Winnipeg Jets : 2017-18 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kristian Vesalainen

The Jets' first overall pick was actually at #13, but they traded that pick away to the Vegas Golden Knights, receiving Columbus' #24 pick (that Vegas had acquired previously) in exchange along with expansion draft considerations (they protected a player). Vegas also got the Jets' third-round pick in 2019. Prior to his selection, Kristian Vesalainen had already reached the professional leagues of Sweden and Finland, even earning a spot on the top line of the Finnish Liiga team HPK (Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho). Altogether, the 2017 selections in the draft went as such:

Round 1 - #24 - Kristian Vesalainen (LW), Finland
Round 2 - #43 - Dylan Samberg (D), United States
Round 3 - #74 - Johnathan Kovacevic (D), Canada
Round 4 - #105 - Santeri Virtanen (F), Finland
Round 5 - #136 - Leon Gawanke (D), Germany
Round 6 - #167 - Arvid Holm (G), Sweden
Round 7 - #198 - Skyler McKenzie (LW), Canada
Round 7 - #211 - Croix Evingson (D), United States

Answer: Ondrej Pavelec

Ondrej Pavelec was originally drafted by the Winnipeg Jets franchise when they were still the Atlanta Thrashers. From the Czech Republic, Pavelec was chosen in the 2nd round, 41st overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. He began his professional career with Atlanta's AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, finally getting his NHL debut (and first NHL win) on October 20th, 2007 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Over ten years with the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise, Ondrej Pavelec played in 379 games, earning a record of 152 wins, 158 losses, and 47 OT/SO losses. He also achieved 17 shutouts in that time. On July 1st, 2017, Pavelec signed his one-year contract with the New York Rangers. The Jets signed six free agents over the summer:

Goaltender Steve Mason from the Philadelphia Flyers;
Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov from the Buffalo Sabres;
Centre Mike Sgarbossa from the Florida Panthers;
Right Winger Buddy Robinson from the San Jose Sharks;
Defenseman Cameron Schilling from the L.A. Kings; and
Left Winger Matt Hendricks from the Edmonton Oilers.

The other players that left the Jets and signed as free agents with other teams were:

Paul Postma (to Boston), Brenden Kichton (to Carolina), Brian Strait (to New Jersey), Anthony Peluso (to Washington), Quinton Howden (to Dinamo Minsk), Scott Kosmachuk (to the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack), and Mark Stuart (to Adler Mannheim).

Answer: Nikolaj Ehlers

Danish forward Nikolaj Ehlers moved to North America in 2013 as a 17-year-old to play with the Halifax Mooseheads before being drafted 9th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft by the Winnipeg Jets. He signed a three-year entry level and was went back to play with Halifax for a second season. After posting back-to-back 100-point seasons with the Mooseheads, Ehlers made his regular season NHL debut on October 8th, 2015 against the Boston Bruins.

His first three seasons with the Jets saw a rising star as Ehlers went from a 38-point rookie season to 64 points (with 25 goals) in his second year. Eager to secure this talented forward for the future, Ehlers was signed to a long-term (seven-year) contract worth $42 million on October 4th. Over the 2017-18 season, Ehlers maintained his strong play, earning a record of 29 goals and 31 assists, for a total of 60 points.

Answer: Paul Maurice

Paul Maurice took over the reins as head coach of the Jets on January 12th, 2014 after Claude Noel was fired. He initially took the job for the short term, but soon afterwards signed a four-year contract extension through to the end of the 2017-18 season.

In his tenure (before the 2017-18 season), he had only brought the Jets to the post-season one time (2015), and the Jets were swept by the Anaheim Ducks in the first round. For the next two years, expectations were high, and in both seasons, the Jets finished *just* out of a playoff position. When the 2017-18 season began with two big losses, many Winnipeg fans thought that it was time for Paul Maurice to go. Thankfully, Jets management did not take heed, as the Paul Maurice coached the team on to their best season in franchise history!

Answer: (F) Blake Wheeler and (G) Connor Hellebuyck

Jets captain Blake Wheeler and goalie Connor Hellebuyck joined the Central Division team for the All-Star Game, which was held in Tampa Bay. This was the first time for both players.

The Central Division team lost to the Pacific team in the 3-on-3 competition, and neither Jet managed to take home a victory in the skills competition, but they represented their team and division well over the All-Star break, and reportedly had lots of fun.

Answer: Nathan MacKinnon

Nathan MacKinnon achieved his 13-game point-scoring streak in his rookie year with the Colorado Avalanche in 2013-14, amassing a record of 4 goals and 13 assists for 17 points. At the time, the previous record of 12 games had been owned by Wayne Gretzky. Laine's streak extended for 14 games between February 16th and March 15th, during which he scored 16 goals and 8 assists for a total of 24 points.

Patrik Laine turned 20 on April 19th, 2018 after two full seasons with the Jets. He finished the 2017-18 season with 44 goals and 26 assists for 70 points, surpassing his 36-28-64 record of the previous year. He finished second in the goal-scoring race behind Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, who managed 49 goals this season. Laine's 80 goals as a teenager put him in the record books as the 3rd best by a teenager, only remaining behind former Winnipeg Jets 1.0 great Dale Hawerchuk (85) and Jimmy Carson (92), who achieved his record with the Los Angeles Kings.

Answer: Connor Hellebuyck

Goalie Connor Hellebuyck was selected by Winnipeg in the 5th round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, 130th overall. A few years of development and hard work led him to a stellar 2017-18 campaign, taking over as the number one goalie early in the season and never looking back.

