{"id":833695,"date":"2026-07-29T13:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833695\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:13:14","slug":"winnipeg-jets-morning-papers-todays-hockey-headlines-109","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833695\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Jets Morning Papers: Today\u2019s Hockey Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Note: We spoke with Jets management, prospects and staff throughout draft weekend and Development Camp, and we\u2019ll continue turning the most newsworthy comments from those interviews into standalone stories in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Note II: The Jets are down to just one RFA, as defenceman\u00a0Tyrel Bauer\u00a0has yet to sign a new contract. It\u2019ll be interesting to see whether they consider a Johnny Kovacevic-type deal, one with a bit more term in the hope of discouraging a waiver claim.<\/p>\n<p>Note III: Jets prospect Alfons Freij is heading to North America <a href=\"https:\/\/illegalcurve.com\/winnipeg-jets-prospect-alfons-freij-leaving-shl-early-to-begin-north-american-career\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">earlier than expected<\/a>, with the smooth-skating defenceman leaving the SHL to begin the next stage of his development.<\/p>\n<p>Note IV: Former Jets goaltender Michael Hutchinson has <a href=\"https:\/\/illegalcurve.com\/former-winnipeg-jets-goalie-michael-hutchinson-retires-from-pro-hockey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">called it a career<\/a> after a decade and a half in professional hockey that saw him play in the NHL, AHL and overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Jets news:<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7467346\/2026\/07\/28\/nhl-team-center-duos-ranking-best-worst\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Every NHL team\u2019s top-6 center duos, ranked from best to worst<\/a>. (Paywall). He\u2019s got the Jets in the fifth tier of his rankings which means \u201cMiddle of the pack (Star No. 1 center but a below-average 2C)\u201d. While he likes Viggo Bj\u00f6rck he finds it tough to believe an 18-year old will be able to be a top-50 NHL centre.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-209999\" class=\"wp-image-209999\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9257BE2D-7F76-4349-B130-C9983354A31C-e1785270756199.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"339\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-209999\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)<\/p>\n<p>Moose news:<\/p>\n<p>Official Manitoba site:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moosehockey.com\/news\/burnside-gustafsson-2026-27\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Rookies Gustafsson and Burnside eyeing growth ahead of 2026-27<\/a>. We will see the importance of these two players getting into games last season after their college season ended as they won\u2019t have to go through the adjustment period that often comes with making the jump to the pro game.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logoillegalnew.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Note: We spoke with Jets management, prospects and staff throughout draft weekend and Development Camp, and we\u2019ll continue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-833695","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\/833695","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=833695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}