The Jets make a SNEAKY good move...

The Winnipeg Jets make a sneaky move by claiming goaltender Clay Stevenson off of waivers. In this video, we're going to talk about why this is such a big addition for this Winnipeg Jets team this season. We're also going to talk about the final roster after cuts and IR slots have been assigned. So you're not going to miss this episode of Winnipeg Jets Digest. But before we dive into everything here, I just want to say we're on the road for 2,000 subscribers here before the season starts on October 2nd. So if you're new here, you want to stay up to date on the latest news around the Winnipeg Jets, we are home for it here on YouTube. So go down below, hit that subscribe button. It is completely free to do so. But yes, today the Jets make a very, very good move in signing a goaltender in Clay Stevenson off of waivers. This was first reported by Elliott Freeman. He says the Jets have claimed Clay Stevenson from Washington. And why is this so big? Because this is a great goaltender here. As we see from a Winnipeg Jets reporter on Twitter, he says Stevenson is 28 years old, 6'4", catches left, and was 18-13-3 for the Hershey Bears in the AHL last season with a 9-12 save percentage. He played four games in Washington last season and had a 3-1 record with a 9-21 save percentage. And those numbers and that height looks amazing to me at 6'4", at 27 years old. This is the prime for a goaltender's career. And they just put him on waivers and it just falls to us basically for free, which is great to see. I mean, obviously right now we've been looking at options for our backup with, you know, obviously DeVincentis and Milich and guys like this that we have in our system. But when a goalie like this comes around, it doesn't really come around very often. And it's great to see a guy like Clay Stevenson that, you know, Washington couldn't really need right now, use right now where they got like Logan Thompson and stuff like this. And we're in a situation where Hellebuck is refusing to play with our team. We get to Stewart Skinner, who is a great starter in this league. But now we have a guy like Clay Stevenson, who is bigger at 6'4", and can come into these starts where we need him to play, where, you know, we need to give Stewart Skinner some rest and just shut down for this team. Look, four starts and three wins and one loss with a 9-12 at the NHL level is very good for your, you know, kind of first looks at last season. And with the Hershey Bears putting up those numbers, it looks like this guy's going to transition into a great goaltender here at the NHL level for us, which is great to see. You know, it's not every day that you get this. You get a good player like this basically for free. And it was a great addition by Kevin Shevell. Day off here today is going out, getting a need in Clay Stevenson. They like what they've seen from him. The scouting staff is like what they've seen from him. And at 27 years old, like I can't stress how much that is awesome. Right? Like because at 27 years old, he's in the prime of his career. And this is a guy who could be the backup for a few years for us. Right? And he could even break out into being a starter for us potentially. He has that potential, which is great to see. And obviously, like the guys that we had in our system in defense, Sentis and Millich, were all guys like that were six foot. He's four inches taller than him, is going to be immediately bigger in the net and a bigger body to block off some of these angles, which is great to see as well. So Stuart Skinner and obviously Stevenson is going to be a great duo for us to start the year. Obviously, we kind of would like to see Hellebuck and Skinner, but you know, we can't have it all. You know, stuff happens in the world of hockey and who knows, maybe Connor Hellebuck will want to come back. But who knows? I don't think a lot of fans, you know, especially from what I've been seeing on the comments of the video, would like to welcome him back with open arms at all. So a great ad anyways by Kevin Shevell. Day off today was adding Clay Stevenson. He's going to be a guy. He's going to be a great backup for us this year. And maybe if Stuart Skinner does struggle, hopefully not. We love Stu here on the channel, but this is a guy who's ready to step up and, you know, take control of the net if need be. So that's great to see as well. But let's dive right in to the roster moves today. As we did see a couple of players that I thought, or one player that I thought could have made this lineup at a training camp, not make it. So let's dive right into it here. As we see from our boy, Mike McIntyre. If you watch these videos, shout out to you, Mike. Appreciate all the hard work you're doing here. He says AHL Jets, this 23-man roster we're going to talk about in just a bit, but it's Devencentis obviously going down with the addition of Stevenson and Braden Yeager going down to the AHL with the Manitoba Moose as well. And Samuelsson, Brown, and Dewar are all on the IR to start the year, which isn't, you know, too big of a hit. We thought maybe Samuelsson could have maybe made this roster at a camp, but obviously he's dealing with some injuries. So hopefully we'll see him back soon and all these guys back soon. And it's Braden Yeager going down. A guy who, if you've been watching