{"id":515298,"date":"2026-03-21T18:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/515298\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:29:16","slug":"jets-activate-neal-pionk-from-injured-reserve-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/515298\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets Activate Neal Pionk From Injured Reserve \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only five points out of the final Wild Card spot in the West, the Jets still have an outside shot at a playoff spot but they will have to be much sharper down the stretch to have a chance.\u00a0 Getting one of their top defensemen back will help as the team announced (Twitter link<\/a>) prior to today\u2019s game against Pittsburgh that Neal Pionk<\/a> has been activated off injured reserve.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old has missed more than two months with a lower-body injury and Winnipeg\u2019s back end has certainly taken a hit for it.\u00a0 Even in a down year offensively by his standards (just eight points in 40 games after putting up 39 points last season), Pionk has been an all-situations player this season.\u00a0 His 22:47 ATOI ranks second on the team behind only Josh Morrissey<\/a> while he leads all Jets players in shorthanded playing time per game.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg\u2019s back end has undergone some changes in the second half of the season.\u00a0 Veteran Colin Miller<\/a> remains out with a long-term injury of his own while Logan Stanley<\/a> and Luke Schenn<\/a> were shipped to Buffalo at the trade deadline.\u00a0 That deal yielded Jacob Bryson<\/a> as part of the return while youngster Elias Salomonsson<\/a> is now playing more of a regular role.<\/p>\n

Now, Pionk\u2019s return means that Winnipeg\u2019s top four is now fully intact, with him joining Morrissey, Dylan DeMelo<\/a>, and Dylan Samberg<\/a>.\u00a0 Whether that\u2019s enough to kickstart a long enough winning streak to get back to the postseason remains to be seen but he\u2019ll still be a big addition to their back end for the stretch run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only five points out of the final Wild Card spot in the West, the Jets still have an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,2001,4,405,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-515298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-neal-pionk","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-transactions","13":"tag-winnipeg","14":"tag-winnipeg-jets","15":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116268588435449106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}