WINNIPEG – When Scott Arniel was putting together his line combinations before training camp, it was a natural fit for him to put his newest centre Jonathan Toews, with Cole Perfetti and another new face, Gustav Nyquist.
“With Jonathan and his experience, and the type of player that he is, we wanted to put him with some real good skill and with Perfetti and Nyquist, that is what they are there,” said Arniel.
Perfetti had a great year for us last year and we need for him to continue to build, but I also needed with Adam (Lowry) being out, kind of looked at with that next line with Vladdy (Namestnikov) being in that kind of role.”
Nyquist had a tough year last season along with everyone else in Nashville, but the great news is that he had 75 points (23G, 52A) with the Predators in 2023-24. When asked about the chance to play with Toews, he could not hide his excitement.
“The guy has been such a tremendous player for such a long time in the league,” said Nyquist.
“It is great to see that he is back in the game and doing the thing that he loves. It is exciting to play with him.”
Nyquist is quite comfortable with the Central Division after playing for both the Predators and Wild, two huge rivals of the Jets. The Swedish forward touched on why he decided on the Jets during free agency.
“Look at this team and what they have done over the last few years. I still feel young out there, but I obviously haven’t won it yet and the chances are getting less and less,” said Nyquist.
“So, to come here and have a chance to play on a good team and hopefully do something special here, that was the main thing that stuck out.”
Perfetti is coming off a breakout season with the Jets with 50 points (18G, 32A) and now has the pleasure of lining up with a couple of grizzled veterans.
“It's cool. It's nice to play with two guys that have been around for a long time, doing it at a high level, for a really long time,” said Perfetti.
“And it's exciting to play with guys that have done so much in their career and can learn a lot from these guys and both great guys off the ice. So, it's been a real treat for the first couple days here.”
Last season, Perfetti had meshed well with Nikolaj Ehlers and Namestnikov. Now with the departure of Ehlers, it might open the door for the 23-year-old on the Jets top power play unit as well as put more pressure to produce in the absence of Ehlers.
“Obviously, losing Nikky, it hurts. Everyone's got to take another step in the right direction and level up their game and that is exactly what my mindset was all summer. There's going to be a hole to fill there and no one's going to be able to fill exactly what Nikky did by themselves because he was a great player and what he could do was special,” said Perfetti.
“As a line, for us, we're focused on being the best second line and going out there and working together. For me personally, yeah, there's a hole to fill and I'm aware of that. I know that it's big shoes to fill but I'm ready to try to fill that task and evolve my game and take the confidence from last year.”
