to stay with the Jets.

The Jets coaching staff has employed a pairing of Beaulieu and DeMelo throughout the preseason. This gives options depending on the opposition whether to play Stanley or Beaulieu with DeMelo.

Here is how the Jets defense is projected to line up:

Dillon-Pionk
Morrissey-Schmidt
Stanley-DeMelo
Extra: Beaulieu

Goaltenders

There was a question at the beginning of camp about whether Mikhail Berdin could challenge Eric Comrie for the backup role behind Connor Hellebuyck.

We got that answer to that question earlier in the week when the Jets made their roster moves and reassigned Berdin to the Moose. This move means that Comrie will be Hellebuyck’s backup.

Hellebuyck is usually one of the league leaders in games played and the Jets rely on him heavily, but it will be interesting to see how an inexperienced NHL goaltender in Comrie performs when called upon.

Here is Winnipeg’s goaltending depth chart:

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Winnipeg Jets Fans: What are your thoughts on this potential depth chart for the Winnipeg Jets? Leave your comments below