Every day brings us one step closer to the beginning of the 2022-2023 NHL regular season. In anticipation of Winnipeg Jets training camp which begins on Thursday, September 22, the Winnipeg Jets made an important announcement today.
The Jets announced their 2022 training camp roster which includes 28 forwards, 16 defensemen, and 6 goaltenders.
According to Mike McIntyre (@mikemcintyrewpg on Twitter), among the 50 players who are participating in Winnipeg’s camp, 44 are on NHL deals, 3 are on AHL deals, and three are unsigned draft picks, but there are no PTOs.
#NHLJets are bringing no PTOs to training camp. They will have 3 unsigned draft picks (Lambert, Zhilkin, DiVincentcitis) and 3 guys on AHL deals (Polei, Maier, Jones) along with 44 of their own on NHL deals. 50 players total (6G, 16D, 28F). #wfp https://t.co/RxPGPKd7qd
— Mike McIntyre (@mikemcintyrewpg) September 20, 2022
The Winnipeg Jets have not invited any PTOs to their training camp
Almost every season, the Jets invite a player or two on a professional tryout offer to camp. For the 2021 season, the Jets invited Trevor Lewis to camp on a PTO and for the 2021-2022 season, the Jets offered a PTO to Evgeny Svechnikov. Both of these players excelled during training camp and earned one-year NHL deals with the Jets.
Today’s news has come as a surprise to many considering the Jets’ past success with PTOs in years prior and the fact that signing a player as a PTO can be a low-risk, high-reward move.
When you look around the league a majority of the remaining unrestricted free agents are on PTOs with different franchises. Sonny Milano is on a PTO with the Calgary Flames, Jimmy Vesey is a PTO with the Rangers, Nate Thompson with the LA Kings, and the list goes on and on.
This is also interesting when you consider the amount of salary cap space the Jets have (over $4,000,000). Kevin Cheveldayoff and the Jets definitely have the cap space to bring some more role players in to bring some depth to the Jets’ forward group.
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There could be many reasons why the Jets did not invite any PTOs and it will be interesting to see if Kevin Cheveldayoff ever reveals why. Regardless, training camp and preseason will be fun to watch play out because there are opening night roster spots to be earned during the next couple of weeks.
Winnipeg Jets Fans: What are your initial reactions to the players on the Winnipeg Jets training camp roster? Leave your comments below!