Armia could be sleeper in lopsided deal

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This article was published 29/10/2016 (3259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are two Winnipeg Jets forwards who, in their draft years, were drawing comparisons to sensational Finnish scoring machine Teemu Selanne.

Patrik Laine, off to a great start to his NHL career with six goals in eight games, is the latest.

In 2011, European scouts for several NHL teams were gaga over a shy, lanky kid from Pori, Finland named Joel Armia.

Armia scored 18 goals and added 11 assists in 48 games with Porin Assat (Pori Aces) of the Finnish Elite League during the 2010-11 season, most impressive considering he was all of 17 and battling against men much older and stronger than him.

There was even a suggestion prior the draft he might be the best pure scorer of a class that included players such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog, Mika Zibanejad, Sean Couturier, Rickard Rakell and a fellow by the name of Mark Scheifele.

“He’s big and tall but surprisingly mobile for a player of his size,” Goran Stubb, the NHL’s director of European scouting, said in the spring of 2011. “He’s a sniper with a good selection of shots. You might have to look for him during some shifts, but then, suddenly, he scores the winner.”

Winnipeg Jets fans haven’t seen Armia, 23, light the lamp that often since he joined the club midway through the 2015-16 season. He notched four goals in 43 games last season — although, two were of the highlight-reel variety — and he has just one in seven games this fall.

But his game is, indeed, trending upward.

Ten per cent of a season is a small sample size but the 6-3, 204-pound right-winger’s worth to the Central Division squad is clear.

He’s an aggressive checker in all zones, his active stick is a constant impediment to the other side and he’s displaying some crafty play in the scoring areas, although that part of his game continues to evolve slowly.

The trio of Armia, centre Adam Lowry and left-winger Shawn Matthias won’t often get top billing on the Jets but it’s created some much-needed harmony for the team in its last three contests.

Did anyone beyond Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, head coach Paul Maurice and the rest of the club’s braintrust see this coming when they acquired Armia, who, ultimately, was selected 16th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 2011?

He stayed two more years in Finland and then played parts of two seasons with the Rochester Americans, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Sabres. He scored 17 goals and added 35 assists in 87 games for Rochester and was called up for one game with the big club in 2014 but was held pointless.

Armia joined the Jets organization in what’s become one of the most lopsided trades in recent NHL history. Winnipeg dealt forward Evander Kane and defenceman Zach Bogosian, along with goalie prospect Jason Kasdorf, to Buffalo for blue-liner Tyler Myers and forward Drew Stafford, plus Armia, junior star forward Brendan Lemieux and a first-round draft pick in 2015 (who turned out to be Jack Roslovic, currently turning heads in his rookie season with the Manitoba Moose).

The Jets knew what they were getting with Myers, the 2009-10 Calder Trophy winner as the league’s top rookie whose lustre had faded with the struggling Sabres and who was in need of a scenery change.

They knew Stafford offered maturity, professionalism and a scoring touch that didn’t present as consistently as his former employers had hoped.

And they knew they were getting Claude Lemieux’s rough-and-tumble offspring, plus a high draft choice in 2015.

Was Armia an integral piece of the mammoth hockey deal or just a throw-in? Was he considered a legitimate big-league prospect or a competent AHLer with skill but very little moxy?

Whether he’s a shrewd investment or simply found money, the Jets are starting to reap the rewards.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell