The preseason is over, the 23-man roster is set, and games are about to start counting for real.
The 2023-24 season is upon us and the Jets begin their 82-game schedule on Oct. 11 with a road matchup against the Calgary Flames. It’s the first of nine games this month.
Related: 5 Must-Watch Jets Games in 2023-24
There are plenty of things the Jets need to do to start the season off on the right foot. Here, we’ll look at five keys to success.
1: Follow Their New Captain’s Example
If Adam Lowry’s teammates play with the amount of effort he has for a long time, the team will look much different than last season.
Lowry, named the third captain in Jets 2.0 history last month, is the exact type of captain the Jets need. Now that Blake Wheeler is gone via buyout and his influence has truly been removed, Lowry should be free step out of the former captain’s shadow and bring a better brand of leadership to the table.
The pugnacious power forward, who first joined the official leadership core last season as an alternate in the wake of head coach Rick Bowness stripping Wheeler of the captaincy, is someone “who embodies the characteristics and the class” the team has on and off the ice, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said recently.
Cheveldayoff’s assessment is bang-on. The 2011 third-rounder does whatever it takes to win, doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice his body or defend a teammate, and is simply a dogged competitor.
Related: Jets Make Right Choice Naming Lowry Captain
However, not every Jet has shown the same traits Lowry has — most of the team’s issues over the past few seasons are, at their cores, due to too many players lacking the strength of character to consistently work hard.
Lowry is the exact type of player willing to go to war and the exact type of player his teammates should be willing to go to war with. If they don’t, it won’t be an indictment on him, because he’ll be playing like he always has and setting a strong example.
2: Get Balanced Scoring From Throughout the Lineup
The Jets are built for flexibility up front and a balanced attack.
Wheeler and Pierre-Luc Dubois are gone (the two combined for 118 points last season) but the forwards set to replace them should more than pick up the slack, give the Jets more middle-six depth, and the ability to roll four lines.
Gabriel Vilardi, the key piece the Jets got in return for Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings in June, will begin the season as first line right-winger alongside Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele. The 23-year-old is set to break out after setting career highs in goals (23) and assists (18) last season.
Related: Winnipeg Jets 2023 Offseason Overview
Nino Niederreiter, who has five 20-plus goal and four 40-plus point seasons, will play on the second line with Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti. Niederreiter’s direct, physical, and straightforward style should enable the Jets’ two most creative players to do what they do best.
Niederreiter’s ability to also play centre and left wing gives Bowness more deployment options. He can also play on the third line, which he did last season during the final stretch after initially playing on the top-six upon being acquired from the Nashville Predators in February.
Alex Iafallo, also received in return for Dubois, will bolster the middle six along Niederreiter. He isn’t flashy, but owns a combination defensive prowess and offensive skill that should complement Lowry and Mason Appleton on the third line.
Even Morgan Barron and Vladislav Namestnikov, slated to begin the season on the fourth line, can chip in offensively and jump up to the top six if needed. Barron, a budding power forward, had 21 points last season, his first full NHL campaign, but is looking to break out.
Namestnikov is highly versatile, able to play centre and both wings, and has recorded as many as 44 points in a season. He has been primarily a bottom-six player in his career, but played second-line centre last season after being acquired from the San Jose Sharks. Rasmus Kupari, slated to be Barron and Namestnikov’s right winger, also has a lot of offensive potential that hasn’t been fully unlocked since the Kings selected him 20th overall in 2018.
This all bodes well for the Jets being a less top-heavy team that’s “plug-and-play” to a much greater degree. If one player gets injured or isn’t performing well, another should be able to jump in with minimal growing pains or chemistry loss.
4: Manage Hellebuyck’s Workload
Connor Hellebuyck — now slated to be a Jet for the long haul after signing a seven-year blockbuster deal alongside Scheifele on Monday that carries an $8.5 million AAV — needs a lighter and more balanced workload than in past seasons.
The 2020 Vezina winner is one of the league’s elite goaltenders, has covered up a lot of the Jets’ shortcomings for a long time, and does like to be busy. However, he’s been run into the ground in the past and has looked obviously exhausted in more than one stretch drive when he’s needed the most. He made 64 starts last season, 66 the year before, and 45 in the 56-game 2020-21.
