Winnipeg Jets: 5 Players Who Need to Step It Up

The Winnipeg Jets were the feel good story this summer, unless you are an Atlanta hockey fan of course, but many felt that that feeling would be dashed against the rocks when the season started. The Jets were going to ice a young team and most felt it wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs.

Through the first few weeks of the 2011 season it sure looked like that prognostication was accurate.

The Jets struggled early.

There were injuries, many strange and ill timed Dustin Byfuglien pinches and angry glares from head coach Claude Noel.

Things have changed lately.

The Jets ended the Boston Bruins seemingly never ending win streak this week and find themselves with a winning record and only two points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Suddenly they are playing well and the playoffs don’t seem like that big of a stretch.

What will it take to make it?

For starters there are still some players who can step up their games. Here are the five that need to do so in order for the Jets to get into that top eight come season’s end.

Andrew Ladd

The Jets young captain led the Thrashers in scoring last year and big things had been expected from him this year. He is the leader in the locker room for the Jets but has yet to put up the numbers that many had hoped he would.

He hasn’t been terrible, but has only 14 points so far which is good for seventh on the team.

The Jets were hoping to get more scoring from their top six forwards and Ladd is a big key to that. He needs to turn up the heat a bit to give the Jets more balanced scoring from their top line.

Dustin Byfuglien

It’s hard to harp on a defenseman who is the second leading scorer on the team and has 18 points, but Byfuglien can be frustrating to watch at times.

He keeps saying he wants to be a blue-liner but all his instincts seem to say otherwise.

All season long he has taken ill timed pinches and rushes which have left his team facing odd man rushes the other way. Last year Atlanta struggled to keep the puck out of the net and gave up a ton of shots. Their plus/minus numbers were horrendous.

Overall, the team has improved this year, with the exception of Byfuglien.

Despite all the scoring he has done he sits at minus 10. That is by far the worst on the roster and the next closest defenseman is at minus one.

There has been talk of moving Byfuglien to winger again and he either needs to learn to pick his spots better or make the change once and for all. Either way he needs to step up the defensive part of his game.

Blake Wheeler

Before the season Wheeler was expected to be on the Jets top line. With a history of being able to put up decent goal totals that seemed like a lock.

This is a guy who has shown he can score 20 goals in the NHL. This season he has two.

That is only two more than you, and he has played in 27 games this season.

Like with Andrew Ladd, the Jets need Wheeler, who has been demoted in a sense to the second line, to step up and give the team more scoring from the top six.

Bryan Little

In 2008-2009 Little scored 31 goals with the Thrashers. He hasn’t come close to those numbers since and the Jets need him to resemble that player again.

He got off to a terrible start to this season and to avoid being repetitive, he needs to give the Jets more consistent scoring.

Now, even though is he on this list, he has played better of late with 12 points in his last 10 games. Winnipeg needs more of that if they expect to be in the post season.

Tobais Enstrom's Collar Bone

Tobias Enstrom has missed the majority of the season with a broken collar bone and is still listed as being out indefinitely.

Enstrom is a great puck moving defenseman who helps the Jets offense and power play.

His collar bone needs to step up and heal so that Winnipeg can get one of their big weapons back on the ice. With Enstrom and a more stay-at-home Byfuglien the Jets would have one of the more dangerous defensive pairings in the NHL.

If anyone knows of any ancient secret healing potions please forward them to Jets’ management.