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Franchise Previews
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Winnipeg Jets
Edmonton Oilers
Vancouver Canucks
  • Latest Thoughts
  • Franchise Previews
  • Facebook
  • About Player Ratings
  • Winnipeg Jets
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hockeythoughts.ca - Hockey thoughts in your news feed
Winnipeg Jets

Is Bryan Little the Second Best Player on the Winnipeg Jets?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

No.

But is he the second most valuable?

I think so (behind Mark Scheifele).

Bryan Little has never been the best player on the Jets, but given the role he’s grown into over the last several years, it’s foolish to overlook his impact. With the emergence of Scheifele as a bonafide top line center, Bryan Little has quietly been demoted into one of the best second line centers in the league.

His value lies with the fact that he is indeed, a centerman. With a team that is so young up the middle, losing Bryan Little 3 minutes into the season was a bigger blow than almost any other veteran going down. Scheifele, Lowry, and Petan have done their best in filling Little’s void, and Petan has shown some great playmaking ability. But make no mistake about it, this team has sorely missed a player that has Little’s capabilities resumé.

If a winger goes down, it’s not the end of the world. Wheeler, Ehlers, Stafford, Laine – you name it – when any of them misses time it affects the team much less. We have plenty of options on the wing to fill that gap. Would you replace Laine’s shot? No, but you’d still be able to move up an offensive winger like Kyle Connor. Would you replace Wheeler’s tenacity? Of course not, but we have other wingers who could fill his spot without altering the makeup of the team too much.

Little, unfortunately, was, and is a completely different story. Adam Lowry and Nic Petan were both winning 46% of draws. Scheifele, was even worse, at 43%. Tonight Paul Maurice was able to add a player to the lineup who’s been 50% for basically his whole career. That’s obviously nothing stellar, but having a veteran two way centerman who can win a draw or two will go a long, long way into how Maurice plays his matchups.

Take an opponent like the Ducks, for example. Getzlaf and Kesler are their centers and you can bet Maurice would play Scheif and Little against them. Now, in the defensive zone, he has the option of tossing out say a Perreault-Little-Armia line to go counter Getzlaf. They’re all defensively responsible, but they can play the offensive side of the puck too. If you sub in Lowry for Little there, it’s not quite the same – the line has a much more defensive look to it and their goal is to simply shutdown Getzlaf. With Little, it’s to shut them down and to outscore them.

The top-6 tonight against the Devils was Ehlers-Scheifele-Laine and Stafford-Little-Wheeler. Both of those lines can compete against the game’s best, and both of those lines can produce solid offense. If Maurice wanted to use Tanev-Lowry-Dano as a shutdown line, then that would allow Scheifele’s line to go haywire on the team’s third and fourth lines and lower defensive pairings.

Little’s return doesn’t all of a sudden make this team some sort of juggernaut, but having him down the middle gives Maurice three things: a two way presence, veteran consistency, and some face off flexibility. It wasn’t long ago that Little centered Ladd and Frolik in a shudown role, so adding that defensive awareness back to a youthful hockey squad will make a world of difference.

If this team’s injury problems reside for even a portion of December, it’s possible that December and January become real meaningful months for this hockey squad. For the first time this season they (should) have their 4 best centermen for an extended stretch of time, and given how young their replacements this team should look – and play – very different.

November 29, 2016by hockeythoughts.ca
Winnipeg Jets

Take A Look Now, Hockey World

Reading Time: 6 minutes

“How nice is it to go into the season with all 23 men healthy?” a reporter had asked head coach Paul Maurice prior to the Jets first game of the season.

“Why would you do that to me, do you hate me?” Maurice replied, with a hint of sarcasm. “..It’s a long season, we’re healthy today. If there were any wood around here I’d be hitting you over the head with it.”

Well, after 4 shifts and 2:48 of ice time, Bryan Little picked up an injury that has figured to keep him out for at least 6 weeks, and possibly as much as 8. On the bright side, he did have an assist in his 2:48 of ice time, which means he’s currently averaging 21.4 points per 60 minutes, no doubt tops in the league.

The dominoes continued to fall and soon after it was Drew Stafford, then Tyler Myers, Mathieu Perreault, Mark Stuart, Joel Armia, and Shawn Matthias. It’s a pretty big list, and oddly enough the injuries have only happened to veterans on the team – save for 23 year old Joel Armia.

And this is why it is exactly the right time to take notice of what is happening in Winnipeg.

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November 11, 2016by hockeythoughts.ca
Winnipeg Jets

The Eye Test: Four Jets Worthy of Attention

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Today’s NHL, like most sports, is becoming increasingly obsessed with numbers. And it’s for a good reason: numbers are fantastic. They give us concrete validation for what we notice and allow us to dive deep into performance analysis. Metrics such as “Shots For %” and “Points Per 60 Minutes” offer us a lens to judge players with whether the goals and assists are there or not. They allow us to analyze players over sample sizes and create meaningful discussion on a player’s impact beneath the surface.

But like you, I’m a hockey fan. And as hockey fans we all watch the games, we all have players we like, players we notice, and, numbers or no numbers, we tend to like certain players for certain things and dislike certain players for other things. You notice sometimes a calm play behind the net by a player and think “hey, I like that guy.”

So let’s throw away the numbers for today, and use the good old fashioned eye test.

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November 1, 2016by hockeythoughts.ca
Featured, Winnipeg Jets

A Thank You Letter to True North

Reading Time: 5 minutes

For those reading, allow me to introduce myself.

I have been a fan of the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets since 2005. I’ve watched exciting players such as Kovalchuk and Hossa, and had the experience of watching a franchise build from the ground up.

When I first began watching after that ’05 lockout, it was fascinating how our prospect pool only had 5 or 6 years of development, and our most mature prospects were just 23 years of age. It was a scapegoat, an acceptable reason for the lack of prospects that were developing with any sort of promise.

A common theme began to unfold.

Don Waddell, the long-time GM of the Thrashers for every year but their last, was full of ineptitude and rash decisions. After the 2005 lockout, the NHL glorified a fast paced, high scoring game. Waddell’s response? Sign Bobby Holik for 4 years, whose speed in NHL ’05 was no more than 52. The following season Marc Savard departed fresh off of a 97 point campaign playing alongside Kovalchuk. Anyone else remember that the 36 year old Steve Rucchin was his replacement? How was Rucchin going to keep pace with a speedy Russian star who started every breakout 5 feet outside his own defensive zone?

It’s a culmination of poor decisions and a complete misunderstanding of how hockey organizations are built and maintained successfully.

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October 21, 2016by hockeythoughts.ca
Winnipeg Jets

Winnpeg Jets Season Preview: Defence

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Winnipeg Jets defensive numbers took a step back last year after being one of the better defensive teams in the 2014-2015 season. Following a season in which they finished top 10 in goals against per game (GA/GP) at 2.56, the Jets got younger, and finished last season 22nd in goals against, with 2.88 GA/GP.

On paper, the Jets have a strong group of defencemen with an excellent combination of physicality and puck skills. Assistant Coach Charlie Huddy primarily works with the defenders on this squad, and it will be up to him make sure that the infusion of younger defencemen can capably overtake the ice time from some of the aging vets (ie. Mark Stuart), or from a particular restricted free agent that’s gone missing.

With Trouba’s absence and Stuart’s declining role, there figures to be 25-30 minutes of opportunity that someone will need to claim as their own.

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October 12, 2016by hockeythoughts.ca
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