Winnipeg Jets place Neal Pionk on injured reserve, recall Elias Salomonsson

The Winnipeg Jets’ injury-riddled blueline took another hit in their third straight win on Tuesday.

Neal Pionk reaggravated an undisclosed injury and is now out week-to-week after being placed on injured reserve. The Jets are now down three defencemen, as they flew out to Minnesota to face the Wild on Thursday with Colin Miller and Haydn Fleury also sidelined.

“We got some bad news going here,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “It’s huge. When you lose anybody, we know we’ve been going through it all year, get into your top-four — that’s big impact.”

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Pionk was already dealing with something and took a fall in Tuesday’s win over the New York Islanders.

The Jets put in another call to the Manitoba Moose for a replacement, calling up Elias Salomonsson from the AHL team.

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The 21-year-old made his NHL debut earlier this season and appeared in four games with the Jets where he was held pointless.

Either Salomonsson or the recently called up Isaak Phillips will have to play against the Wild on Thursday to get to six defencemen.

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“Look to the kids,” Arniel said. “Come in and get an opportunity and hopefully they can step up and help us.”

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