MONTREAL \u2013 The Winnipeg Jets prospects will play the first of two games at the 2025 Prospect Showdown at the Bell Centre tonight at 6 pm CT when they face the host Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n
It will be an extra special night for Elias Salomonsson, Danny Zhilkin and Dominic DiVincentiis who will all play in the rink where they were drafted back in 2022. Fabian Wagner was also selected by the Jets that summer but was not in Montreal for the draft.<\/p>\n
“It’s so surreal. I walked out here before practice and just and took it all in,\u201d said DiVincentiis who was selected in the seventh round.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years ago, I was drafted here. That was a big night for myself and for my family. They\u2019re all coming tonight to watch, it\u2019s going to be pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danny Zhilkin heard his name called in the third round and said it\u2019s a full circle moment for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, being drafted here it was a great feeling,\u201d said Zhilin.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now to play in front of 20 thousand fans will be a fun night for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
In previous years, the Jets prospects have played in rookie tournaments in Belleville and Penticton in much smaller buildings. The fact they will be going up against the Canadiens rookies in front of a sold-out building makes this night a great opportunity for the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tournament is a little bit different than what we\u2019ve had. We\u2019ve had three practices now so I l thought this morning anyways,\u201d said head coach Mark Morrisson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were a little more comfortable with each other. They\u2019re going to get here tonight and there\u2019s going to be a full house and (it will be) loud. They\u2019re going to feel it a little bit for sure. They\u2019ll have a little bit of nerves and that but that\u2019s all a learning experience for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another thing to watch for tonight is the chemistry that is building within the Jets prospects. A lot of the group here in Penticton have been together at development camp and rookie tournaments for at least two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know each other pretty good,\u201d said Salomonsson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome new faces in there too but had some good practices here. A lot of speed, a lot of skill so it\u2019s fun out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 The Winnipeg Jets prospects will play the first of two games at the 2025 Prospect Showdown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-140400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}