Brayden Yager's OT winner keeps the Moose rolling
TLDR: Brayden Yager set up the tying goal and then scored the OT winner for the Manitoba Moose, who are now 5-1-0, with Yager leading the team at 9 points through 6 games.
Yager did both jobs on the same afternoon, and the timing could not be better, because the Jets are calling up a forward tomorrow.
How about Brayden Yager? Sets up the tying goal, then scores the OT winner today for the scorching-hot #MBMoose, who are now 5-1-0. Yager leads team in scoring with 9 points - 5G, 4A — in 6 games. T-5 in AHL scoring. And we know the #NHLJets are calling up a forward tomorrow.
Here's the line: 5 goals, 4 assists, 9 points in 6 games. That leads the Moose and has him tied for 5th in the whole AHL. And he didn't pile it up in garbage time. He set up the tying goal and then ended it in overtime. For a team that has won 5 of its first 6, he's been the guy driving it.
It's a big jump from his rookie year. Yager played 69 games for Manitoba in 2025-26 and finished with 10 goals and 20 assists for 30 points. He also got a 3-game look with the Jets and didn't register a point. Six games into this season he already has half as many goals as he scored all of last year. That's the kind of start that gets a prospect's name into the call-up conversation, whether the Jets act on it this week or not.
Winnipeg fans have been watching his progress closely since the day he arrived. Pittsburgh took Yager 14th overall in the 2023 draft, and in August 2024 the Penguins sent him to Winnipeg for the signing rights to Rutger McGroarty. That makes Yager the return in one of the more talked-about prospect swaps of the last few years, and every point he scores in Manitoba gets checked against what McGroarty is doing in the Pittsburgh system.
So who's going up? Nobody has said yet. All we know is that Winnipeg is calling up a forward tomorrow, and no name has been reported. Yager was loaned to the Moose as part of the Jets' opening day roster moves, so he's one of the options. But a guy tied for 5th in league scoring is also the guy keeping the Moose's top line going, and Winnipeg might want him to keep doing that in Manitoba.
Watch the transaction wire tomorrow. If it's Yager, he gets his second shot at the NHL on the back of the best stretch of his pro career. If it's somebody else, the Moose keep their leading scorer and probably keep winning. Either way, the guy the Jets got for McGroarty is making a pretty good case for himself right now.