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Man of many roles for Jets
Wellwood wants to help in variety of ways
By
TED WYMAN, QMI Agency
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WINNIPEG - Kyle Wellwood hopes his versatility will allow him to play multiple roles with the Winnipeg Jets.
The former Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks forward, who played last season with the San Jose Sharks before signing a one-year deal with the Jets recently, is an open book heading into training camp.
“You hope you can get a good role, help out on the power play and play on one of the top lines,” Wellwood said after skating with other Jets players at the IcePlex on Thursday. “That’s always the goal in camp, is to earn one of those jobs. If not, I can check and I can play centre and there’s a lot of other things I can do too.”
One of those things he can do is score in shootouts. Wellwood has a career shootout percentage of 33% (8-for-24) and his eight career shootout goals puts him second on the team, behind Blake Wheeler, who has nine.
Wellwood is happy to be back in Canada and says after playing in the States he will cherish playing north of the border a little more this time.
He likes what he sees in the Jets, who he thinks can work out the issues that caused them to stall last season when they were the Atlanta Thrashers.
“We’re a young team with a lot of pieces and guys who are hungry to play and have a good work ethic,” he said. “It’s a matter of coming together right from the beginning and working on the things that have troubled the team in the past and then find a way to win.”
