GAME DAY: Kings at Jets

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets continue their three game homestand with an intriguing matchup tonight at Canada Life Centre.

The Jets made a huge trade in the off-season with the Los Angeles Kings that saw them deal Pierre-Luc Dubois to the west coast in exchange for forwards Gabe Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari and a 2024 second round pick.

The Kings are in Winnipeg tonight and all three players that came to the Manitoba capital in the deal with Los Angeles are settling in as members of the Jets.

“It’s been nice. Everybody’s been great helping us out, different systems, all that kind of stuff,” said Alex Iafallo on Monday.

“It’s been an easy transition trying to understand more stuff. It’s been fun so far. We’ve been playing great, so we’ve got to keep at ‘er.”

Winnipeg is coming off an impressive 6-4 win over Florida and are 1-1 to start the season. Meanwhile, the Kings lost 6-5 in overtime at home to Carolina and have started the season 0-1-1.

PROJECTED LINEUP

The lines and D pairings at morning skate remained the same as Saturday’s game:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi

Niederreiter-Perfetti-Ehlers

Iafallo-Lowry-Appleton

Barron-Kupari-Namestnikov

Morrissey-DeMelo

Samberg-Pionk

Dillon-Schmidt

Connor Hellebuyck will start tonight for the Jets.

DUBOIS RETURN

Dubois makes his first appearance at Canada Life Centre since the off-season trade, and one wonders how Jets fans will react.

“I imagine they will boo, that’s what fans do. But nobody boo's bad players,” said Morgan Barron.

“I imagine he will be fine with it. I think it’s been echoed a few times; I think it worked for both parties. We got three unbelievable players who have as you guys have seen have really contributed a lot in the first few games and will continue to do that. LA got a great top six centre and Dubie’s happy with his new contract and playing in LA. So, I really do think everybody won.”

Jets captain Adam Lowry was quick to point out how good of a teammate Dubois was in Winnipeg.

“He likes to have a lot of fun. He does a really good job of making sure guys get together on the road. Guys get out together for meals and things like that,” said Lowry.

“So, I think he kind of gets misrepresented in the media that he wears his welcomes out in places and stuff. But he was a great teammate, I think when the trade went down that was big news for us trading Patrick (Laine) for him and there were high hopes that we finally kind of had two number one centermen in him and Scheif.”

The former Jet comes into his third game as a King looking for his first point of the season. Dubois hopes that the fans will have good memories of his three seasons in Winnipeg.

"Like I said, I gave it my all when I was here. The first year, it felt like I was in Winnipeg, but without the fans, it wasn’t the same because when you get traded to the Winnipeg Jets, the first thing that comes to mind is playing in front of a passionate fan base," said Dubois after the Kings skate.

"I enjoyed my time here, I enjoyed playing in front of these fans and enjoyed the White-Out last year. I have nothing but good things to say about Winnipeg. Hopefully, they have nothing but good memories, even though I’m here now. I respect these fans and this city immensely.”