Brayden Yager

He scored.

Brayden Yager scored.

Danny Zhilkin scored.

The kids, folks, the kids are playing on the Manitoba Moose.

Lambert, I think, often gets... dubbed as a one-dimensional player like just a speedy kind of forward but I think you know he's got to play he's got to adapt his game guys to that third line and I think that's something that you know I was maybe a little bit uh unsure if Lambert was going to be up to the challenge but I was pleasantly surprised and obviously it's like I said it's only one game but Whether it's the fourth line or the third line, I think there's going to be movement between those two lines.

And like I said yesterday on the postgame show, and I think you guys agree, Danny Zilkin, Braden Yager, players like that with the Moose, they're waiting in the wings, guys.

So if the Jets get off to a slow start, which obviously losing one game, you still get a point.

I'm talking about 10 games.

Maybe last year they sat back and in the privacy of their coaches' offices, they said, you know what, the players we have available as options to replace these guys aren't good enough.

Now, I don't necessarily know if that was truthful, but maybe they thought that.

This year, given you have Scott Arneal saying Braden Yager is an NHL player, he just got caught up in the numbers game.

You signed Cole Koepke to a contract extension.

I mean,

like, I'm a big fan of Brayden Yager, and obviously Dave has watched him more than Drew and I have combined.

But I think when you choose, when you choose Nemesnikov and Niederreiter specifically, older players, that kind of blocks, you know, Yager a little bit.

But I think it's only a matter of time before Yager's in the NHL.

But yeah, for now, it'll be interesting to see.

And, you know, Scott O'Neill flat out said it, Braden Yager looks like an NHL player.

And again, I've been saying this for months, Sean, you and I have talked about this.

Braden Yager at eight minutes a night in the NHL, I would much prefer him being in the American League, getting first line puck touches, first power play minutes.

And keeping the confidence high so that if there is an opportunity, if Nemestnikov struggles or whatever else happens to open up a spot in the lineup somewhere, that Jager is getting those touches rather than being the fourth line center or the 13th forward position.

And I feel very strongly about this, having covered the American League for 10 years.

with one guy getting a ton of minutes at the American Hockey League level.

I know it's been more of a four-line role.

And you can also probably throw Tyrell Bauer into that next gym.

I mean, they'll also potentially Braden Yager, depending on what happens later today.

So again, for me, I don't see the Jets being in the top three in the Central right now, but I also don't see them being a 26th place team either.

I think they're somewhere in the middle and I think that if guys like Perfetti can go back to being closer to a, you know, 50 to 60 point player rather than a 30 point player, I think that the Jets can definitely claim a wildcard spot in the West.

Both players played well in their final game of the exhibition, which I thought was actually more important for them than pretty much any player that was on the ice because there are some question marks.

Will a Brayden Yager or a Danny Zilkin play? Take a spot.

We already see the Jets kind of having youth on the second line, you know, youth in Colbert Fetty on the first line.

You got youth in Brad Lambert on the third line.

So you can have, I mean, I like a fourth line with Jilkin and Kepke on it.

And then maybe one of those veteran guys, like, like to me, I like a Jilkin is a, is a worry for the jets.

I think in terms of putting them on waivers, like Brayden Yager, obviously, you know, I've talked to the kid.

He'll, he doesn't care if he's a center or a winger.

He played a regular shift, but they also didn't ask him to do too much, and I think that's what you have to do with Bjork.

They're also in a situation in Winnipeg where I think they're giving a real y- a real look to Brayden Yager and giving potentially s- an opportunity at some point early in the season to Brayden Yager.

Both of them, I was in, in Gatineau for their rookie tournament.

This obviously predates camp here, but both Yager and Bjork looked a cut above, uh, in Gatineau at the rookie tournament there.