Winnipeg Jets summer development camp begins Thursday
The Winnipeg Jets will provide a peek into the future this week as the annual summer development camp is held at Hockey For All Centre.
A total of 35 players — 21 forwards, 11 defencemen and three goaltenders — are set to hit the ice for skates on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All sessions begin at 9:30 a.m., are open to the public and free of charge. There will also be private off-ice sessions which include a combination of teaching and team bonding.
The roster includes 17 recent picks of the Jets, highlighted by a trio of first-round forwards in Colby Barlow (2023), Brad Lambert (2022) and Chaz Lucius (2021).
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS files
Brad Lambert is expected to get a long look from the Jets after an impressive 2023-24 campaign with the Manitoba Moose.
Other prospects include all four players selected in the 2024 draft this past weekend in Las Vegas and defenceman Elias Salomonsson (second-round, 2022), who is coming off a championship season in Sweden and will turn pro in North America this fall.
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Lambert, 20, and Salomonsson, 19, could both push for work with the Jets as early as this fall, while the oft-injured Lucius, 21, is coming off a shortened season with the Manitoba Moose that ended with a broken ankle that required surgery.
Thomas Milic, who had a terrific rookie pro season last year that began in the ECHL and finished with the Manitoba Moose, will be one of the netminders, along with Domenic DiVincentiis (North Bay Battalion) and invite Alex Worthington, a Saskatchewan product playing for Briercrest College in his home province.
There are 17 other undrafted invites, including players on AHL deals with the Manitoba Moose such as defenceman Dylan Anhorn and forward Carson Golder and various skaters from the pro (AHL, ECHL), college and junior (WHL, OHL, QMJHL, USHL, MJHL) ranks.
Winnipeggers Nathan Brown (Niverville Nighthawks) and Gavin Hodnett (Edmonton Oil Kings) are among them, as is Max Namestnikov (Guelph Storm), who is the younger brother of Jets forward Vlad Namestnikov.
Two notable players will not be present. Nikita Chibrikov, a 2021 second-round pick who starred with Lambert on the Moose last year and made his NHL debut in Game 82, is back home in Russia for the summer and has school commitments. He will be at training camp this fall for the Jets.
Rutger McGroarty (2022 first-rounder) will be conspicuous by his absence after recently notifying the organization he doesn’t plan on signing with them. He attended development camp last summer and stole the show, signing hundreds of autographs and posing for countless photos with fans.
McGroarty, fresh off captaining the U.S. World Junior team to a gold medal last winter, helped get Michigan to the Frozen Four in April, then indicated he was headed back to school for a third season this fall.
The Jets are now listening to trade offers on McGroarty but have yet to find one to their liking. They retain his rights for two more years, at which point he would become an unrestricted free agent.
“I’m not going to go down the Rutger path right now. I don’t have enough information to give you an update,” Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said Monday.
Sources say the issue stems from the Jets informing McGroarty his development path could include a stint in the AHL with the Moose, rather than a guaranteed clear path to the NHL. Whether the fractured relationship could be repaired at some point remains to be seen.
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Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.
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Credit: Winnipeg Jets summer development camp begins Thursday
