With Strait recall, Jets defensive woes to come to light

With injuries piling up on the Jets blue-line, the lack of defensive depth throughout the orginzation is becoming more and more apparent. The Jets currently have Toby Enstrom, Tyler Myers and as of today Paul Postma, on the shelf with injuries. With that in mind, the Jets have re-called Brian Strait from the Manitoba Moose in a desperate attempt to put a bandaid on the team’s backend woes.

This past summer, Strait and the Jets agreed to a one-year, one-way deal with an AAV of $600,000. While it was evident the Jets needed some fine-tuning on the backend, signing Brian Strait certainly didn’t seem like much of an improvement. To nobody’s surprise, Strait didn’t stick with the Jets throughout training camp and was sent to the Moose a short time later. At first glance, seeing an NHL veteran sent to the AHL could be viewed as a positive thing for the young team’s development. Having a player with experience help a Moose team that has struggled mighitly woud be a great move, right?

Well, not so much.

Strait has not been a top-pairing contributor for the Moose and furthermore Strait has even looked out of place at the AHL level. Strait lacks consistency while playing an overly defensive type of game. He doesn’t bring much of a physical force and his puck moving skills are less than flattering. To say the least, Strait has been underwhelming with the Moose.

Having Strait up with the Jets isn’t just concerning, it’s alarming. As the Jets have likely learned the hard way– depth is important. The Jets have had some bad injury luck with both Toby Enstrom and Tyler Myers missing extended periods of this season. It’s hard to put a bandaid on losing Myers and Enstrom when you have Julian Melchiori and Brian Strait stepping into your lineup as your first-aid.

If anything, this could serve as a wake-up call to Jets managment that it’s time to make some legitimate improvements on the backend.