Armia makes his case

Who stays in, who comes out?

With forwards Adam Lowry and Brandon Tanev close to returning from injury, there has been plenty of debate over who might have to come out of the Winnipeg Jets lineup when all of the forwards are healthy.

On Friday night, Jets right winger Joel Armia made a strong case to remain among the regular skaters.

After going 10 games without a point, Armia has picked up assists in consecutive games and his all-around game caught the attention of Jets head coach Paul Maurice.

Armia was promoted to the Jets second line with Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault with just over a minute to play and his team protecting a one-goal lead.

“He was really strong on the wall and really strong on pucks and that was an area we were kind of light on, so he got the nod toward the end of the game,” Maurice said. “His battle was really good. On 50-50 pucks, (Armia) won more than he lost and that put him further up the lineup for us.”

Armia already tied his career high for goals (10) and has 24 points in 61 games this season and has been used on both the penalty kill and power play at various points, so he brings a lot of versatility — which only enhances his value.

Veteran centre Matt Hendricks is another player who could come out of the lineup, but he had three shots on goal and five hits in 8:31 of ice time on Friday — after scoring his fifth goal of the season in Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the Nashville Predators.

So the competition for ice time among the forward group isn’t expected to tail off anytime soon.