The Manitoba Moose are coming off their worst season in franchise history, and with it comes plenty of uncertainty—especially surrounding top prospect Brad Lambert and his future role in the Winnipeg Jets organization.

Under head coach Mark Morrison, the Moose finished with a 25-41-3-3 record. The 25 wins are a new franchise low, and the team placed dead last in their division for the first time since 1997-98—back when they were still part of the International Hockey League. (We’re excluding 2019-20 since that season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) It also marked the first time in franchise history that the Moose finished last in their conference.

Top prospects didn’t exactly shine, either. Both Brad Lambert and Nikita Chibrikov took steps back in their AHL development. Lambert, who recorded 21 goals and 55 points in 2023-24, saw his production dip to just 7 goals and 35 points this past season. Chibrikov’s year was derailed by a season-ending injury on January 19th against the Toronto Marlies, limiting him to just 30 games. He still managed 7 goals and 18 points and showed flashes of promise during brief stints with the Jets, but the injury cut short what had the potential to be another solid campaign.

Still, it’s hard to pin the blame solely on the prospects. The Moose, simply put, weren’t a good team this year.

That makes the situation with Lambert even more interesting. Will he crack the Jets’ roster full-time in 2025-26, or does he return to the AHL and hope for a bounce-back year with the Moose?

There are lots of unanswered questions in the Jets lineup. Who replaces Nikolaj Ehlers? Who takes over the second-line centre role? What will the bottom-six look like? These are major decisions that need solving if Winnipeg hopes to remain in the contender conversation.

Despite a disappointing year in the AHL, the organization still believes in Lambert’s upside. The 21-year-old Finn, who’s already appeared in six NHL games and recorded two assists, has logged big minutes in the AHL, including power play and top-six usage. And with Ehlers now in Carolina, the door may be open for Lambert to carve out a spot in the NHL this fall.

“Hopefully a guy like Brad Lambert can give us that opportunity to use his speed,” general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said recently. “For us, skating is paramount, but it’s also about playing fast. It’s not necessarily about the individual speed of a player—it’s how the team plays fast.”

Lambert’s skating is his calling card. He’s dynamic, explosive, and brings a ton of offensive flash. He still struggles at times with decision-making and can try to do too much on his own instead of using his teammates, but he’s made noticeable improvements in consistency—a trait that dogged him early in his career and was a key reason he fell to 30th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft.

Lambert remains a work in progress, but the tools are there. Whether he starts the year in Winnipeg or not, it’s only a matter of time before he begins making an impact at the NHL level.