Players to watch as Jets start training camp

The Winnipeg Jets are back in action for the team's sixth season. There are many questions about the team and some of its players heading into this weekend's training camp.

A big one — will Jacob Trouba, the unsigned restricted free agent whose contract expired at the end of last season, be a no show when camp gets underway?

Trouba was playing for Team North America in the World Cup of Hockey in the past few weeks, so he would be one of a handful of Jets players coming back to Winnipeg in stages.

Without a contract though, the big framed and aggressive 22-year-old defenceman, might sit out to try and force Jets brass into handing over a more lucrative contract.

There is a lot of potential for Trouba to be a major piece of the Winnipeg franchise in the future, but this past season he was stuck playing down the lineup behind the likes of right handed defencemen Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers. 

Camp storylines to follow

Another interesting wrinkle to this season's training camp is who won't be there when it gets underway. Head coach Paul Maurice is part of team Europe's coaching staff and Europe plays in the World Cup semi finals on Sunday afternoon. If the European squad beats team Sweden, the team would move on to the best-of-three final series that could run all the way to Oct. 1.

On top of the bench boss missing, newly-minted team captain Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Dustin Byfuglien will likely be late arriving to camp.

Sure to have every fan, hardcore and casual, salivating will be the arrival of the 2016 second-overall draft pick Patrick Laine. Laine played on the Finland national team in the World Cup.

Finland didn't have a great showing in this current tournament but Laine, 18, played in the 2016 IIHF World Championships this spring. He scored seven goals, got 12 points and was named MVP for his national team.

With comparisons to superstar Alexander Ovechkin, Laine is sure to have every opportunity to walk into a main role.

With all the excitement of Laine coming into this year's camp, it could be easy to forget how great 20-year-old Nikolaj Ehlers looked at the end of the season last year on the Jets top line with Wheeler and Scheifele. Ehlers was sixth in team scoring last season and after returning from an eye injury, that kept him out for 10 games, he racked up seven points in the last 10 games of the year.

Along with Ehlers and Laine at camp, NCAA star Kyle Connor, 2015 first round pick Jack Roslovic, last year's fourth line centre Andrew Cop, speedy centre Nic Petan, Brendan Lemieux, Brandon Tanev and top defensive prospect Josh Morrissey, are all in tough to make the big club.

Another big question mark is who is the team's top goaltender. Ondrej Pavelec has been this franchise's number one goalie from the beginning, but his contract expires at the end of this season and 23-year-old Connor Hellebuyck proved he could be ready to take the next step with his 26 games with the Jets last season.

Camp runs until October 8th and the puck drops on the first preseason game at the MTS Centre Tuesday Sept 27th against the Calgary Flames.