Opening Night 2014: The Lineup Card
9 years ago
We recently took a look at the Jets’ depth chart, only to have the team add some bodies. Player previews will continue throughout the month, but the biggest question is always ice time and linemates. Inside we’ll look at a likely lineup for opening night and look back to years past for comparison.
Opening Night 2011
The Jets’ 2.0 took flight against Montreal… sort of. They dropped the game 5-1 and managed just 84 points in their inaugural season.
- Ladd – Little – Wheeler
- Kane – Burmistrov – Antropov
- MacLean – Scheifele – Wellwood
- Glass – Slater – Throburn
- Stapleton (HS)
- Fehr (IR)
- Enstrom – Byfuglien
- Hainsey – Bogosian
- Stuart – Oduya
- Meech (HS)
- Jones (HS)
- Pavelec
- Mason
Jets fans were treated to an early warning sign – a powerplay that went 0-for-7 and a 17 save (on 22 shot) performance by Pavelec.
Scheifele would only play 7 games in this season, and Oduya was sent to Chicago. Grant Clitsome was claimed off waivers to replace the future Cup winner, and Antti Mietinen also arrived in this season via waivers. Brett MacLean, Eric Fehir, Tim Stapleton, Tanner Glass, and Chris Mason would be flushed by the end of the year.
Opening Night 2012
The Jets made losing on opening night a traditional with a 4-1 contest against Ottawa on January 19, 2013.
- Ladd – Little – Wheeler
- Kane – Jokinen – Wellwood
- Burmistrov – Scheifele – Antropov
- Ponikarovsky – Slater – Thorburn
- Peluso (HS)
- Wright (HS)
- Enstrom – Byfuglien
- Hainsey – Clitsome
- Stuart – Postma
- Redmond (HS)
- Pavelec
- Montoya
This was the classic Claude Noel lineup. Antropov, Wellwood, and Scheifele all took shifts with Kane and Jokinen and took turns at the third line centre role (as did Burmistrov). With Bogosian starting the year injured, the defence group included 4 LH shots and Clitsome played the fewest minutes as a result. It’s a mess from opening night.
Wellwood was coming off a 47 point season but was put in a position to fail – somewhere Burmistrov, Hainsey and Antropov plied their trade for years. All four were lost in the off-season. Schiefele only had a cup of coffee in this season as well, and Ponikarovsky was moved after just 12 games. Tangradi was brought in from Pittsburgh just days before, and Mike Santorelli was added via waivers for a memorable 10 games at the end of the season and then released back into the wild (where he was eaten by an orca). Miettinen was given another 22 games, often as the RW for Kane, before being allowed to leave. It was a watershed season for the club, with a handful of contentious roster moves that still resonate today.
Opening Night 2013
A 5-4 fire fight with an Oilers team that turned out to be awful gave fans the sense the Jets had some serious offensive pop. Instead, they would finish with 2 more goals than they had in 2011.
- Ladd – Little – Wheeler
- Kane – Scheifele – Setoguchi
- Wright – Jokinen – Frolik
- Tangradi – Slater – Thorburn
- Peluso (HS)
- Halischuk (HS)
- Enstrom – Byfuglien
- Bogosian – Trouba
- Stuart – Postma
- Pardy (HS)
- Pavelec
- Montoya
In two seasons, Wright has gone from Healthy Scratch to 3rd line LW, and for the third season in a row, Slater and Thorburn made promises as top-12 forwards that they just couldn’t live up to. For the first time, this team added genuine top-9 talent (Frolik and Setoguchi), but the coaches were on a different page. Seto would see his ice time cut and spend months with Thorburn or on his off-wing. Frolik spent his first few months sheltering whichever centre was struggling the most before emerging as an answer for the 1st line.
Trouba made such a statement this past year that the team cleared his path to the top of the depth chart by moving Big Buf to forward. But the main stories of this season was the sorties wasted on Wright, Peluso, Halischuk, Thorburn, and more, and the dramatic difference between Montoya and Pavelec. Pavelec’s .901 finally gave Montoya a chance and he delivered at a .920 save rate over 28 games.
A change in coaches came with some expected turnover, and all of Wright, Jokinen, Montoya, and Setoguchi were shown the door. Redmond also left the organization this year.
Opening Night 2014 (Expected)
It seems the Jets have finished tinkering, and we have a pretty good idea of what things will look like. There has been talk that Kane was promised to Perreault despite his chemistry with Scheifele, but we’ll look at the ‘common sense’ lineup rather than speculate.
- Ladd – Little – Frolik
- Kane – Scheifele – Wheeler
- Galiardi – Perreault – Byfuglien
- Tangradi – Slater – Thorburn
- Peluso (HS)
- Halischuk (HS)
- Enstrom – Bogosian
- Stuart – Trouba
- Clitsome – Ellerby
- Pardy (HS)
- Postma (HS)
- Pavelec
- Hutchinson
Justin Bourne wrote today that this lineup might be assembled in order to compete for Connor McDavid. It was an idea I have floated a number of times, including after last year’s trade deadline. The team is opening on year four and no one can argue that they’re getting better. Meanwhile, a switch the Western Conference spelled disaster for Claude Noel, and a summer of the Central Division getting markedly better might be more than Paul Maurice can overcome.
The plan seems to be ‘wait and see,’ but it’s hard to know what the team is waiting for, exactly. The Jets boast a four-year hole in the top-9, a consistently poor 4th line, an injury prone and shallow defence group, and the worst goaltender in the league. At the same time, they’ve lost Burmistrov, Telegin and Kulda to Russia as well as an average of 5 players from their NHL roster per season, and they’ve failed to progress a single prospect from the AHL to full-time NHL work (Scheifele and Trouba skipped that step). Klingberg, Postma and Hutchinson are the most likely candidates for that, but the roster is filled with players who need to be sheltered and block prospects from graduating. It’s a genuine mess of a roster without a clear tell from the organization about their plan. They might have one, mind you, but we can’t tell what it is and that’s usually a bad sign for its efficacy.
We know from years past that when a team enters October out of balance and with holes, hockey in May is very unlikely. This roster won’t finish dead last in a league with Florida and Buffalo and Calgary. But trading Evander Kane or Dustin Byfuglien might be all it takes.
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