The Manitoba Moose head into Wednesday’s matchup with Milwaukee carrying a strong start to the season and a few storylines worth tracking.
Manitoba, sitting at 7-3-0-0, is in the penultimate game of its road trip against the Admirals, who come in at 5-2-0-0. Puck drop at UW-M Panther Arena is set for 7 p.m.
CDT, with coverage beginning at 6:45 p.m. CDT on CJOB.com, the Winnipeg Jets App and AHLTV on FloHockey.
One of the newest faces in the lineup has already left a mark. Evan Nause scored his first career AHL goal on Tuesday morning at Allstate Arena and added three shots on goal.
The Riverview, N.B. native was recalled by Manitoba on Saturday morning and has played in both of the team’s games since then, his first AHL action since April 21/24, when he was with the Charlotte Checkers. Before that, he had assists in each of his first two games with the Bloomington Bison, the organization’s ECHL affiliate.
The Florida Panthers selected him in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft.
Danny Zhilkin continues to look right at home offensively. He scored in Chicago yesterday morning and now has 10 points, with five goals and five assists, through 10 games to begin 2026-27.
A year ago, the Moscow, Russia native put up 24 points, split evenly at 12 goals and 12 assists, while also setting career highs in points, goals, assists, plus-minus, shorthanded goals, game-winning goals, shots and shooting percentage. This season, he has already posted a career-best seven shots on goal in a single game, done Oct. 21/26 at Grand Rapids, and he has four multi-point outings.
Over his last four games, Zhilkin has collected five points, including back-to-back multi-point performances.
Noah Gregor has taken a different route to production. He opened the 2026-27 season with goals in four straight games, and in the six games since, his playmaking has been front and center.
Gregor is on a five-game point streak and has six points in that span, with one goal and five assists. Overall, he has 13 points - five goals and eight assists - and leads the Moose in both points and assists.
He is also tied for third in league scoring. Last season, Gregor recorded 17 points, with 11 goals and six assists, in 26 games with the Charlotte Checkers, his first AHL action since 2021-22 with the San Jose Barracuda.
He has never faced Milwaukee.
In goal, Thomas Milic reached a milestone in Chicago by making his 100th career AHL appearance. That makes him the eighth goaltender in franchise history to hit the mark for the Moose.
Through those first 100 games, the Coquitlam, B.C. product owns a 48-35-11 record with a 2.86 goals-against average, a .897 save percentage and five shutouts. Those five shutouts are tied for ninth in team history, alongside goalie coach Drew MacIntyre and current teammate Domenic DiVincentiis.
Milic also sits eighth on the franchise’s all-time wins list, one behind MacIntyre.
In Other News...
Moose Suddenly Face A Scoring Concern Fans Can't Ignore
The Manitoba Moose walked into Milwaukee with a decent amount of puck possession and still came away empty, falling 3-0 to the Admirals in a game that turned into their first shutout loss of the season. It also marked their first back-to-back losses, a small but notable jolt for a club that had been building early momentum before the offense ran dry.
Manitoba still managed to outshoot Milwaukee, but the finishing touch was missing and the power play never found a way to break through. After opening the season with a strong record, the Moose are suddenly facing a scoring concern that is hard to overlook, especially with chances piling up and the goals not following. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Get Timely Boost As Losing Skid Starts To Sting
Tampa Bay is getting some help back at a useful time, with Victor Hedman set to rejoin the lineup for the game against the Jets after sitting out. Brandon Hagel is also expected to be available, giving the Lightning a better chance to steady themselves after dropping their last two and trying to get back on track against a Winnipeg team that will be watching closely for any signs of a bounce-back.
The roster picture is not completely clean, though, with Zemgus Girgensons listed day-to-day as Tampa Bay sorts through the edges of its forward group. For the Jets, the matchup carries the usual test of handling a deep, experienced opponent when its core pieces are back in place, especially in a game where the Lightning are looking to turn a short skid into a quick reset. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Road Trip Could Force Changes Fans Have Been Dreading
The Jets are heading into a road trip that asks plenty of questions before they even leave the starting line, beginning with a stop in Tampa Bay against a Lightning team that has yet to lose at home. It is the kind of stretch that can expose flaws quickly, especially for a Winnipeg club that has been searching for answers and watching the pressure build on the details that tend to decide games in tight stretches.
There is at least some encouraging news in the organizations pipeline, with goalie prospect Samuel Hrenk turning in strong work in his league and forward Jacob Cloutier also drawing notice for his play. But the bigger conversation around the Jets has shifted to what changes might be coming, and a recent Winnipeg Free Press look at possible fixes has only sharpened the sense that this trip could force the team to confront issues it has been able to skate around until now. [Read more 🡒]