Playoff push or draft focus? Winnipeg slightly reshuffles groupings against Vegas, with Hellebuyck defending the net in a crucial home showdown.
The 29-29-12 Winnipeg Jets are set to host the 32-25-14 Vegas Golden Knights from Canada Life Centre on Tuesday evening.
The game will be the penultimate between the two clubs and last at home for Winnipeg.
Currently sitting five points back of the Nashville Predators for the final Western Conference wild card spot, the Jets will need everything to go their way over the next 12 games in order to make the postseason.
Photo by James Carey Lauder/USA Today They would have much better luck option to fall back of the playoff push and look more towards this June's 2026 NHL Draft as a way of capitalizing on a season lost with extremely difficult postseason implications, should they somehow land that final wild card spot.
The team will return home following three games on the road in four days, to which the lineup will look very similar to what it was when the club left last Thursday.
Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal for Winnipeg, while Ville Heinola and Jacob Bryson will be the healthy scratches, as Haydn Fleury, Elias Solmonsson and Neal Pionk all remain in the lineup on the back-end for the Jets.
Morgan Barron, Isak Rosen and Brad Lambert will shift up to the third line, as Jonathan Toews, Cole Koepke and Gus Nyquist will assume the fourth line role.
Winnipeg Jets' expected line combinations for Tuesday, March 24 vs. the Vegas Golden Knights:
Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Lowry-Vilardi
Rosen-Barron-Lambert
Koepke-Toews-Nyquist
Morrissey-Pionk
Samberg-Salomonsson
Fleury-DeMelo
Hellebuyck