These Olympics have been the first Winter Olympics without NHL players since 1994 and it’s left fans wondering what could have been. The Winnipeg Jets are having a very good season and have a ton of star power that could have ended up in the Olympics. Here is a look at who could have played where.
Star 19-year-old Patrick Laine would have been tapped as a top line winger for team Finland. It would be fun to see just how well Laine would fare leading Finland against other extremely talented teams. He would likely be joined on the Finnish roster by teammate Joel Armia who is having a fantastic season in Winnipeg The Olympic Athletes of Russia would likely have selected Dmitry Kulikov to fortify their defense in the lower lines. He’d get to play with stars like Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin to make the Russian athletes team a solid group. Team Canada, arguably the best team in the Olympics had there been NHL players, would certainly have called up Mark Scheifele. Scheifele has been extremely productive for the Jets despite dealing with an injury that kept him out of a number of games.
Team USA would have likely called on the most players from Winnipeg to help them in their search for gold. Blake Wheeler, Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, and Connor Hellebuyck would all have gotten the call to play alongside the likes of Austin Matthews, Patrick Kane, and Cory Schneider. Wheeler has put together a career year, and Goalie Connor Hellebuyck has been a rock for the Jets’ first half of the season. All together, USA would be formidable in the Olympic tournament, and it would be exciting to watch.
As far as the tournament goes, the semi-finals could have looked something like Sweden vs. Canada and Russia vs. USA, which would have been two fantastic games. With team Canada having centers like Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and the Jets’ own Mark Scheifele, they would probably prove to be too lethal to be beaten. Instead we are treated to a lower level of hockey, with the Russians being enormous favorites due to having former NHL stars Ilya Kovalchuck and Pavel Datsyuk leading the charge.
On the season the Jets are 35-16-9. They have the third best record in the West and would host the Dallas stars in the playoffs if the season were to end today. In what has been a franchise season for these Winnipeg Jets, fans can at least take solace in the fact that they won’t have to worry about a potential Olympics injury that could derail their season.