JN Wraparound: Finally, A Quiet Day At Camp (Kinda…)

A day after their win against the Minnesota Wild, the Winnipeg Jets had what you could call a relatively quiet day at training camp which was a nice change of pace from the first handful of days were some sort of bombshell was dropped pretty much first thing every morning.

There was talk of Patrik Laine reaching out to Bryan Little to which Little said he already understood and knew where the young Finn was coming from which certainly made everyone feel better about the situation.

There was some fallout from the Dustin Byfulien story, with players being asked for their take as you can imagine and the players in turn expressing their support for Big Buff as you would expect they would. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman led off his 31 Thoughts blog yesterday with a handful of Jets tidbits on both Laine and Byfuglien and with Elliotte stating that the Western Conference could hinge on such a decision which I don’t feel is much of an exaggeration.

Friedman also mentioned that the Jets were in on Ben Hutton but the Kings swooped in before the Jets had their affairs in order… Big time save by the Kings there as the last thing the Jets needed was a second coming of Ben Chiarot only with a worse shot.

One other note mentioned was that Laine could be looking for a three year bridge deal worth $6 million a year which is a tad high, but… wouldn’t you sign that if you’re the Jets? I kind of feel like that is a no-brainer for a kid who has scored you 100+ goals over the last three seasons.

Other links worth checking out…

Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun gathered players reactions to Byfuglien. He also has a few other items in his training camp notebook including Paul Maurice mentioning that this camp has been a breeze compared to what one was like in Toronto when he coached the Maple Leafs.

TSN’s Travis Yost has a great breakdown on wither or not Patrik Laine truly has been misused by the Jets over the last season or two, noting as most of us already know that while Laine has an amazing shot and can score like few others in the league can, his defensive ability needs a lot of work.

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon also goes into why Josh Morrissey will be needed now more than ever by the Jets to “take that next step up” in his career – especially if the Jets are going to be without Byfuglien for any length of time.

Lastly, I personally hate going into rumors and speculation based on tweets and facebook posts and Instagram pics, but Jeff Hamilton is a very reputable and stand up reporter and if he feels comfortable enough to post this on his Twitter, then maybe it’s worth mentioning…

For those that would question that validity of these pics, if you zoom in on the first picture, a TV in the background is seen showing the Connecticut Sun vs Los Angeles Spark WNBA playoff game that was on TSN Wednesday night.

As Jeff said, do with it what you will.