SAN JOSE \u2013 Sometimes, the hockey world works in mysterious ways. Today is another example.<\/p>\n
Walker Duehr will make his Winnipeg Jets (23-26-9) debut against the organization he concluded the 2024-25 campaign with \u2013 the San Jose Sharks \u2013 as the Jets conclude a three-game road trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be good to play against them,\u201d said Duehr after Saturday\u2019s practice in Anaheim. \u201cI just want to play my game, play a simple game, fast, hard, and be disruptive out there. Be physical, be good in my own end. Just be a simple and fast game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old played eight games with the Sharks last season, scoring twice in those games while adding another nine points in 16 appearances with the San Jose Barracude in the American Hockey League.<\/p>\n
After productive off-season conversations with the Jets, Duehr signed a one-year contract with Winnipeg and has been a key contributor for the Manitoba Moose so far in 2025-26 with 12 goals and 26 points in 39 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty seamless transition. The organization has been great to me,\u201d said Duehr. \u201cMy time with the Moose has been amazing. The coaching staff and the guys on there do a great job, and we\u2019re a close group down there. I think we\u2019ve been playing pretty well as a team down there. It\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
As always seems to be the case in the National Hockey League, one player\u2019s opportunity unfortunately always seems to come from bad news for another. This time, it\u2019s Vladislav Namestnikov who is week-to-week with a lower body injury following an accidental collision with Jets captain Adam Lowry on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Based on the line rushes in practice, Duehr will slot right into Namestnikov\u2019s spot on the right wing with linemates Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him in training camp obviously and I\u2019ve watched him with the Moose a few times. He\u2019s a big guy, heavy, he can really skate,\u201d said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. \u201cWe really didn\u2019t have the opportunity yet to get a look at him. I think he\u2019s earned it. That\u2019s why he\u2019s been up here and been able to practice with us all last week was real helpful for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point, it appears Namestnikov\u2019s injury is the only one from the tough 5-4 overtime loss to the Ducks. Late in the overtime period, Mark Scheifele struggled to get to the bench after some contact near the Anaheim net, and the forward \u2013 who leads the Jets in points with 70 \u2013 wasn\u2019t on the ice Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan is for him to play (Sunday),\u201d said Arniel. \u201che still has to get through the night here, get through today. We\u2019ll know for (Sunday).\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jets won\u2019t have a morning skate with the early afternoon puck drop at SAP Center, so the line rushes from practice are the best indication of what the Jets line-up could look like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Sometimes, the hockey world works in mysterious ways. Today is another example. Walker Duehr will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-506989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}