Pionk enjoying off-season skates with new teammate, Forbort

WINNIPEG – When Neal Pionk was a kid playing baseball, one umpire’s strike zone really bugged him.

When the Winnipeg Jets get back on the ice, Pionk will be teammates with that umpire – Derek Forbort.

“I didn’t know him then. Obviously, I didn’t like him then either,” Pionk said with a laugh.

Forbort famously told the story of his ever-growing strike zone (whenever Pionk was up to bat) shortly after he signed with the Jets on Oct. 13.

“I’ve got to know Neal pretty good the last couple years,” Forbort said that day. “Growing up, I was an umpire, and I umped him a few times. So the strike zone got pretty big when he was up to bat. We’re over that now.”

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Perhaps Pionk didn’t know Forbort when he was calling balls and strikes, but these days, the two are much more familiar.

They’ve been skating in Duluth, MN as part of a group of eight skaters (which includes Jets prospect Dylan Samberg), trying to stay sharp for whenever training camp opens.

“We’ve been working together, all three of us, coming up with our own drills, our own ideas,” said Pionk. “The main goal of it is to stay in shape and stay in that hockey mode versus taking a lot of time off. We’d rather be on the ice four or five days a week. Just keep touching pucks, keep skating with each other, it helps a lot.”

Even going back to this past summer – when Forbort was a member of the Flames – the two skated together as a way to stay prepared.

One would think that relationship would mean Pionk was the first to know that Forbort was signing in Winnipeg during free agency.

“When free agency was approaching, I was asking him who was interested and what was going on,” said Pionk. “He never really mentioned Winnipeg, then it came up on my feed that we signed him. It was pretty cool.”

Like many, Pionk is eagerly awaiting the official announcement of a training camp start date. He had career-highs in points (45), assists (39), and power play points (25) in a shortened 2019-20 season and he’s hoping to build on that in his second season in Winnipeg.

“Through our whole lives, the season always starts in October or November,” Pionk said. “It’s been an adjustment, but it’s not only myself going through it, it’s literally every person in the world and everyone in the hockey world. We all just have to get through it together.”

Between skating sessions, binge-watching Netflix shows, and card games with his brothers, Pionk has been keeping up with the additions to the roster – including Forbort, Paul Stastny, Nate Thompson, Dominic Toninato, and others.

“I haven’t met all the new guys, but I know most of the team going into it now,” Pionk said. “I remember going back for the Return to Play this summer, I described it as a kid on the first day of school. You see all your old buddies, you meet some new people. It’s really exciting.”