The Winnipeg Jets have faltered as of late and have fallen out of the Western Conference Wild Card playoff race and, according to one source, they have a 0.2% of making the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
With this being said, both I and fellow writer, Dan St. Joseph have pointed out that the Jets need to start looking at the future and give their prospects a chance at the NHL level. I made the case for Leon Gawanke to get called up, while Dan highlighted three players that should be called up from the Manitoba Moose.
Yesterday evening, it was reported that the Jets have started looking at the long-term future of the franchise and signed two of their prospects to entry-level contracts.
Reports indicate that the Winnipeg Jets have signed Henri Nikkanen and Daniel Torgersson to contract
According to CapFriendly, these deals will start for the 2022-2023 season and both of these contracts are your standard entry-level deals that last for three seasons and have an average annual value of $925,000 at the NHL level.
The twenty-year-old Nikkanen is a center that hails from Finland. He was originally drafted by the Jets in the fourth round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.
He has played his whole career in Finland and has played this season for Pelicans in Liiga where he had seven goals, five assists, and a minus-six plus/minus in sixty games.
Nikkanen appeared for the Finland under-twenty team at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship where he had two goals and one assist en route to winning a bronze medal.
Torgersson, a winger from Sweden, was drafted in the second round of the 2020 draft by Winnipeg. Just like Nikkanen, he has spent his whole career playing in his home country.
The twenty-year-old played the 2021-2022 season in the second division of the Swedish hockey pyramid for AIK. In 40 games he had seven goals, ten assists, and a zero plus/minus.
Togersson played in two games for Sweden at the 2022 World Junior Championship before they were canceled and he should be appearing in the tournament when it restarts this summer.
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Winnipeg Jets Fans: What are your initial thoughts regarding the Winnipeg Jets signing Nikkanen and Torgersson?