Winnipegger Adam Brooks is joining his hometown Jets after being claimed off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It’s been a whirlwind campaign for the 25-year-old Brooks, who was claimed off waivers for the fourth time just this season.
Brooks went from the Toronto Maple Leafs, to the Montreal Canadiens, to the Vegas Golden Knights, and back to the Leafs before the Jets acquired his services on Friday. And that’s all in the span of just the last four months.
He’s jumped up and down between the NHL and the AHL the last four seasons after the Leafs selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 NHL draft. He’s appeared in 29 NHL games, where he’s scored six goals and five assists.
Brooks played minor hockey for both the triple-A Winnipeg Hawks and the Winnipeg Thrashers before playing five seasons for the WHL’s Regina Pats.
He’s currently in the final year of his contract and will be a restricted free agent this summer.
Brooks will be the first homegrown product to suit up for the Jets since Cody Eakin skated for the team in the 2019-20 season.
He’ll wear number 77 with his new team.
The Jets lost two players to injuries in their past two games. Forward Andrew Copp is day to day with an upper-body injury. He left Wednesday’s win over the Minnesota Wild late in the third period after an awkward-looking collision.
The club will be without rookie forward Cole Perfetti when they close out their four-game homestand on Saturday. Perfetti suffered an upper-body injury in the third period of Thursday’s game, and according to head coach Dave Lowry, he’ll be a little longer than day to day.
The Jets also activated forward David Gustafsson from injured reserve and reassigned him to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.
Gustafsson missed the past six weeks with a lower-body injury and has only appeared in two NHL games with the Jets this season. The 21-year-old will be able to get some minutes in at the AHL level to get his conditioning back.
“Gus has played two and a half minutes with us and he hasn’t played for an extended period of time,” said Lowry. “Obviously, with us having a heavy game schedule, we can get him into a couple practices with the Moose. The intent is he’s going to go down and he’s going to play some games, and then we’ll evaluate where we are, and where he’s at.”
The Jets host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Canada Life Centre.