Dobber’s offseason fantasy hockey grades – Winnipeg Jets

For the last 17 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them. This year – let’s work backwards, beginning with Winnipeg.

The 18th annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer…er, winter. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

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Outgoing – Dmitry Kulikov, Cody Eakin, Anthony Bitetto, Carl Dahlstrom, Andrei Chibisov, Gabriel Bourque, Mark Letestu, Nick Shore

Incoming – Marko Dano, Derek Forbort, Dominic Toninato, Nate Thompson, Paul Stastny

Impact of changes – Stastny provides the Jets with the depth at center that they were lacking last year with Bryan Little sidelined. With Little still unlikely to play, Stastny will be key. In his first (albeit brief) stint with the Jets, Stastny had fantastic chemistry with Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine. This opens up a steady top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler. Shuffling those top two lines was a bit of an issue a year ago and some stability will be welcomed. This all means that Jack Roslovic will be stuck on the third line.

That third line becomes much better though, with Roslovic, chronic overachiever Jansen Harkins and likely Andrew Copp. The team gets deeper. They also have better role players, with Thompson providing faceoff wins from the fourth line. All this may result in the likes of Mathieu Perreault and Mason Appleton seeing lesser roles, and forward prospects will be in tough to crack the lineup. Don't sleep on Roslovic though, as Stastny gets injured fairly often and Roslovic could slot into that No.2 center role.

Ready for full-time – Harkins (DobberProspects profile here) didn't have a path to an NHL roster spot. So he made one. On a Jets team that was already full, plus a couple of prospects waiting to get called up/or get into the lineup, Harkins forced his way onto the team with his hustle and clutch play. After getting 31 points in 70 games with Manitoba in his sophomore season, he followed it up with 31 points again…but in just 30 games. The rest of his time was up with the big club. When he squeaked into the Winnipeg lineup as a depth fourth liner, he impressed by making things happen with every shift. His ice time steadily increased and he had moved up to the third line by the 20-game mark. A roster spot is still not 100 percent his, but at this point it would be a bad wager if you bet against him.

Sami Niku, on the other hand, was a prospect defenseman highly regard in NHL (and fantasy) circles. The Jets didn't give him a big chance because his defense was still suspect. He's a very productive player at the AHL level and this time around he has to clear waivers in order to be sent to the minors (hint: he won't clear if they try this). He is most likely going to stick as a regular with the team and we could see him in the top four.

David Gustafsson is NHL-ready in terms of his two-way play, but his offense lacks. And that makes him less appealing in fantasy hockey. The 60^th overall pick in 2018 could use some more strength and bulk, and if he can ever find his offensive game we could see him play at least half the season in the NHL. So far in Sweden's second league Allsvenskan, he has nearly a point-per-game average.

Winnipeg Jets prospect depth chart and fantasy upsides can be found here

Fantasy Outlook – Still very much a great core of youth with tremendous upside, with five forwards who would be drafted high in dynasty leagues (Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Nik Ehlers and Patrik Laine), two defensemen (Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk) and a goaltender who is perennially in contention for the Vezina including winning the trophy this year (Connor Hellebuyck). The prospect pipeline is pretty good, with three forwards in the Top 80 on my Fantasy Prospect Forwards list (Cole Perfetti, Harkins and Kristian Vesalainen) but not very deep beyond those three. But they do have three defensemen in the Top 50 on my Fantasy Prospect Defensemen list (Niku, Ville Heinola and Dylan Samberg). However, the team finished 16^th in goals scored last season, or around the median for the NHL. In the year ahead, Stastny will help. And Jack Roslovic looks like a good one for down the road.

Fantasy Grade: B+ (last year was B+)

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