It won’t be long until the jolly fat man in the red suit arrives on his sleigh with gifts and good tidings for all.
The Jets have been pretty nice so far this season to their fan base (certainly not to their opponents), posting a 21-9-1 record to sit first in the Central Division and the entire NHL.
Despite the current Canada Post strike that’s ground mail to a halt, the magic of Christmas means letters to Santa Claus always arrive on time. (Don’t fact check that. It’s just science.) A few wishes being fulfilled this holiday season and beyond would set the Jets up even better for the rest of the season and a potential playoff run than they already are.
So, what’s on Winnipeg’s wish list? In the spirit of acknowledging that it’s better to give than receive, we’ll limit the list to three items.
1: Nikolaj Ehlers and Dylan Samberg Back
Just about every team has the recovery and return of injured key players on their wish list, and the Jets are no exception.
While the Jets are not lost with Nikolaj Ehlers on the right wing and Dylan Samberg on the second defensive pairing, they’re certainly better off and a more well-rounded team with them than without them.
Ehlers, who went down with a lower-body injury on Nov. 29, has speed and dynamism that is irreplaceable; his presence is sorely missed at even strength and on the power play. The Dane was off to the best start of his career, with nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points in 24 games but has missed the past eight games and counting. He was originally said to be out for seven to 10 days, but it’s been 13 now and he’s only just started skating away from the main group at practice.
There’s been much line-juggling in his absence, with Vladislav Namestnikov moving into Ehlers’s second-line spot so Brad Lambert could play centre for four games and then moving back to the middle so Nikita Chibrikov could play right wing with Cole Perfetti on the left.
Related: Jets Recall Nikita Chibrikov and Send Down Brad Lambert
Samberg remains out long term, at least until the new year, with the broken foot he suffered on Nov. 23 when blocking a Steven Stamkos one-timer. The 25 year old was excelling in his expanded top-four role, playing solid defense on the left side with Neal Pionk and recording three goals, three assists, and a plus-12 rating in 20:17 of average time on ice (ATOI.)
Haydn Fleury has stepped into Samberg’s role and has done a decent job. He is up to six assists in 19 games and his 16:38 ATOI is the highest since his 2017-18 rookie season with the Carolina Hurricanes, but he is a minus-3 and his CORSI and Fenwick possession metrics are sub-50 by quite a lot. He’s someone better deployed on the third pairing to the tune of 12 to 15 minutes per night.
Samberg’s injury and Fleury’s jump has also paved the way for a third-pairing rotation of sorts between Ville Heinola, Colin Miller, and Logan Stanley. Heinola has the most suitable skillset for second-pairing minutes, but head coach Scott Arniel is not on the Heinola train to that extent despite saying last month he’s the Finn’s “biggest fan.”
2: Depth Scoring to Keep Shining
The Jets’ scoring depth is the envy of many a NHL general manager and fanbase. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has given Arniel the opportunity to head a team with four lines that can score and can come at opponents in waves. When all four lines are firing on all cylinders, the team’s a straight menace for opponents.
Through 31 games, the Jets have 11 players with 14-plus points — every top-nine forward and two defenseman — six players with 20-plus points, and 10 players with five-plus goals.
ABSOLUTELY ROOFED ⬆️ pic.twitter.com/8MnTki5mLa
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) December 7, 2024
Kyle Connor leads the team with 36 points (16 goals, 20 assists) and Mark Scheifele is not far behind with 34 (16 goals, 18 assists.) The pair, playing with Gabriel Vilardi on the top line, have been hot for most of the season but have had the pressure taken off them a bit thanks to the second and third line’s offensive contributions. Connor’s 36 points aren’t even enough to get him in the top five of NHL scoring, illustrating the extent to which the Jets’ attack is a true team effort.
3: No Second-Half Slump
The Jets are no strangers to starting hot. Their record-setting 15 wins in their first 16 games this season is their hottest by far, but they also got out of the gate fast in a number of past campaigns only to slump in the second half to varying degrees.
Last season, the Jets’ chances of finishing first were quashed by an 0-4-1 stretch from late January into early February and an 0-5-1 stretch in late March. They fell out of first during the latter losing streak but won their final eight after the six-game losing streak to finish second.
In 2022-23, the Jets were first in the Central and entire NHL in late January before free-falling through the second half — going just 15-17-2 in their final 34 — and barely squeaking into the playoffs in the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.
In both seasons, they were dispatched in the first round, by the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights, respectively.
Related: Jets Crushed By Avalanche in 5 Games: What Went Wrong?
In the shortened 2020-21 season, the Jets lost nine of their final 12 in the temporary North Division to finish a distant third behind the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers. They swept the Oilers in the first round before being swept by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round.
In 2018-19, when the locker-room issues first emerged that plagued the team for years thereafter, the Jets lost six of their last nine, fell out of first in the Central, and lost to the St. Louis Blues in the first round.
Back to the present, the Jets have a strong leadership core headed up by captain Adam Lowry and a well-established team identity that retired head coach Rick Bowness grew from the ground up and Arniel has sustained. They have already shown resilience by getting out of a four-game losing streak — and never looked complacent even though they played far from their best during that time — and have gotten through one of the toughest portions in their entire schedule already when they played 11 games in 20 days from Nov. 19 and Dec. 8 that included a season-long six-game cross-country road trip.
The Jets will certainly face adversity and tough times again as the season goes on. However, the aforementioned factors, when combined with their depth and strong goaltending could put them into a better position to finally avoid a second-half slump and finish atop the Central for the first time in history.
That is a gift Santa cannot bring. The Jets have to give that to themselves.