The Manitoba Moose are going to be a serious issue for many competing clubs within the American Hockey League this season.
Over the past week, the Winnipeg Jets have been fine tuning their roster in advance of final cuts on Tuesday.
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Photo by Danny Truong
However, due to some injuries to key pieces, the opening night roster may look a little different than some may have imagined.
With Adam Lowry (hip surgery), Dylan Samberg (broken wrist), Cole Perfetti (ankle) and Jonathan Toews (lower-body) each being placed on the team’s list of injured participants, additional roster spots have opened in advance of final cuts.
Nikita Chibrikov, Brad Lambert, Parker Ford and Cole Koepke appear to have taken the reins on those openings, cracking the team’s roster – at least for the time being.
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But with that short-term elevation of youth also comes the removal of others from Jets’ training camp, to which a number of talented players will be reporting to the Moose for the 2025-26 AHL season.
Included on that list are goaltenders Isaac Poulter, Thomas Milic and Domenic DiVincentiis, defencemen Ville Heinola, Elias Salomonsson, Kale Clague, Dawson Barteaux, Isaak Phillips and Dylan Anhorn, as well as a talented group of forwards headlined by Brayden Yager, Colby Barlow, Danny Zhilkin, Walker Duehr, Sam Fagemo, Mason Shaw, Jacob Julien, Fabian Wagner, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Phil Di Guiseppe.
This relatively deep AHL roster will almost certainly provide the Moose with an added spark from the group of players that saw Manitoba finish 31st last year with a dismal record of 25-41-6 in 72 regular season games. A youthful goaltending tandem, paired with a boatload of promising, soon-to-be NHL regulars should bring about some success that hasn’t been seen within this club for some time.
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Oh, and when Toews, Lowry, Perfetti and Samberg get healthy, the addition of Chibrikov, Koepke, Ford and Lambert also becomes a possibility.
Calder Cup Playoff hockey should most certainly be a real thing in Manitoba come spring time.