On Monday evening, after the Winnipeg Jets finalized their 2022-2023 season opening night roster, they subsequently announced that they reassigned Ville Heinola to the Manitoba Moose.
Many were surprised by this move considering Heinola played well during the preseason and arguably performed better than Logan Stanley who made the roster.
Since Heinola was drafted as the 20th overall selection in the 2019 NHL draft, he has only played in 25 NHL games with the Jets. He played eight of those games, the season after he was drafted but failed to cement his spot on Winnipeg’s roster.
In those 3 seasons since being drafted, the defenseman has played in 63 AHL games with the Moose and has been loaned back to his home country of Finland twice, for more playing opportunities.
This year many believed the top Jets’ top defensive prospect would slot into the open sixth defenseman lineup spot, but as mentioned above, many were astonished by the fact that the twenty-one-year-old did not make the opening roster this season.
Twitter reacts to the Winnipeg Jets reassigning Ville Heinola to the Manitoba Moose
The first tweet listed below gives light as to why the Jets may have sent Heinola down. The reason being is that former Jets coach, Paul Maurice sent Heinola to the AHL at the beginning of the past two seasons. Now the Jets are under the tutelage of a new bench boss, Rick Bowness, and Bowness did the same with Heinola.
Therefore, two different NHL coaches came to the same conclusion about the young Finland-born defenseman. The reply tweet adds to a reason why Heinola may have not made Winnipeg’s roster:
If you honestly watched Heinola in the preseason and after seeing that sample size truly believe he deserves to start the season in the NHL (and wouldn't be a liability to your team) I'd be shocked. As a Jets fan I SO wanted him in this lineup, but not after what I recently saw
— JB (@WpgJohnnyB) October 12, 2022
The next tweet follows this same pattern of thinking regarding Heinola as the tweet above:
There’s either a very long conspiracy, involving two coaching staffs, against advancing Ville Heinola’s career OR
— Gordon Fritzsche (@gordonfritzsche) October 11, 2022
Just maybe….
He’s not that good? #NHLJets
This next tweet states the point that the Jets may now have a plan for Heinola:
Sending Heinola to the AHL to work on specific areas of his game is not a mistake in anyway shape or form. He is a young, elite, talent set on a course to grow from this experience. Bowness and the Jets finally have a clear path and direction for Heinola to succeed. #NHLJets
— Excel (@TriniKP) October 11, 2022
The rest of the tweets listed below seem unhappy with the Jets’ decision to move Heinola to the AHL to start the season:
It's as simple as this: cole perfetti and ville heinola think the game at a higher level. Both should be on PP2 developing that connection this year! I would make room for samberg and heinola. If you worried about size, trade demelo or pionk. Make it happen chevy! #NHLJets
— Ezzie^ (@ezzie2424) October 12, 2022
If Heinola's demotion was about defensive miscues, almost the entire Jets blueline would have been sent to the ECHL by now. At some point, WPG is going to have to accept very few of it's defenders actually defend all that well. Embrace the offense and defend through attack.
— Harrison Lee 🇰🇷 (@HLLivingLoco) October 11, 2022
If I'm ville heinola I'm publicly demanding a trade honestly #nhljets
— jetsburner (@nhlburnerboi) October 10, 2022
As you can clearly see above, people are on both sides of the argument regarding Heinola’s reassignment. Only time will tell if this was a smart decision from the Jets’ coaching staff and front office.
The Full Opening Night Roster of the Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets have announced their opening night roster for the 2022-2023 regular season. Here is the breakdown of the Jets roster.