Jets’ Nikita Chibrikov, Elias Salomonsson Undergo Surgery
The AHL’s Manitoba Moose will face big lineup impacts as they move on to the Calder Cup Playoffs’ second round. Top Winnipeg Jets prospects Nikita Chibrikov and Elias Salomonsson will both be out for the remaining playoffs after undergoing surgery. Chibrikov is out six-to-eight weeks after a core muscle surgery per Murat Ates of The Athletic. Salomonsson will be on the mend much longer, set to rehab for five-to-six months after shoulder surgery per Ates.
Rehabbing through the summer could cut down Salomonsson’s chances at breaking camp with the Jets next summer. The 21 year old had an encouraging start to his NHL career in the second-half of this season. He scored five points and a minus-six in the first 32 games of his NHL career, to go with nine points in 29 AHL games. He was a wall on the blue-lines for much of the year, bringing confident defense into his first year of pro hockey in North America. With little depth on the Jets blue-line after the trade of Logan Stanley, Salomonsson seemed to have a chance at securing a third-pair role early into the 2026-27 season. Now, those chances could hinge on how he recovers from shoulder surgery.
Chibrikov’s summer training shouldn’t be knocked too far off course by his surgery. The 23 year old filled a third-line role with the Moose for much of the season. He finished the year with 16 points and a minus-19 in 53 AHL games and no scoring in 11 NHL games. Chibrikov has just four points in 16 career NHL games, a quiet mark for the former 50th-overall draft pick. Chibrikov had a strong rookie season in the AHL, netting 47 points in 70 games – a mark he hasn’t been able to match in 83 games over the last two seasons combined. The 2026-27 season will be focused on getting back to that first-year performance. If he can, Chibrikov could earn another chance to prove his productivity at the top flight.
Manitoba will look to find a spark from late-season addition Alfons Freij on defense, and Brayden Yager or Colby Barlow on offense, to help supplant their pair of missing prospects. The Moose will kick off a series against the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday.
Jets Recall Brayden Yager, Nikita Chibrikov
The Winnipeg Jets announced that they have recalled forwards Brayden Yager and Nikita Chibrikov from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. Per the team, these two moves are emergency recalls.
While the Jets have not been officially eliminated from playoff contention at this point, they are teetering on the brink of elimination. They’ll need to win their final three games – and get some help from other teams – to return to the playoffs.
Today’s recalls have added two of the Jets’ better prospects to their roster in the event that they rest some of their veterans or ailing players if they are eliminated from playoff contention. The moves also add some depth to the Jets’ forward corps, a group that recently lost Morgan Barron for the rest of the regular season.
Yager, 21, could get the chance to make his NHL debut within these (likely) last three games of the Jets’ season.
Originally a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Yager was acquired by the Jets in August 2024 after it became clear that top prospect Rutger McGroarty preferred to turn pro in a different organization.
In the first year of his professional career, Yager has made progress in his development. The Moose have had an up-and-down season as a whole, and have scored the second-fewest goals of any team in the AHL.
But Yager has nonetheless been able to successfully acclimate himself to the pro game in his time there. The former WHL Champion and CHL Sportsman of the Year has scored 10 goals and 30 points in 68 games for the Moose this season.
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler recently ranked Yager as the No. 2 prospect in the team’s system, calling him someone who “projects as a potential 3C/PP2/PK2 type.” That’s right in line with where he began the season, ranked No. 2 in the Jets’ system by the team at Elite Prospects, who also assigned him a middle-six projection.
Yager has two years remaining on his entry-level contract. While there aren’t many games left on the regular-season schedule, the Jets may be interested in seeing how Yager fares at the NHL level in order to get a clearer sense of whether they can plan for him to be on their NHL roster in 2026-27. The team’s current No. 4 center, Jonathan Toews, is a pending UFA, meaning that role could be open for Yager to seize in training camp in the fall.
The other player who was recalled, Chibrikov, does have some NHL experience unlike Yager. The 23-year-old Russian winger was a 2021 second-round pick and has played in 13 career NHL games, including eight this season.
