Thorburn knighted, Laine No. 2

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This article was published 21/06/2017 (3213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE NHL Expansion Draft and Awards Show came with a minimum of pain for the Winnipeg Jets Wednesday night.

The franchise’s splendid young right-winger, Finnish phenom Patrik Laine, finished second to centre Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in balloting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Matthews earned 164 of 167 first-place votes, with Laine getting the other three.

While Laine’s runner-up finish was a foregone conclusion, Winnipeg’s fate in the expansion draft was shrouded in mystery. Ultimately, the Jets surrendered the rights to unrestricted free-agent forward Chris Thorburn, a 34-year-old fourth-liner who was unlikely to be re-signed by Winnipeg.

Setting the table for the move, Winnipeg shipped its 13th-overall pick at Friday’s draft plus a third-round choice in 2019 to the Knights in order to retain veteran defenceman Toby Enstrom, who had been left unprotected for the draft after he waived the no-movement clause in his contract. The Jets received a first-rounder back, getting the 24th-overall choice Vegas obtained earlier from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff was unavailable for comment Wednesday night but a club source told the Free Press Enstrom took a real risk in making accommodation for the club. The Jets told Enstrom they would try but did not guarantee they would find a way to keep him in Winnipeg.

“I can confirm that Enstrom has waived his no-move as a favour to the Jets organization. Tobias has played his entire career in the organization and has always been treated with the best respect,” his agent, Kalle Bodén, confirmed Saturday to the Free Press. “He has warm feelings for the city and the Jets organization and wanted to help them out in a tricky situation. Enstrom is positive the Jets have a bright future and he wants to be a part of that. Therefore he is 100 per cent clear that he wants to stay.”

The 32-year-old Enstrom has one year remaining on a five-year contract that has an annual salary cap hit of US$5.75 million.

The deal also allowed the Jets to keep 22-year-old forward Marko Dano, a prominent player left unprotected who was believed to be an obvious choice for the Golden Knights if Enstrom was no longer under consideration. Winnipeg fans also hoping a veteran goaltender would be involved in the wheeling and dealing were disappointed.

Vegas was required to choose at least one player from each of the 30 established NHL clubs and Enstrom’s favour allowed the Jets to protect seven forwards (Joel Armia, Andrew Copp, Bryan Little, Adam Lowry, Mathieu Perreault, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler), three defencemen (Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers) and one goaltender (Connor Hellebuyck) instead of an alternate formula permitting four forwards, four defencemen and a goaltender.

Dano, a 22-year-old Austrian-born Slovak forward, recently signed a one-year contract extension with the Jets worth US$850,000. He was originally chosen in the first round (27th overall) of the 2013 draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets but was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015 as part of a multi-player deal.

On Feb. 25, 2016, Dano was acquired by the Jets along with Chicago’s first-round pick in 2016 for veteran forward Andrew Ladd and minor leaguers Jay Harrison and Matt Fraser.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14