Copp caught off guard

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This article was published 11/10/2016 (3584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Things were going to script for Andrew Copp — until he was faced with a dramatic twist Monday conceived by Winnipeg Jets management.

The 22-year-old centre from Ann Arbor, Mich., who played 77 games with the Jets as an NHL rookie last season, was dispatched to the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Manitoba Moose.

Copp, who participated in his first practice with the Moose Tuesday, said a stint in the minors wasn’t part of his plan.

“You kind of got to take it personally,” said Copp. “My goal from Day 1 coming out of college was to never have to spend a day away from the Jets. (Monday) was a really tough day for me.

“Not that I never thought that this was a possibility, but I just never planned on it and I thought I put in the work. So, it was a tough day. And all the phone calls and the texts that you get from all my support, my circle back home, my family, my friends, my agent, too, it was just a long day explaining over and over what (the Jets) said and where to go from here, so it kind of got tedious.”

The Jets also reassigned goalie Ondrej Pavelec, forwards Marko Dano, Anthony Peluso, Chase De Leo and Nic Petan, along with defencemen Julian Melchiori and Brian Strait to the Moose.

Pavelec, Peluso, Melchiori and Strait all cleared NHL waivers before joining the Moose.

Copp played a couple of seasons with the U.S. junior development squad and then had three solid seasons with the Michigan Wolverines. A fourth-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, he slipped into the Jets lineup for the club’s final regular-season game of the 2014-15 campaign and registered his first career point — an assist on a Lee Stempniak tally.

He cracked Winnipeg’s opening-day roster a year ago and played the bulk of the season centring the at-times, little-used fourth line, scoring seven goals and adding six assists.

But that was then, when the Jets weren’t as deep at forward. The arrival of Finnish star Patrik Laine, 19, along with college standouts Kyle Connor and Brandon Tanev provided plenty of options for the Jets brass this fall.

Copp said he was given a clear rationale for the demotion.

“The point was to show more of my offensive upside so I’m not just pegged as a fourth-liner my whole career,” he said. “That’s the vibes I got from management and the coaching staff. I’m going to try and focus on that while I’m with the Moose.”

Copp said he was satisfied with the work he put in this summer as well as his effort at training camp.

“My test scores were really good, I thought my first two (pre-season) games were really good as well. Then I played wing a couple of times and I thought I did a decent job there. And in Edmonton I thought I was decent as well,” he said. “From my perspective, I thought I had a pretty good camp and that’s the reflection I got from them, too.

“So, you take it personally, but at the same time you’ve got to take the positive out of it and understand we do have better than we did maybe a year ago and keep trying to prove myself.”

Copp said there are pros and cons to having the Jets’ farm club in the same city, practising and playing out of the same barns.

“In the short term, seeing the training staff and guys on a day-to-day basis kind of makes it sting a little bit more,” he said. “In the long run and away from the rink, it’s nice to have the Mark Scheifeles, the Adam Lowrys, the Nik Ehlers and the Kyle Connors in the same place and have that same group of friends that I’ll have no matter what team I’m on.”

Dano played 21 games with the Jets last season after being acquired from Chicago in the deal that sent captain Andrew Ladd to the Blackhawks in February. The 21-year-old winger from Austria supplied four goals and four assists for Winnipeg.

He’s been shipped back to the AHL before, while playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets and Blackhawks organizations.

“It’s happened the third time since I got to the NHL, so I took (the news) well,” he said. “It’s just an opportunity for me to work my way back to the big team. I’m positive about the decision. I wasn’t playing as consistent as they wanted me to, so I’m going to play my game here and I’m going to get bigger ice time so I can work my way back to the Jets.”

Peluso was a waiver-wire pickup by the Jets during the 2012-13 season and dressed for 142 games through parts of four seasons in Winnipeg. Petan, meanwhile, had four monster seasons with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League before splitting the 2015-16 season with the Moose and Jets.

Melchiori and De Leo played big minutes for the Moose last season and will have major roles with the AHL squad. Strait, meanwhile, was signed as a free agent by the Jets and will offer a veteran presence on the Manitoba blue line.

Moose head coach Pascal Vincent said half the battle is helping players get over the shock of being demoted.

“There’s a process in every field of life. For those guys that are disappointed, we expected them to be disappointed. If they weren’t, there’d be a problem with them,” he said. “At some point, you have to turn the page. And we’re going to do everything we can to help those guys get better — get better on the ice and get better off the ice — in order to help them achieve what they want to achieve.

“We’ll sit down with all of them individually and set some goals for them and see how we can get there. Not everyone goes from junior to the NHL without any bumps in the road. Playing for the Moose is not a bad thing. We’re going to try and grow their confidence, so if the Jets need them, they’re going to be ready.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter@WFPJasonBell