View From the Booth - August 22, 2022

It would be difficult to spark an argument with any hockey fan in our market about this upcoming season being an important one for the Winnipeg Jets.
After missing the playoffs last April for the first time in five seasons, the team is poised to return to the ice with something to prove - to both themselves and their fanbase.
This is especially critical since 16 of the 20 players that dressed for Game 82 of last year's campaign return this season to start the franchise's 12 season in Winnipeg. The only exceptions are Paul Stastny, Zach Sanford, Evgeny Svechnikov and Eric Comrie.
Whether by design or circumstance, the Jets hockey operations department has essentially left the same group intact, trusting they'll deliver a different result this season.
As such, a here are five items worth noting and tracking as training camp begins next month and the 2022-23 season starts to unfold.

COACHING IMPACT
With a completely revamped coaching staff (save for goaltending coach Wade Flaherty), the new group will be entrusted to provide a fresh approach, new ideas and style to improve several aspects of the team's systematic play.
Veteran NHL coach Rick Bowness will head-up a group including associate coach Scott Arniel and assistants Brad Lauer and Marty Johnston.
The areas of focus will undoubtedly include a different defensive-zone scheme, new special teams wrinkles and personnel placement.
The primary area of improvement will certainly be in the defensive zone. The notion the Jets are fully adept at scoring goals is accurate, but it's been preventing them over the last few years that is a growing concern.
In the last two full seasons not interrupted or effected by COVID, the team's goals-against per game (GA/G) increased, climbing to a whopping 3.09 this past season after reaching 2.96 the season prior to the pandemic.
As a baseline for success, the two teams to qualify for the Stanley Cup final this past season were both well under 3.00 GA/G. The Tampa Bay Lightning posted a regular season 2.78 GA/G, while the Cup winning Colorado Avalanche were at 2.83 GA/G.
The rudimentary math suggests if the coaching staff can aid in setting a course to reduce the team's goals against, while keeping their goals-for at a similar rate (3.05 last year), the team will win more games and better their chances playoff qualification.
Another intriguing area to watch this fall is how the new coaching staff will parcel together the specials teams. For instance, who quarterbacks the two units? If Josh Morrissey is most certainly locked into one spot who occupies the other? Neal Pionk? Nate Schmidt? Or does a forward fill that role?
Moreover, is Mark Scheifele now the team's best one-timer option? Does Nikolaj Ehlers graduate full-time to the top PP unit? Who fills Stastny's spot with the man advantage?
On the penalty kill side, if Adam Lowry, Kyle Connor, Mason Appleton, Dylan DeMelo and Brenden Dillon are the staples, which players get added to the stable to bolster depth? Jansen Harkins? Morgan Barron? Dylan Samberg? Logan Stanley?
And finally, will the line combinations and defensive pairings change under the new staff or - for the most part - do they remain similar to the last few years will some tweaks to the bottom two lines and third pairing?
These are all questions that will be answered as training camp and the exhibition schedule progress into October, but intriguing queries nonetheless.

GOALTENDING MINUTES
Over the last three full seasons that weren't impacted by COVID, starting netminder and former Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck has averaged 65 games per season.
In the past five seasons overall he's been the busiest NHL goaltender, playing more games than any of his peers (299 in total) and amassing a 1,000 minutes more than his closest competitor in Tampa's Andrei Vasilevskiy.
And while there is a league trend in goaltending to reduce the number of games/minutes for starters in the regular season, theorizing they'll be sharper come playoff time, Hellebuyck might be the exception to that movement, as the 29-year-old has always shown an ability to handle a heavier workload.
Therefore, it will be curious to witness how the new coaching staff allocates the goaltending minutes this season, especially with veteran backup David Rittich now in the fold.
Undoubtedly, Hellebuyck is the primary guy and Rittich is not here to usurp him, but at some point the backup does need to play and how the minutes are dispersed could be similar or different from recent history.
Only a few years ago Rittich played 48 games for the Calgary Flames and last year former backup Eric Comrie appeared in a career-high 19 for the Jets.
A safe assumption would suggest the sweet spot being a 62-20 split, but travel, shot volume and the potential for injury could deviate from that.
Time will tell, of course!
LINE CONFIGURATION
As mentioned earlier, the fresh set of eyes in which Bowness possess on this Jets group will undoubtedly provide different staring points to who plays with whom, particularly up front.
It's safe to assume the Top 6 forwards are Kyle Connor, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and Cole Perfetti.
But the question is how do they shake out into two lines? Do Scheifele and Wheeler continue to play together? If so, who plays on their left side? Perfetti? Ehlers?
Based on the chemistry Connor and Dubois played with last season, there's no reason to believe they wouldn't be slotted together again with a right winger to be determined.
Also, if Lowry and Appleton are reunited again - as they were after the trade with Seattle that brought Appleton back - who plays left wing with them on the third line?
The trickle down from there is how does the fourth line look? Is Dominic Toninato the centre? And are players like David Gustafsson, Barron, Harkins and newcomer Kevin Stenlund the front-runners in jockeying for three or four spots in the bottom six?
On the blueline, the defensive pairings are not likely to change, but there should be a battle for the sixth and seventh spots on the roster. And that competition will likely be between Ville Heinola, Logan Stanley and Samberg.
Over a long season there will always been roster fluctuation in terms of lines and pairings, but we should have a decent grip on how they'll look to start only a few days into training camp and certainly by the conclusion of the preseason.

BIG YEARS
For different reasons there are plenty of Winnipeg players looking to have impactful or bounce-back seasons.
It could be based on upcoming contract situations (Dubois, Barron, Toninato, Samberg and Stanley) or simply to position themselves as reliable full-time NHLers (Heinola, Stanley and Harkins).
Another group would be those veterans frankly ticked off with the way last season unfolded and the personal responsibility of spear-heading a standings improvement this season (Wheeler, Scheifele and Ehlers).
Last season there were great expectations on this group; a year that narrative has changed. But regardless of the pundits forecast for them, the Jets should be a motivated group.

COLE'S NOTES
There is always caution when it comes to young players breaking into the NHL full-time, especially those that are first-round draft choices. But in the case of Cole Perfetti the time is nye for the 20-year-old to assume a spot amongst the team's top two lines.
It's likely he'll start on the left wing side on the second line -with either Scheifele or Dubois as his centre.
Perfetti is ready for the NHL. After transitioning nicely from major junior to the American Hockey League as a teenager, he was poised for a move to the NHL on a permanent basis after last Christmas before an injury haulted his season just 27 games in (18 with the Jets)
He'll be among some other Jets prospects we'll be watching as they endeavour to ascend to the NHL, but Perfetti is at the top of the list.
Training camp and the preseason schedule will provide answers to his health status, but there is no reason to believe Perfetti isn't positioned for a notable breakthrough in his NHL career this fall.