Opportunity came knocking for Mason Appleton — and the reigning American Hockey League rookie of the year has made the most of it with the Winnipeg Jets.
Despite now having a fully healthy forward group, Appleton remained in the lineup Thursday night at Bell MTS Place. Brendan Lemieux and Nic Petan both came out to make room for the returning Adam Lowry (upper-body injury, missed two games) and Andrew Copp (concussion symptoms, missed 10 games).
It’s a bit of a surprising development, considering Appleton didn’t make the Jets out of training camp and not only had to leap-frog Lemieux and Petan on the forward depth chart, but also Kristian Vesalainen (who is now in Europe) and Marko Dano (now with the Manitoba Moose) to get his first NHL shot.