Hellebuyck set franchise and NHL records (as an American goaltender) this year with 44 wins. His mark of 32 home wins was also a franchise and NHL record (for any goalie, not just American-born). His final stats for the regular season were 44 wins, 11 losses, and 9 OT/SO losses, with a goals against average (GAA) of 2.36 and a 0.924 save percentage and six shutouts).

Answer: Blake Wheeler

Blake Wheeler was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers from the Boston Bruins in a four-player swap on February 18th, 2011. That very same year, the franchise was moved to Winnipeg. Since then, Wheeler has taken the team's scoring title every other year:

2011-12: 1st place with 64 points - 17 goals, 47 assists (80 games)
2012-13: 2nd place with 41 points - 19 goals, 22 assists (48 games)
--(Andrew Ladd was 1st with 45 points)
2013-14: 1st place with 69 points - 28 goals, 41 assists (82 games)
2014-15: 2nd place with 61 points - 26 goals, 35 assists (79 games)
--(Andrew Ladd was 1st with 62 points)
2015-16: 1st place with 78 points - 26 goals, 52 assists (82 games)
2016-17: 2nd place with 74 points - 26 goals, 48 assists (82 games)
--(Mark Scheifele was 1st with 82 points)
2017-18: 1st place with 91 points - 23 goals, 68 assists (81 games)

Blake Wheeler's 68 assists was tied for the league lead along with Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Answer: This was their first time

In the 19 years of the existence of the Thrashers/Jets franchise (18 seasons with the lockout in 2004-05), this was the first time that they broke 100 points. And they did it in convincing fashion, reaching 114 points and 2nd place overall (52 wins, 20 losses, 10 OT/SO losses). Previously, the closest they had come were three instances of breaking the 90-point threshold:

2005-06 (Atlanta) - 41 wins, 33 losses, 8 OT/SO losses (90 points)
2006-07 (Atlanta) - 43 wins, 28 losses, 11 OT/SO losses (97 points)
2014-15 (Winnipeg) - 43 wins, 26 losses, 13 OT/SO losses (99 points)

Answer: Minnesota Wild

The NHL playoff format has divisional rivals play against each other in the first round... mostly. There are two wildcard positions in each conference that can change that. Here is how it breaks down.

-- Top team in conference matches against second wildcard team (might be in same division, might not).
-- The other division winner gets matched with the first wildcard team.
-- The second and third place teams in each division play against each other.

Winnipeg, by virtue of finishing second in the Central Division, was matched against the Minnesota Wild, who placed third. The other three Central Division teams listed (Chicago, Dallas and St. Louis) did not make the playoffs this year.

Answer: 5

In both of their previous visits to the postseason, the Jets/Thrashers were swept, so coming into the 2018 NHL Playoffs, their record was 0 wins, 8 losses. Thus, it was a big step for the franchise to not only win their first playoff game, but to also win their first playoff series! The Jets won the first two games at home in Winnipeg (3-2 and 4-1), then split the next two games in Minnesota (2-6 and 2-0) before returning to Winnipeg to finish the series (5-0).

Answer: Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators finished first overall in the regular season with a total of 117 points (53 wins, 18 losses, 11 OT/SO losses). They won their first round match-up against the Colorado Avalanche in six games. Even though Nashville and Winnipeg finished #1 and #2 overall in the league at the end of the season, as divisional rivals they found themselves forced to meet in only the second round of the playoffs.

Answer: Mark Scheifele

Along with his four goals scored against Minnesota, Mark Scheifele's record-breaking seven goals against Nashville (all of them in Nashville) put him up to 11 goals in the 12 games the team had played so far. Going into the third round of the playoffs, those 11 goals were good for the league lead. During the regular season, Mark Scheifele (C) lost 22 games (of 82) due to injury. In spite of that, he finished tied for 3rd on the team in scoring, managing a point-per-game final tally of 23 goals and 37 assists for 60 points.

The series against Nashville was a back-and-forth affair with neither team managing to win two in a row. The Jets struck first in Nashville (4-1), then succumbed in double overtime (4-5) in game two. Returning to Winnipeg, the Jets regained the series lead with a blowout 7-4 win before losing their next match in a tight 1-2 game. The return to Nashville in game five saw another solid Jets win (6-2). Back again to Winnipeg, but the Predators were able to force a game seven with a 0-4 shutout. Game seven in Nashville could have been a nail-biter, but the Jets came back from their shutout loss with a confident 5-1 win to move on to the Western Conference Championship series.

Answer: 4 to 1

The Jets had home ice advantage in the series, which should have been a big thing, given their league best home record during the regular season. When they won their first game handily at home by a score of 4-2, Jets fans were ecstatic, believing that the Jets were Stanley Cup bound. But then Marc-Andre Fleury, the Golden Knights' goalie, shut the door on Winnipeg's offense, allowing only six goals against in the subsequent four games. Vegas took the next four games straight with scores of 3-1, 4-2, 3-2 and 2-1.
Vegas would go on to face the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final.

Answer: Blake Wheeler

Even though Mark Scheifele managed to score 14 goals in the 17 games played over the three series, it was Blake Wheeler's ability to assist (as seen in his regular season tally) that won him the team's scoring title during the playoffs. Here are the top five point-getters of the Jets' postseason:

#1 - Blake Wheeler - 3 goals, 18 assists for 21 points
#2 - Mark Scheifele - 14 goals, 6 assists for 20 points
#3 - Dustin Byfuglien - 5 goals, 11 assists for 16 points
#4 - Paul Stastny - 6 goals, 9 assists for 15 points
#5 - Patrik Laine - 5 goals, 7 assists for 12 points