Chibrikov built real momentum with his first season in North America, 2023-24. He scored 47 points in his first 70 AHL games and even nabbed his first NHL goal. But a season-ending knee injury cut his sophomore campaign short, and he’s since struggled to re-gain the form he once displayed.
In 53 games with the Moose this season, Chibrikov has just 16 points. While it’s been a season to forget for Chibrikov, this recall will give him the chance to at least try to end his campaign on the right note with some NHL experience. Chibrikov signed a two-year, one-way contract extension in October that carries an $875K AAV, and that deal is set to kick in this summer.
Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Winnipeg Jets Make Multiple Roster Moves
The Winnipeg Jets’ forward core is going to have several differences for their upcoming contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Winnipeg announced that they’ve activated forwards Morgan Barron and Cole Koepke from the injured reserve.
Additionally, the team shared that forwards Nikita Chibrikov, Parker Ford, and Brad Lambert had all been reassigned in a corresponding roster move. All three forwards were exempt from waivers, making it much easier to activate Barron and Koepke.
Barron has been out since the Jets welcomed back their captain, Adam Lowry, in early November. He had assumed the third-line center duties in Lowry’s absence, scoring three goals and six points in 12 games, averaging 12:33 of ice time per game.
The fact that Winnipeg can now safely play Barron on the fourth line is a credit to their bottom-six depth this season. Barron is a well-above-average defensive center, averaging a 93.3% on-ice save percentage at even strength throughout his time as a Jet, and a 50.5% success rate in the faceoff dot.
Joining Barron on the active roster will be Koepke, who may not immediately step back into the lineup. Fashioned as a fourth-line winger, Koepke had only tallied two assists in 14 games before going down with his undisclosed injury.
Still, he remains in the team lead for physicality with 40 hits (2.86 per game). Regardless, there’s no questioning that Koepke doesn’t have the offensive ceiling of veteran wingers Tanner Pearson and Gustav Nyquist, who are expected to play next to Barron on the fourth line tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, none of Chibrikov, Ford, or Lambert were overly impressive throughout their time on the Jets roster. Ford and Lambert led the way in scoring with one point in 11 games and four games, respectively, while Chibrikov went scoreless.
It stands to reason that the AHL’s Manitoba Moose will benefit from today’s move. The Moose are currently in fourth place in the Central Division with a 7-6-2-0 record, and have now added three top-six forwards back into the mix.
Jets Sign Nikita Chibrikov To Two-Year Extension
The Winnipeg Jets have locked up a talented young forward, Nikita Chibrikov, per agent Dan Milstein. The deal is a two-year, one-way extension, worth $850k and $900k at the NHL level.
Despite the Jets’ consistent presence as a playoff contender across the last decade, and the subsequent lack of high draft picks, the organization has managed to assemble a formidable group of forward prospects, including Chibrikov. The youngster’s high skill and effort projects himself as a future middle-six scorer for Winnipeg, with the potential for more, especially if he cleans up his defensive game. Having lost stalwart Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency, and Kyle Connor a soon-to-be free agent with an uncertain future, Winnipeg will turn to their youth to help keep their window open.
Selected by Winnipeg 50th overall in 2021, Chibrikov never made a significant impact in the KHL as a young NHL-draftee, but he was an immediate standout in North America, posting 47 points as an AHL rookie in 2023-24, and lighting the lamp in his NHL debut as well.
Last season the Russian forward continued his progression with the Manitoba Moose, and earned a four game stint with the Presidents’ Trophy Jets in December, where he notched two goals and an assist.
With forwards such as Cole Perfetti, Jonathan Toews, and Adam Lowry currently banged up, the Jets could turn to Chibrikov to start the season. If not, and he is sent back down, expect the 22-year-old to be a key member of the Manitoba Moose again as an eventual fixture of Winnipeg’s lineup.
Western Notes: Dostal, Jets, Garland
The Anaheim Ducks face several key questions heading into the 2025–26 season, one of which is whether goalie Lukas Dostal can deliver a breakout campaign following the trade of veteran John Gibson, per NHL.com’s David Satriano.
