Petan will have hard time cracking Jets roster

Nic Petan has signed a new oneyear, two-way contract with the Winnipeg Jets, but the question remains: can he finally earn a full-time job with the big club and make an impact in the NHL?

Petan, a 23-year-old forward who has spent most of his time in pro hockey with the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose, accepted the team’s qualifying offer, which will pay him US$874,125 if he’s in the NHL.

Petan has always been a promising player, but he hasn’t been able to fit into the Jets’ system under head coach Paul Maurice.

He has become somewhat of an enigma, a player who gets rave reviews from the analytics community and has plenty of backers within the fan base, but also has failed to take advantage of his opportunities.

He has played 95 games in the NHL and has five goals and 16 assists. He has mostly played on left wing in the NHL and played there much of last season with the Moose, but he can play centre and has proven to be productive at other levels.

He had 120 points in one major junior season with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks and was a point-agame player in the AHL last year, putting up 15 goals and 52 points in 52 games.

There are certainly Petan believers out there who theorize he could put up similar numbers in the NHL if he played with topline players.

Most of Petan’s minutes with the Jets have come on the third and fourth lines, along with some power-play time. He has nine career assists on the power play and no goals.

If he remains on left wing, Petan would be behind Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Matthieu Perreault and Andrew Copp on the depth chart. Plus the Jets still have top prospect Kristian Vesalainen and Brendan Lemieux competing for spots on the wing.

With veteran Paul Stastny joining the Vegas Golden Knights through free agency, there is a potential opening at centre.

It remains to be seen if Petan could handle the job Stastny held last year, playing between highscoring wingers Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, but if he could ever get into that spot and stick there, he could start putting up points.

At issue would be his defensive game.

Plus, it would seem Jack Roslovic, who can also play centre and wing, is ahead of him as well on the depth chart.