JetsNation 2017-18 Report Card: Forwards

It was a banner year for Wheels as he tied for the league lead in assists, led his team to it’s second ever playoff appearance since the move to Winnipeg and their first playoff series win in franchise history which earned him a spot on the NHL’s 2nd All-Star team and consideration for both the Mark Messier Leadership and Hart trophies.

The future is extremely bright for Scheifele who continues to show why he is a true number one centre in the league. Throw in one of the team-friendliest contracts in the entire NHL and Scheifele might currently be the most valuable asset across the league. 

There was some concern that Laine wouldn’t be able to continue his torrid scoring pace and shooting percentage after last season, but Laine proved all the doubters wrong by lighting the lamp again and again. Laine was at his best near the beginning of March as he scored a mind-boggling 16 goals in only 12 games including a stretch of three games where he scored eight goals.

Ehlers is becoming known for his end to end rushes which get the crowd on their feet, but there are too many times where Ehlers turns the puck over or makes a poor offensive decision. The offensive zone play should be worked on as Ehlers thrives off the rush because he can skate around the defensemen but doesn’t know how to beat them without his speed and often turns the puck over with little resistance.

The style of Connor’s game fits wonderfully alongside Scheifele and Wheeler. Connor is a natural finisher and benefits by playing with Wheeler who is an elite playmaker. Scheifele is a driver of the play and allows Connor more time and space in the offensive zone.

Stastny arrived after the trade and was thrown in the lineup immediately between Ehlers and Laine. The thought was that Stastny, being a great playmaker, was the perfect centre to transition the puck from Ehlers who likes to carry the puck, to Laine who likes to shoot it. 

Mathieu is more of a physical player than people realize mostly due to his smaller frame at under six feet, but he actually finished fourth amount Jets forwards in the hits category with 120. He’s not afraid to stick his nose into the corners or around the front of the net and is one of the team’s best when it comes to talking about forwards who can forecheck.

If Shawn Matthias has a future in the NHL, it won’t be with the Winnipeg Jets who already had players more than capable of replacing him at the mid point of this past season.

This season in particular Little got moved around as the season progressed. Stastny was brought in at the trade deadline which meant Little had to move down and play with new teammates. Looking at the numbers, Little had 30 points before the All-Star break, but only managed 13 points after the all-star break.

For someone with the puck possession numbers Armia has – especially in the playoff which we’ll get to in a moment – you would maybe expect a little more offensive production and while it got better this past season, it hasn’t fully developed like some had hoped it would.

If he can stay healthy next season, there is no reason to think he can’t keep up his strong defensive play while bringing up his offensive number back to where they were a couple of seasons ago when he scored 15 goals and had 29 points in 2016-17.

Andrew doesn’t excel in one specific area of the game, but he seems to do a lot of little things well. His offensive production can be streaky at times, but that’s not what the Jets are looking for from him. 

Jack’s speed and ability are already NHL level, the only question is his ability to make decisions on the ice, but he has shown an aptitude for that as well and shouldn’t be a concern in the years to come.

But his teammates love him and his absence was enough to make some Oilers fans and media question if their bad season was due to a lack of Hendricks and not general ineptitude from their general manager… That makes his surprise signing in August an overall positive one.

The line combination is a coaching decision so maybe Maurice doesn’t like his effort in practice. Whatever the case may be, Petan has not earned the trust of the coaching staff and is starting to question his role in the organization.

Even though Tanev isn’t the most skilled player, he does a few other things quite well. His biggest asset is his speed which makes him tenacious on the fore-check. This speed also helps him draw  penalties by out-skating the opposition and winning puck battles.