With Laurent Brossoit returning, the Jets don’t need to overwork Hellebuyck. Brossoit — who was also Hellebuyck’s backup between 2016-18 — is a talented netminder in his own right, and as he enters on a one-year contract he signed in summer, is motivated to show the NHL he’s starter calibre.
Brossoit, who won the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights last year but was injured in the second round and had to watch the rest of the way, went 7-0-3 with a 2.17 GAA and .927 SV% in 10 starts and 11 appearances with the Golden Knights last season. In his 117-game career, he owns a 49-41-11 record, 2.78 GAA, and .908 SV%.
Bowness, who watched Brossoit outplay Hellebuyck in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, should have no qualms starting Brossoit and keeping Hellebuyck fresher for pivotal games in March and April.
The Jets don’t have any back-to-backs this month but Brossoit should still get at least two starts to get him in a rhythm. In this author’s opinion, the Jets would be well-served to give Brossoit about 25 starts throughout the season.
3: Renewed Power Play Prowess
The Jets are hoping their new power play units with have more prowess than last season’s configurations.
The Jets scored on just 19.3 per cent of their man advantages last season, which was in the bottom third of the league. The power play — often guilty of being too pass happy and cutesy in search of the “perfect” play rather than just firing pucks on goal and getting dirty net-front — often sapped momentum instead of seizing it.
Related from last season: Jets’ Slumping Power Play Needs New Looks and More Ehlers
2022-23 top-unit staples Dubois and Wheeler will be replaced by Iafallo and Vilardi. Connor, Scheifele, and Josh Morrissey will join them.
That unit is now free of having to try to force predictable passes to Wheeler on the right-side wall — seriously, were they getting paid by the pass? — and will be able to generate all type of new looks thanks to Vilardi’s handedness and net-front abilities.
“(Vilardi) gives us a totally different look, having a right-hand shot down by the net, it does. It gets Mark on the half wall where he wants to be and they all like Alex in the bumper position there,” Bowness said recently. “They have to get pucks to the net.” (From “Jets look for momentum from revamped power play,” Winnipeg Free Press, Oct. 5, 2023.)
The second will feature Perfetti, Niederreiter, Ehlers (who missed the entire preseason with neck spasms but has declared himself good to go for the regular season), Neal Pionk, and Nate Schmidt. Ville Heinola, who had an excellent training camp, looked to be in the mix for a spot but fractured his ankle in the final preseason game versus the Ottawa Senators and will miss two-to-three months.
Bowness said a strong power play out of the gate is important, but noted it doesn’t have to score to be a positive.
“Regardless if the puck goes in the net, you want that power play to go out and create some offence and give us some momentum, something we can build off of,” he said. “It’s like penalty killing, your penalty killers go out there and do a great job, that gives you momentum. Your power play gives you momentum. We want to get off to a great start and usually specialty teams are a big part of that.”
5: Avoid Being Distracted By the Past
The brewing season-long distraction of Hellebuyck and Scheifele’s pending unrestricted free agent statuses has been erased with Monday’s seemingly-out-of-nowhere signings. Putting the questions to bed of whether they’ll be be traded and when is no small thing, considering questions would have only intensified as the season marched toward the Trade Deadline. With both locked up through 2030-31, they can now focus on just playing.
Although the Jets will no longer be distracted by a potential future without their star goalie and number-one centre, the month in will be full of other distractions. Former head coach Paul Maurice returns behind the Florida Panthers’ bench for the home opener, Dubois — now a villain to some of the Jets’ fan base — returns with the Kings on Oct. 17, and Wheeler — who will get a better reception despite his mixed legacy as Jets’ captain — returns with the New York Rangers on Oct. 30.
There’s also a home matchup with the Stanley Cup-winning Golden Knights — the same club that rolled over the Jets in the first round on their way to the Cup — and high-profile matchups in Edmonton against the Oilers and in Montreal against the Canadiens.
Related: 3 Challenges Facing Jets Head Coach Rick Bowness in 2023-24
That’s a lot of outside noise for a team that not only has to overcome its opponents, but also itself and the cultural issues that have held them back since 2018-19.
Can they block out that noise and focus on playing the way they know leads to success, the way they played for the first half of last season before falling into old bad habits and falling off badly? We won’t have to wait long to find out.
