Bad news was followed by potentially great news today as the Winnipeg Jets shared news on a number of players either coming back or still dealing with injuries.

Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will be out for at least the next eight weeks due to back surgery. His last action was March 8 against the New Jersey Devils and this latest issue with his back is related to the same issues he had last season as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.

Dmitry originally suffered the injury in a 2016 preseason game when he was checked back first into an open bench door. Since then he hasn’t had surgery, opting instead for rest and rehabilitation to heal the injury which caused him to miss half of the season with the Sabres.

He joins Matt Hendricks as a player the Jets have recently lost long term due to injury. On Thursday, the Jets learned that the veteran center would be out for six to eight weeks with with a lower body injury.

On the bright side however, the Jets could get as many as three regulars back into the lineup Sunday against the Dallas Stars.

Defenseman Tobias Enstrom has been close to a return for a week now with the team wanting to be as cautious as possible. It’s possible now that with the return of Jacob Trouba back on Thursday, the Jets will feel comfortable increasing Trouba’s ice time and easing Enstrom back into the lineup.

The same might be able to be said for centers Marck Scheifele and Adam Lowry who were also mentioned Saturday morning as being pretty much ready to go by Paul Maurice:

For what it’s worth, line rushes in the Saturday morning practice had Lowry between Brandon Tanev and Jack Roslovic while Scheifele was between Marko Dano and Shawn Matthias.

Adam Lowry has been out since February 1 with an upper body injury while Scheifele has been out the last five games with an upper body injury. This is the second stint for both players in dealing with injuries although the club has said in both cases that their current injuries are not related to their previous setbacks from earlier in the season.