Austrian captain happy to be foot soldier with Jets

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This article was published 25/09/2015 (3693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NO matter how this turns out for Thomas Raffl — whether it becomes movie-of-the-week fodder or simply results in a plane ticket back to Austria — no one is arguing he’s become a heckuva storyline to track during Winnipeg Jets training camp.

The 29-year-old Austrian picked up an assist in Wednesday’s exhibition game against the Edmonton Oilers and with every shift, the longtime European pro looks more comfortable with the NHL game. Now, what that might translate into for the Austrian national team captain does have some more life to it with coach Paul Maurice’s decision to give him an extended look in camp.

“Big, strong man. He’s very fit and he’s got a very good hockey IQ on him,” said Maurice of Raffl. “He’s made adjustments: we’ve played him right wing, we’ve played him left wing, we’ve played him on three or four different lines and we’ve skated these guys right into the ice. They haven’t had a day off.

“He’s been good. He deserves now to move into the second phase of camp.”

Raffl has morphed into an NHL prospect after years in Europe and being scouted at the world championships and Olympics. He took his shot in North America before, playing with the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL, and then the Kelowna Rockets and Swift Current Broncos of the WHL 10 years ago.

Undrafted, he returned to Austria and has been a solid pro and made a living at the game. But something and someone — his brother Michael of the Philadelphia Flyers — told him to give the NHL dream one more shot this fall with the Jets.

Asked if he was nervous or felt any pressure, knowing this window could soon close, Raffl just shrugged.

“Not at all. Pressure? There’s no pressure on me,” he said. “It’s not that I need that for a great life. I’ve been having a great life before. I’ve been making money doing my hobby. Obviously, I want to get better every day. There’s some good pressure, but no pressure that’s going to make me nervous.”

Maurice said one of the biggest adjustments Raffl has to make, and has been making, is to get used to defending on the smaller ice surface.

But at 6-4, 215 pounds and with solid offensive numbers in Austria — 53 points in 52 games last season with Salzburg — there is a foundation that has him in the mix for a spot on the Jets’ third or fourth line.

And he has no problem trading in the ice time and the glory of being a top-line winger in Europe for his NHL shot.

“That’s not what I’m looking for,” Raffl said. “I’m going to do my job. If I get 10 minutes, I’m going to work 10 minutes. If it’s eight, it’s eight.

‘He’s been good. He deserves now to move into the second phase of camp’

“I knew that. This is the highest league in hockey and if you want to be there you have to sacrifice to do the stuff that the team needs.”

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Raffl will tell you this is a dream he’s had since he was a kid. And while it may have been put on the back burner for a spell, it has long been simmering.

“That’s how I’ve always been. We grew up in a hockey family,” he said. “I went to play junior here, I went back to Austria and started playing pro. I had my sure spot on my team and it went good. So, I said I wanted to try to go to Sweden and played on the third and fourth line. I kind of had a hard time. They changed coaches and I went back to Austria.

“I fell a couple of times in my career, but I learned how to get back up and it’s that point that brought me to here.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait