Potential Jets Draft Pick – Griffin Reinhart

Update: Since the writing of this article, Reinhart’s stock has skyrocketed. He is expected to go in the Top 5 now and perhaps be the second if not first defenceman selected in the draft.

Despite the Winnipeg Jets being very deep at the blue line, Griffin Reinhart still comes up in talks for the Jets to use their 9th overall draft pick. He’s a prototypical defenseman, has a big shot from the point, a large body, and has the mobility needed to play in the NHL.

Taken by Slapshots Photography http://slapshotsphotography.com

Size is definitely something the Jets lack even on the blue line. Tobias Enstrom is a slick puck passer but is clearly small. Dustin Byfuglien obviously is huge but with the way he plays he often is caught on the offensive zone. On the power play, Tim Stapleton played the point a lot and there were many times where his size proved a problem. Reinhart could very much be just like having another Zach Bogosian back there. Again, there is a lot of depth in that position for the Jets but at the ninth overall pick, he might be the best player available not considering positional needs.

Drafting Reinhart would leave some holes for the Jets to fill that they hopefully can deeper in the draft or through free agency but by no means would it be wrong choice. This draft class isn’t widely considered to be a very good one but the one thing that is available are very, very good defensemen. Reinhart is the biggest of the top defenseman in this draft and the Jets bulking up definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Of course, there is also the point to consider that defenseman tend to take longer to groom than forwards so if the Jets are looking for an immediate impact guy Reinhart might not be it. Down the road Reinhart looks to be a big minute defenseman that can play in all situations. His high end potential is to be a generational player at his position or at the very least a solid d-man that just plays the game the right way.

A minor thing is that he shoots right and the Jets already have a lot of right-handed shooters but I would doubt that would actually go into consideration of whether or not to draft him. Just a side note really.

Stats:

Videos: