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Published Nov 25, 2025 • Last updated 40 minutes ago • 2 minute read
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Elias Salomonsson during a Winnipeg Jets informal skate at the Hockey For All Centre in Winnipeg on Wed., Sept. 11, 2024. Photo by KEVIN KING /Winnipeg SunArticle content
Hopefully the Salomonssons have a good travel agent. Because they need to find a way to get from Skelleftea, Sweden, to Washington, D.C., by late Wednesday afternoon.
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That’s where their son, Elias, will make his NHL debut, suiting up for the Winnipeg Jets against the Capitals.
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“My girlfriend is here in Winnipeg right now with me, so much easier for her,” Salomonsson said before the Jets boarded their flight on Tuesday. “But hopefully can get mom and dad.”
The 21-year-old defenceman, a Jets draft pick three years ago, will be pressed into action after Neal Pionk got hurt in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Minnesota.
While Pionk’s injury isn’t as bad as the Jets first feared – the veteran skated on his own before Tuesday’s practice – he’ll sit out at least one game, allowing a dream born in Sweden to come true.
Salomonsson, who’d been down on the farm with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, got the call from Moose bench boss Mark Morrison Monday night.
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“Something I dreamed of, so a lot of emotions right now,” he said. “Ever since you start watching it on TV… every kid dreams of that.
Head coach Scott Arniel says getting a young defenceman’s feet wet in the NHL now beats throwing him into the deeper waters of the second half of the season.
“The big reasoning behind it… is that it’s early,” Arniel said. “If you have to try to hit our season in February or March, it can be really tough on a defenceman.”
While Arniel had Salomonsson paired with Dylan Samberg at Tuesday’s practice, he wasn’t committing to that duo for the start of Wednesday’s game.
As high as the Jets are on their top blue-line prospect, they still have to try to get him the best possible matchups.
In Washington, that usually means not having him out against Alex Ovechkin all the time.
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Bring it on, the kid seemed to say.
“Should be awesome,” he said. “Something to dream of. Should be fun, if that happens.”
Salomonsson was a one-year-old when Ovechkin embarked on his rookie NHL season, ending it with 52 goals on his way to becoming the all-time leader.
In those childhood dreams, the Swede’s first game would start with a similar bang, heard all the way back home.
“Score a goal,” he said, with a wink.
The Jets, 12-9-0 and below the playoff line, are coming off their third shutout loss of the season. They hope to put together a much better record on this five-game trip than they did on a six-game trip that saw them lose four earlier this month.
“We have a bad taste in our mouth from the results of the last trip,” forward Morgan Barron said. “So it’s a good opportunity to go into some great buildings and some tough atmospheres and really come together.”
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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