The top line will look the same but it’s the remaining three that will look different than the ones that closed out the season in Dallas. Jonathan Toews will be in the middle of fellow free agent signing Gustav Nyquist and rookie forward Nikita Chibrikov.
No Lowry means that Vladislav Namestnikov centres the third line with Nino Niederreiter and Alex Iafallo. Finally, Morgan Barron will get a long look at centre with two more free agent signings in Cole Koepke and Tanner Pearson.
The Jets are deeper and have a lot of battle tested veterans on the roster as they open the season against the Stars.
“Probably all the guys that are new, like I mentioned earlier, being on point with how we play, how we defend and our structure, how we compete, and I think I have said from the beginning that we said we wanted to drive up our compete level higher and now it is the battles and winning them,” said head coach Scott Arniel.
“This is a great chance to prove that against a really good hockey team and a big divisional opponent we are going to butt heads with all year long.”