here on the channel, a guy who I really like and a guy who I think is going to be a great centerman for our franchise going forward. And I think that we did like what we've seen out of him in this preseason. At least I did. I think he's going to be a great talent for us going forward. And yes, maybe this year he won't get the, he won't be able to get the playing time that he would at the Manitoba Moose, which was kind of stoned his development. And it makes sense that he's going down there because he could immediately be the top line center on this Manitoba Moose team and really help them to start the season as well. So I like what we've seen out of Yeager. I definitely think if we see an injury at the center position, we will see him called up this year. So it's great to see him have, you know, that confidence playing in the preseason and stuff like this. So hopefully we do get to see him at some point this season. And, you know, I think once he comes up, he'll really show out here for us at the NHL level. Let's dive right into our full man roster, our current lineup going into this season per Puckpedia. Let's dive right into it here. That's Kyle Conner, Shifley and Perfetti on this top line. No shock there. It's kind of what we've been running here, which has been amazing obviously. Shifley coming off a hundred point season. Conner, you know, being a terrific goal scorer in this league. And for us as well, then we have Vigo Bjork on the second line with Villardi coming off a 30 goal season with Rosen, who I think is getting a big step here playing top six minutes. Hope to see a lot of him this season. Then we have Barron with Lowry and Lambert, a kind of grinder third line, which I really like. Then we have Niederreiter, Nemesnikoff and Iafalo. I think this is a great fourth line, one of the best fourth lines in the NHL in my opinion. Having Niederreiter, a guy who can score goals and put up points. And Iafalo is a guy who's not afraid to put up a few points either. And Nemesnikoff can win those draws on that fourth line. The defense looks like Morrissey, Demelo, Sandberg, Pionk, which we know the Sandberg-Pionk pairing has been amazing for us. Then we have Ferraro with Fleury to start the year and obviously Skinner with Stevenson. I do really like these lines to start the year. I do like the addition of Mario Ferraro. I think it's my favorite ad of the year to be honest. I think he's just such a great defensive defenseman. You guys are going to easily fall in love with him. Just a guy who's not afraid to block shots, get physical either. So I think this year with the defense we have, it's really going to help out Skinner and Stevenson in the net because they're just going to be so sound. And I think we do have enough offense here in the top six to make some noise in our division this year and hopefully get back into the playoffs this season, which is what we're all hoping for going into this year. But let's take a quick look at who's in the press box to start the year here. It is Cole Koepke, a guy who I thought with a good preseason could have made the roster. What he does, he's on a healthy scratch and a guy who's going to come in on some nights maybe when we need a little bit more of a physical defensive player. We have St. Ivany as well with Bauer. We have Hellebuck obviously on the IR to start the year and we have Keller as our E-Bug up there. It's nice that we have an E-Bug acquisition this year. But here we got the penalty kill looking at the special teams to start the year. We have Adam Lowry with Barron when Ferraro went to Melo. Ferraro's a great penalty killer. Like I said, he's my favorite ad of the year, which is great to see. We also have Kyle Conner with Iafalo kind of having like a little bit of a power kill with the goal scoring of Conner that maybe create a shorthanded goal. And we also have Sandberg with Fleury on that unit as well. Looking at the power play units to start the year. We have Conner, Scheifle, Velardi, Perfetti, Morsi. Really like this power play. I think we could see a lot of great things out of this this year. Obviously have Conner being that target man. Perfetti is a guy who can kind of set him up for that as well. Power play 2 unit. We do see Vigo, Bjork sliding in here with Nemesikov and Niederreiter and Rosen and Pionk. I think this is a very underrated power play unit in my eyes. I think obviously Pionk is a guy with a big shot back there that can create a lot of rebounds in front. But Bjork is a guy who can kind of skate around, has nice edge work and nice passing to find his teammates open on the power play. And I do think we're going to see a lot of power play assists from Vigo, Bjork this season. But that's kind of how the roster is looking going into opening night against the Boston Bruins at home. So it's going to be a fun one on October 2nd. And hopefully we can start the year with a win. And obviously we got a new goaltender to be opening the bench door here on opening night in Clay Stephenson. And it's going to be fun to see him in a Jets jersey for sure. So let me know what you guys think about the moves today. What do you think about the opening night roster, the lineup? Let me know in the comments section while you're down there. Leave a like, subscribe to the channel as always. I've been your host, KC. Keep your stick on the ice.