Winnipeg Jets NHL Draft guide: Picks, best fits and analysis
Winnipeg has drafted a lot of forwards with its high picks in recent years. They, for the most part, are wingers, so I could buy center as a need here outside of Brayden Yager. Defense seems a slightly bigger priority, though, especially given Ville Heinola didn't pan out.
Winnipeg needs to hit big with the No. 28 pick, trade it for multiple second-round picks, or accept that it's not much of a draft-and-develop team anymore. It's remarkable that the Jets' prospect pool was ranked 15th by Scott Wheeler or even 24th by Corey Pronman, given that they've traded away 13 of their last 42 draft picks. That figure doesn't include this year's second-round pick, which Winnipeg sent to New Jersey (as part of the package for Tyler Toffoli) or Winnipeg's fourth-round pick, which was sent to San Jose for Vladislav Namestnikov.
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Kevin Cheveldayoff made it clear on Thursday that every option is on the table for Winnipeg's first-round pick.
'We're one of the bottom four teams to have picked in the draft in the last couple of years,' Cheveldayoff said. 'We've used lots of picks in other forms to try and keep pushing this team and that's why we'll continue to look at anything that is available to us to keep pushing forward.' — Murat Ates
In recent mock drafts, Corey Pronman has projected the following picks:
28. Henry Brzustewicz, D
92. Burke Hood, G
156. Jesper Kotajarvi, D
188. Mikhail Fyodorov, RW
220. Reko Alanko, D
(Photo of Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
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