Meet Your Manitoba Moose, Part 5: Joel Armia

This five-part series will focus on the players that will don the Manitoba Moose jersey in 2015-16. While these players may see time with the Winnipeg Jets next season, they will likely make up the core of the farm team that will be heading to the Manitoba capital. The fifth and final part features Joel Armia.

Joel Armia is unique compared to the rest of the Moose prospects we have featured in this series, in that he wasn’t drafted by the Jets/Thrashers franchise. The 6-3, 200 pound Finnish winger was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the 2011 entry draft. Armia came to the Jets organization along with Drew Stafford and Tyler Myers in the blockbuster trade that sent Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian to Buffalo.

Armia did make an appearance with the Sabres last season but spent the rest of the year with both Rochester and St. John’s of the AHL, amassing 12 goals and 21 assists in 54 games with both clubs.

Despite his size, Armia isn’t the most physical player and doesn’t have that mean streak that power forwards need to have. Armia does possess soft hands and decent skill around the net but he doesn’t show this on a consistent basis.

When Armia wants to play, he can do great things. This goal he scored while with Rochester last season is a sampling of his talent.

So what can Moose fans expect out of Joel Armia?

Frankly, no one is quite sure. He does have talent that no one is questioning but his willingness to showcase that talent remains a mystery. What the Jets organization is hoping for is that a full training camp here in Winnipeg will help him adjust to the new surroundings. Perhaps playing in the same city as the parent club will help motivate Armia into a more consistent player. When he’s on his game, he can be a dominant power forward. But when he’s off his game, he may go completely unnoticed. What Joel Armia decides to show up on a nightly basis is up to Joel Armia. He has potential, but now he has to start fulfilling that potential.