Winnipeg Jets roster set for season start

The Winnipeg Jets roster is set for the start of the 2018-19 NHL season.

The Jets made two roster move today, assigning defenceman Logan Stanley to the Manitoba Moose this morning and then shuffling blue-liner Tucker Poolman to the AHL squad this afternoon to get down to the league-mandated 23-player roster by the 4 p.m. deadline.

Winnipeg opens the regular season Thursday night in St. Louis against the Central Division-rival Blues.

Winnipeg is down to 14 forwards — including rookie forward Kristian Vesalainen — seven defencemen and a pair of goalies. Nic Petan starts the year as a non-roster player. He remains in the Vancouver area after the sudden death of his father.

Here’s the Jets roster, with the line combinations and defensive pairings from Tuesday’s morning skate at the Iceplex:

Forwards

Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler

Mathieu Perreault-Bryan Little-Patrik Laine

Nikolaj Ehlers-Jack Roslovic-Kristian Vesalainen

Andrew Copp-Adam Lowry-Brandon Tanev

(extras) Mark Dano-Brendan Lemieux

Defencemen

Josh Morrissey-Jacob Trouba

Ben Chiarot-Dustin Byfuglien

Joe Morrow-Tyler Myers

(extra) Dmitry Kulikov

Goalies

Connor Hellebuyck-Laurent Brossoit

The Jets skate Wednesday before catching a flight to St. Louis in the early afternoon. They’ll skate Thursday morning at Enterprise Center, and the puck drops on the 2018-19 campaign for the two squads at 7 p.m.

Mark Scheifele said there’s a definite a buzz within the organization that the authentic NHL season is close at hand.

“Yeah, we want to get the season going already. It’s been a good training and we’re excited we’re getting close now,” said Scheifele. “Obviously, it’s going to take time to grow and bring it all together. But at the end of the day I think we want to be consistent right off the bat.”

Winnipeg suffered a pair of lopsided losses to kick off the ’17-18 season but turned things around in a hurry, finishing second-overall in the NHL (52-20-10) and winning a pair of playoff rounds.

Scheifele said maintaining a level vibe on the ice and in the locker room should serve the Jets well again.

“Obviously, we had a great season. The biggest thing we did well was we dealt with adversary. We started off the real pretty junkie and we battled back to finding our game quick, and not really riding that roller-coaster whether there were ups or downs. We tried to stay even keel and that’s what it takes in an 82-game season,” he said.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell