The next time the Winnipeg Jets take the ice, the games actually matter. It’s not that preseason is worthless, but everything that happens needs to be taken with a grain of salt. We saw great performances on one night and terrible performances just days later. It’s a lot to sort through, especially with so many moving parts every game.

In case you didn’t have time to watch any of the preseason, here’s the main takeaways with various things we learned over the past two weeks.

There’s no question that Ville Heinola was the talk of the 2019 training camp. The first round pick of the Jets this past summer had a fantastic preseason and played his way onto the roster.

This strong training camp surprised most people as Heinola is still only 18 years old and most people expected him to be a year or two away from making the roster. Turns out most people were wrong.

Heinola was ultra impressive during the preseason games with his smooth passing and quick decision making. He appeared calm at all times and routinely made smart breakouts and solid defensive plays. It was everything the Jets wanted to see and more.

Heinola has done everything possible to make the roster and while I think he will put on a Jets sweater this year, playing a full season in the NHL might not be the best for his development. He’s never had to play a full 82 game season, nor has he ever competed against the best competition for months on end. While the hockey sense is there, it’s yet to be determined how his body will handle the rigours of a full NHL season.

Regardless of what happens during the rest of the year, Heinola has certainly made a strong impression on the organization.

The Jets haven’t boasted a high end pick since Patrik Laine in 2016. While Heinola ended up stealing the show, the Jets had a few other players from around the globe that made a strong impact. Joona Luoto and Andrei Chibisov both had excellent training camps. While both will likely play in the AHL this year, neither player was drafted by Winnipeg. Rather, these players were found by the scouting department and signed to deals over the summer. Neither player projects to be a top six player down the road, but both could easily slot into the bottom six if needed. It’s these types of additions that can really help the depth of the entire organization. There’s more ways to add players than through the draft and the Jets grabbed two solid wingers this summer.

It was a major shakeup among the defense this summer as Tyler Myers, Jacob Trouba and Ben Chiarot all left the club. Most people expected the Jets would still have a decent crop of defensmen, that is until Byfuglien dropped the biggest news of the preseason — he’s contemplating his future in the league. Nobody knows what the future holds for Byfuglien, but he deserves to do whatever is best for him and his family.

Byfuglien can’t be faulted for looking at his options, but it leaves the Jets in an awfully precarious situation. Throughout the whole preseason, Morrissey and Heinola were excellent and the rest of the team was sub-par. Poolman had a few decent games and Kulikov showed some bounce-back potential, but by and large, the defense looks like it’s going to struggle for much of this season. This team really needs Byfuglien if they want to make another run in the playoffs.

Without Dustin Byfuglien in the lineup, Josh Morrissey might have to play 40 minutes per game to pick up the slack. It’s an interesting group behind Morrissey with not much NHL experience. The Jets will have to lean extremely heavily on Morrissey throughout the entire year if they want to compete on a nightly basis. Projected to play in virtually every situation, don’t be surprised to see Morrissey in the running for most minutes in the league. Along with that, don’t be surprised if Morrissey’s name crops up in the Norris Trophy conversation either.

There were four different goalies that played during the preseason. Brossoit was his usual, impressive, self. Comrie also showcased well with a few solid starts. Mikhail Berdin made his debut along with some sick toe drags and memorable quotes.

Overall, it was an excellent showing for the netminders in Winnipeg and really proved that the organization has goaltending depth all the way through.

There was extremely high hopes for Vesalainen that he would be able to crack the roster out of camp and end up working his way into the lineup on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened as he played in a few preseason games and was largely unnoticeable. Vesalainen was easily overshadowed by the Jets subsequent top pick as David Gustafsson was rewarded with bigger minutes as training camp went on. Vesalainen recently was assigned to the Moose where he will hopefully play big minutes in the top six. If he can showcase himself well, there’s no reason why he can’t be the next Connor or Roslovic who work their way into the lineup when the need arises.

As for Gustafsson, he’s an interesting player to watch in the next few weeks. He might play in a few NHL games, but the Jets likely won’t keep him around all season long. He would do well to go back overseas and put in another strong season in the SHL.