By Cami Kepke via Western Hockey League

The Winnipeg Jets may be in refueling mode one season after taking home the Presidents’ Trophy as NHL regular-season champions, but Brayden Yager is ready for takeoff.

The Prince Albert-born, Saskatoon-raised forward took his first NHL strides under the bright lights of Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena on Monday night.

“Everybody has kind of come up to me and congratulated me and are just saying enjoy it,” Yager said prior to the match. “You only get your first game once, so go out there, have fun, compete and just enjoy it.”

While the Jets were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention with a 6-2 loss to the 2023 Stanley Cup Champions, Yager showed plenty of promise with one shot and 17 shifts in 10:25 of ice time, while skating on a line with WHL great Nino Niederreiter, who surpassed 1,000 NHL games earlier this season.

With two games left on the regular season slate, Jets alternate captain and Penticton Vees part-owner Mark Scheifele sees plenty of opportunity ahead for Yager and his fellow Winnipeg prospects.

“It’s difficult, but we have young guys coming in the lineup and playing their early games, so it’s time for guys to show their stuff,” Scheifele told reporters postgame. “We’re going to have spots open next year.

Two games left. You have to play them, you have to give them your all.”

It’s a chance that’s well-earned for Yager, who was named Rookie of the Year for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose this season.

The 6-foot, 170-pound forward logged 10 goals (including three powerplay strikes and a game-winner) and 20 assists for 30 points in 68 AHL games.

Originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins with the 14th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, the Jets traded for Yager in August 2024 for Rutger McGroarty.

“We are very excited to add Brayden to the organization,” Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said at the time. “I think he’s a very talented player, a very skilled position at center where he can certainly make other players better around him.”

Yager registered 332 points (129G-203A) in 265 games over parts of five seasons with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Lethbridge Hurricanes.

He ranks in the top-10 in all-time points, goals and assists by a Warriors skater, but most importantly, played a key role in bringing Moose Jaw its first WHL Championship in 2024 by sweeping the Portland Winterhawks.

Yager chipped in 27 points (11G-16A) in the Championship run and helped Lethbridge reach the 2025 WHL Eastern Conference Championship the following season, though the Hurricanes would fall to the eventual Ed Chynoweth Cup winners from Medicine Hat.

Over his time in major junior, Yager was crowned Rookie of the Year in 2022, earned back-to-back WHL Most Sportsmanlike Player Awards, captured CHL Sportsman of the Year, and cracked the 2024 CHL Memorial Cup All-Star Team.

He also made the WHL East Division Second All-Star Team twice.

Yager could get his second NHL match under his belt as soon as Tuesday night, with the Jets visiting the Utah Mammoth at 7:00 p.m. MT.