Dostal appeared in a career-high 54 games with Anaheim last season, securing a 23-23-7 record and a .903 save percentage that aligns with his career average of .902. That performance allowed the Ducks to trade Gibson to the Red Wings at the draft for goaltender Petr Mrazek and two draft picks, as well as land Dostal a five-year, $32.5MM contract on July 17.
A 25-year-old native of the Czech Republic, Dostal is expected to lead one of the league’s only true three-man rotations in net, along with Mrazek and Ville Husso. But according to new head coach Joel Quenneville, Dostal possesses special traits that could help him take the next step in his career.
“Dostal had a tremendous year. I don’t know too many people that get a rave review at this age of their career about what a professional, what a competitor (they are), but everybody always says the greatest things about him. … I don’t know if this guy’s a stereotypical goalie, but at the same time, he’s got some different ways about him that makes him special,” he said.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference:
- While the Winnipeg Jets added veteran leadership to their forward group this offseason by signing the likes of Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist, NHL.com’s Darrin Bauming wonders if a few rising forward prospects could crack the lineup to start the season. Bauming lists both 22-year-old Nikita Chibrikov and 21-year-old Brad Lambert as being “on the cusp” of regular NHL time. Chibrikov appeared in four games for the Jets last season, recording three points. The 5’10”, 175-pound winger added 18 points in 30 games for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. Lambert posted 35 points in 61 games last season for Manitoba, and 55 points in 55 points in 64 games for the squad the year before. The native of Finland has yet to appear in an NHL game but should break through at some point this upcoming season.
- The road for Vancouver Canucks’ forward Conor Garland wasn’t always easy, which makes his six-year, $36 million extension he signed on July 1 all the sweeter, outlines Ben Kuzma of The Province. As Kuzma notes, Garland has faced adversity throughout his hockey journey (largely due to his small stature), which included not making the famed Shattuck-Saint Mary’s junior team in Minnesota that produced several NHL stars, including the aforementioned Toews. That adversity, however, has been a driving force behind the player Garland is today — one who has missed just two games over the past three seasons while tallying 143 points. Garland feels his extension was not just for prior results, but also for the continued growth he and the team expect. “I try to come back each year better, and I know I have to produce more. I’ve learned most about consistency. When the puck wasn’t going in, or I wasn’t making plays, I became a pretty responsible defensive forward on a shutdown line,” he said.
Jets Activate Nikolaj Ehlers, Waive Dylan Coghlan
Dec. 19: The Jets announced that Coghlan cleared waivers and was subsequently assigned to AHL Manitoba along with the waiver-exempt Chibrikov.
Dec. 18: The Jets have placed defenseman Dylan Coghlan on waivers ahead of the upcoming roster freeze, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. In a related but not quite corresponding move, winger Nikolaj Ehlers has been activated from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s matchup with the Ducks, per the league’s media site. Center David Gustafsson, who’s been in concussion protocol since fighting Bruins forward Trent Frederic on Dec. 10, was placed on injured reserve to keep the Jets’ active roster at the maximum 23 until Coghlan can be removed tomorrow.
Ehlers had missed the last nine games with a lower-body injury that he sustained against the Golden Knights on Nov. 29. The Jets managed to go 5-3-1 in his absence and haven’t lost in regulation over their last four outings. The injury interrupted a resurgent season for the pending unrestricted free agent, who still ranks fifth on the team in scoring with 25 points (9 G, 16 A) in 24 games. If his pace holds, the Danish winger will crack the point-per-game threshold for the first time in his 10-year career. If he plays tonight, he’ll likely resume his place on the second line alongside Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti while rookie Nikita Chibrikov, who has two goals and an assist in four showings this season, heads to the press box.
Coghlan, 26, signed a two-way deal with the Jets in the offseason after they acquired his signing rights from the Hurricanes. He made the team’s opening night roster but has been stuck in the press box, playing just once this year despite not carrying an injury designation. Winnipeg has had eight defensemen on the active roster nearly all season but hasn’t had the impetus to make many lineup changes. Their relatively healthy blue line has helped power a 23-9-1 record.
