Nino Niederreiter is set to enter the Winnipeg Jets lineup against the Minnesota Wild, with Lambert coming out of the forward group for Tuesday’s matchup. Josh Morrissey is still listed day to day, but he did not skate with the Jets on Tuesday after working separately with a trainer on Monday.
That makes Niederreiter the clearest change in a projected lineup that also keeps Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Cole Perfetti together on the top line. Winnipeg’s second unit has Viggo Björck and Gabriel Vilardi alongside Niederreiter, while the third and fourth lines feature Isak Rosén, Adam Lowry and Alex Iafallo, then Vladislav Namestnikov, Morgan Barron and Cole Koepke. Pickard is expected to start.
The setup matters because the game comes after Minnesota beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Monday without holding a morning skate, then lost Nico Sturm to injured reserve on Tuesday. Sturm was taken to the hospital Monday after a Jared Spurgeon shot through traffic hit him up high with 2:14 left in the first period, and Minnesota coach Jon Hynes did not have an update after the game.
Minnesota’s projected lines still show Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy on the top line, with Blake Coleman, Ryan Hartman and Maxim Shabanov behind them, plus Rieger Lorenz, Danila Yurov and Bobby Brink, and Justin Kirkland, Michael McCarron and Yakov Trenin on the fourth. Justin Kirkland is expected to play after being recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League, giving Minnesota one more forward option even as the injury list remains long. The Wild also listed Marcus Foligno, Nick Foligno, Brock Faber, Filip Gustavsson and Sturm among the unavailable players.
For Winnipeg, the question is whether Morrissey is ready to go after staying off the ice with the team on Tuesday, but the more immediate answer is that Niederreiter is in and Lambert is out. That is the kind of late lineup turn that can alter a matchup before the puck drops, especially when both clubs are already carrying injury concerns into the night.
