Payne: "It’s sort of a real good foundation-laying day.”
WINNIPEG – A clear reason why the Jets rose to the top of the NHL standings last season was the efforts of their power play. Winnipeg pretty much led the league in efficiency from the start of the year until the end where they finished at 29.8%.
Wednesday afternoon, special teams became the focus at training camp.
“It has some excitement to it because you’re getting back to an area of the game that we’ve got to players that love doing it and have some familiarity with each other,” said Jets assistant coach Davis Payne.
“To be able to get that time to focus on it and have those type of practice days now, it’s difficult to do that during the regular season. It’s sort of a real good foundation-laying day.”
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One piece of last year’s puzzle is missing with the departure of Nikolaj Ehlers to the Carolina Hurricanes. Cole Perfetti has moved up with Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabe Vilardi and Josh Morrissey but the Jets power play guru reminded everyone there were two units that powered the team’s man advantage.
“We sort of look at like we have really good pieces and it’s the mindset of each unit going out there that really makes the difference,” said Payne.
“Cole, in the time that Nik was hurt (last season), did a good job during that stretch in that role. So that’s where we started today. There’s lots of pieces and decisions to figure out here in the next little while.”
Vilardi set career highs in many stat categories in 2024-25, including 12 goals on the power play. The 26-year-old is a big believer in Payne’s ability to make adjustments that will allow the Jets to be one of the league’s best units again this season.
“Yeah. A really smart power play mind, offensive mind. He’s helped me a lot in my game,” said Vilardi.
“But yeah, in terms of the power play adjustments, you kind of see different systems than two years ago. A lot of in-game adjustments. He’s a really smart offensive mind.”
The second unit has some new faces on it as well joining Nino Niederreiter, Neal Pionk and Vladislav Namestnikov are Gustav Nyquist (48 career power play goals) and Jonathan Toews (93 career PPG).
“It’s definitely fun, obviously,” said Niederreiter about the chance to play with Toews.
“I mean, was the first day basically being on the ice with him, having the same jersey on. So, it’s definitely get some used to it. But we had some good talks on the ice, and I think we can only run from there.”
Toews has a career faceoff winning percentage of 57.3% and should help boost puck possession time on the power play for the Jets.
“It’s a luxury to have a guy what that kind of experience in the faceoff dot,” said Payne.
“We’re going to make full use of it.”
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