His lone appearance came against Vegas, his former team, in the game Ehlers got hurt. He posted a -1 rating in 14:38 of ice time with two shots on goal. Winnipeg out-attempted opponents 15-8 with Coghlan on the ice at even strength despite two-thirds of his zone starts coming in the defensive end.
Thirty-one other teams will now have the chance to claim Coghlan, who only costs the league minimum of $775K against the cap when in the NHL and has 107 games of experience to his name over the last five years. If there are no takers, it’s back to the AHL for him, this time with the Manitoba Moose. The British Columbia native played in 61 games for the Springfield Thunderbirds last season while under contract with Carolina, leading their defenders with 41 points (16 G, 25 A).
Jets Recall Nikita Chibrikov, Reassign Brad Lambert
The Winnipeg Jets have made a roster move as they continue to deal with the void of Nikolaj Ehlers in their top six. The organization announced they’ve recalled Nikita Chibrikov from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, and have sent Brad Lambert the other way in a corresponding move.
Winnipeg’s roster move indicates Ehlers won’t return for tomorrow’s matchup against the Boston Bruins and the Jets will allow a different prospect an NHL opportunity. Chibrikov was drafted by Winnipeg with the 50th overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft and debuted for a one-game stint last season.
He’s been an efficient forward for the AHL Moose since coming to North America from the KHL’s Spartak Moskva last year. He’s scored 22 goals and 60 points in 89 games for Manitoba with another goal in two postseason contests. Still, he has plenty of work to do on the defensive side of the puck but Chibrikov is showing he can already score at the game’s second-highest level.
Heading back to Manitoba as arguably the Jets’ top prospect. He was projected as high as second overall for the 2022 NHL Draft on some boards but a disastrous 2021-22 season with JYP of the Finnish Liiga dropped Lambert to Winnipeg at 30th overall.
He’s recovered exceptionally well scoring 26 goals and 69 points in 94 games over three years with the Moose. He registered four games for the Jets throughout his recent call-up but unfortunately went scoreless. He only averaged 12:44 of ice time per night during those games but will now move back to Manitoba’s first line.
Jets Reassign Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, Place Two On IR
Forwards Brad Lambert and Nikita Chibrikov won’t be on the Jets’ opening night roster when it’s announced later today. They’ve been sent to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to begin the season, relays team color commentator Mitchell Clinton. Defensemen Ville Heinola and Logan Stanley have also landed on injured reserve, per the league’s media portal.
Lambert, 20, was in a tight competition to land a second-line role in Winnipeg but will return to the minors for additional development time. Winnipeg selected the Finnish forward with the 30th overall pick in 2022 out of Liiga’s Pelicans, immediately signing him to his entry-level contract and bringing him over to North American juniors for his post-draft season. After one season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, Lambert jumped to the pros full-time this past year, breaking out in a big way with 55 points in 64 games to lead the Moose in scoring.
The Jets allowed Lambert to make his NHL debut in the final game of the regular season, calling him up to play 13:51 against the Canucks. He logged an assist and a +1 rating while going 3-for-7 in the faceoff dot. He was an early candidate to take on top-six duties and push veteran Vladislav Namestnikov out of the 2C spot, but line rushes the past few days indicated he was trending toward being cut. However, it’s hard to imagine him not adding some NHL games to his resume throughout the season.
Chibrikov was a longer shot for a roster spot, but his impressive camp had him under consideration for one until the end. A second-round choice in 2021, the 21-year-old winger is also coming off his first full AHL campaign. The Russian forward finished fourth on the team in scoring with 47 points (17 G, 30 A) in 70 games but had a -18 rating, second-worst on the team. It was still a strong first step for Chibrikov, who needed to take a big step in his development last year after being buried in Russian pro and minor-pro lineups the past couple of seasons.
