ROAD TRIP! Jets Will Play In Finland Next Season

Maybe one of the worst kept secrets for the last few months has been the notion that the Winnipeg Jets will be heading overseas. Today it was confirmed by the NHL as the Jets along with the Florida Panthers will head to Finland in November to take part in a pair of regular season hockey games.

The NHL Board Of Governors are meeting in Tampa Bay this weekend for the All-Star Game and among the various news items that came out of that meeting was the official announcement that the Jets are going global.

Lebrun later confirmed that it will be a pair of regular season games with the Jets playing as the home side for one, and then the Panthers for the other.

Obviously the biggest connection the Jets have to Finland is Patrik Laine who enjoys borderline ‘rock star’ status in his home country, but it will also be a homecoming for native son Joel Armia. What may be interesting is to see if highly regarded Finnish prospects such as Kristian Vesalainen and Sami Niku will also be on the Jets roster in November.

On the Panthers side of things, the biggest draw will obviously be Aleksander Barkov, but the Panthers may also have a Finland born super-rookie in their lineup as well as forward Aleksi Heponiemi could easily be a member of the Panthers as he’s currently having a fantastic season with the Swift Current Broncos, sitting third in WHL scoring with 89 points.

With the biggest name in Finnish hockey already set to be there and a trio of country’s best young talent to join him, it could be quite the celebration of the game in Finland come November.