Heinola and Stanley heading to IR is a formality more than anything else. Head coach Scott Arniel told reporters last month that Heinola would be out long-term with an infection in the ankle he had surgically repaired last season, while Stanley underwent minor knee surgery over a week ago and isn’t expected back until the end of the month at the earliest. After avoiding waivers yesterday, it’s clear that Dylan Coghlan and Haydn Fleury will open the season on the NHL roster in their stead after both signing two-way deals in Winnipeg this summer.
Winnipeg Hoping To Get More From Younger Players
While at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton, Alberta earlier today, the general manager of the Winnipeg Jets, Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke very candidly about the younger players on the roster (Article Link). According to TSN, Cheveldayoff said, “The ball’s in their court. If you’re a young player in our organization right now, it’s all in front of you, there for the taking“.
The only GM in team history wasn’t speaking generally either as he specifically called out Logan Stanley, Ville Heinola, Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, and Cole Perfetti. The quote is significant given that new head coach Scott Arniel is instituting a major change in philosophy to the Jets’ organization.
Winnipeg has long been known to slow-play prospects to the professional level. Most quality prospects in the organization spend several years in the minor or junior levels before finally being graduated to the NHL where they will sometimes sit in depth roles for much of the season.
Heinola, Lambert, and Chibrikov spent all of last year (besides one game a piece for the latter two) in the minor leagues. The Jets kept an impressively healthy blue line through the 2023-24 regular season which prohibited Heinola from receiving a call-up. With several key players leaving through buyouts and free agency this summer — a strong training camp performance could earn them a full-time role at the NHL level.
The quote from Cheveldayoff is a bit more interesting when considering the career trajectories of both Perfetti and Stanley. Perfetti has been a full-time member of the Jets for two years now and played in 71 games last year. It was his most productive season to date as he scored 19 goals and 38 points in total.
He was still tremendously underutilized in the forward group as he averaged 13:35 of ice time each night which ranked 12th on the team for forwards with 15 or more games played. Perfetti has arguably already worked his way into a top-six role in Winnipeg and it will be intriguing to see how Arniel utilizes him this season.
Stanley, on the other hand, could be a bit jealous of Perfetti’s situation with the team. The 6’7″ defenseman went from averaging 15:39 of ice time over 58 games in 2021-22 to averaging 13:46 of ice time over 25 games this past season. Stanley has already proven himself as an adequate shutdown defenseman and could play himself into the former role of Nate Schmidt.
This fate felt inevitable for the Jets. Arniel is now in charge of plugging the holes left by Schmidt, Sean Monahan, Tyler Toffoli, and potentially Nikolaj Ehlers. If Winnipeg hopes to compete in a rugged Central Division, they must give their young players more responsibility.
AHL Shuffle: 4/19/24
Half the league has played their last games for the 2023-24 campaign, while the other half is gearing up for postseason action starting tomorrow. Either way, squads are making roster adjustments today, whether it’s assigning players back to the minors after their NHL seasons came to a close or recalling reinforcements for their playoff runs. We’ll keep track of all of today’s moves here:
- The Bruins have recalled center John Beecher and defenseman Mason Lohrei from AHL Providence. Both will be available for tomorrow’s Game 1 of Boston’s first-round series against the Maple Leafs. The pair of youngsters were assigned to the minors throughout the last week for playing time down the stretch after spending most of the campaign on the NHL roster. They’ll likely be scratches for tomorrow’s contest, but after combining for 93 games played in the regular season, head coach Jim Montgomery won’t hesitate to plug them into the playoff lineup.
- The Flames have assigned forwards Matthew Coronato and Adam Klapka, defenseman Ilya Solovyov, and goaltender Dustin Wolf to AHL Calgary. The NHL club’s regular season came to an end last night in a 5-1 win over the Sharks, a game all four players involved in today’s transaction played in. Wolf, one of the league’s top goaltending prospects, ended his season on a high note with 16 saves on 17 shots after putting up underwhelming numbers down the stretch for the Flames. All four will play major roles for the Wranglers over the next couple of weeks, at the very least, as they’ve clinched a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Capitals have recalled goaltender Mitchell Gibson from ECHL South Carolina. The 24-year-old, who has no NHL experience, is in his first full season of pro hockey after spending the last four seasons in collegiate hockey at Harvard. He’ll serve as a Black Ace and emergency backup as their first-round matchup against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers gets underway. A fourth-round pick of the Caps back in 2018, he has a .899 SV%, 2.56 GAA, three shutouts, and a 22-14-3 record in 42 appearances with South Carolina this year, as well as a .915 SV% and a perfect record in two showings with AHL Hershey.
- In a similar move, the Predators have brought up netminder Gustavs Grigals from ECHL Atlanta. Undrafted, the Latvian had spent the season in the Nashville organization on a minor-league contract before receiving a two-way deal from the Preds on deadline day. The 25-year-old was excellent last year for UMass-Lowell after transferring from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, posting a .924 SV% in 24 games and earning Hockey East Third All-Star Team honors. He’s adjusted decently well to the pro ranks, posting a .900 SV% and three shutouts behind a defensively challenged Atlanta squad in 34 appearances with an 11-19-0 record.
- The Blackhawks have assigned forward prospect Lukas Reichel to AHL Rockford to finish his season. Chicago expected the 21-year-old to take a major step forward in his development this season and supplant himself as a top-six fixture for the future along with Connor Bedard, but it didn’t work out that way. The 2020 first-round pick was arguably among the worst players in the league this season, limited to five goals and 16 points in 65 games with a -29 rating despite seeing second-line looks for much of the season. His average ice time dipped to almost 14 minutes per game by the end of the campaign, however.
- The Jets have assigned forwards Nikita Chibrikov, Parker Ford, Brad Lambert, and goaltender Collin Delia to AHL Manitoba. Winnipeg recalled the foursome yesterday to provide reinforcements for yesterday’s regular-season finale against the Canucks. Chibrikov and Lambert made their NHL debuts, with the former notching his first NHL goal in the process. Delia backed up Laurent Brossoit while Jennings Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck was given the night off entirely, while Ford was a healthy scratch. Delia was again recalled under emergency conditions later Friday, suggesting he’ll be available as a Black Ace/emergency backup for Game 1 against the Avalanche on Sunday.
- The Coyotes have made likely the final group of transactions in franchise history, returning forwards Dylan Guenther, Josh Doan, Aku Raty, and defensemen Michael Kesselring and Vladislav Kolyachonok to AHL Tucson. The sale of the team’s hockey operations to Salt Lake City-based Smith Entertainment Group was approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors yesterday, rendering the Coyotes franchise inactive and establishing a new franchise in Utah. The five youngsters will finish the season in the Calder Cup Playoffs with the Roadrunners. Some of these players, likely Guenther and Doan at a minimum, will travel to Salt Lake City and will be a part of that team’s opening-night squad next season. The others may remain in Tucson, which is expected to serve as the Utah franchise’s minor-league affiliate.
- The Oilers have assigned defenseman Philip Broberg and winger Adam Erne to AHL Bakersfield. The pair were recalled earlier in the week to allow the Oilers to rest stars like Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard before kicking off their first-round playoff series against the Kings in a few days. They’ll return to playoff-bound Bakersfield for now but will be among the first in line for recalls if necessary.
- The Kings have assigned forward Alex Turcotte to AHL Ontario. He’d spent most of the last week in the minors on an LTI conditioning loan, but was activated off LTIR and reinstated to the NHL roster on Tuesday. He didn’t play in the Kings’ final game of the regular season last night, though. The 23-year-old presumably won’t be in their Game 1 lineup against the Oilers and will report for playoff action with the Reign.
- The Islanders have summoned goaltender Jakub Skarek from AHL Bridgeport, per the league’s media site. The 23-year-old comes up to serve as the extra/reserve netminder as the Islanders begin their first-round series with Bridgeport eliminated from playoff contention. The 2018 third-round pick has again struggled in the third-string spot, posting a .888 SV% and 7-22-6 record in 36 appearances for the AHL Isles this year. He was passed over for recalls earlier in the regular season in favor of veteran Kenneth Appleby.
This page will be updated throughout the day.