Familiarity breeds Jaffs’ attempt

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/07/2011 (5283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He’s got a skate in the door, nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, Jason Jaffray knows Mark Chipman, the Winnipeg Jets owner. He’s been to war with head coach Claude Noel and he’s lived the extreme highs and suffered through the nasty lows with assistant GM Craig Heisinger.

 

Given all that, the announcement that the longtime member of the Manitoba Moose — second on the franchise all-time scoring list and a former team MVP — has come aboard with the Jets hardly sent shockwaves through the hockey community.

There’s an association and a familiarity here that made this deal a natural.

Dumped

But it also means diddly when the first bucket of pucks is dumped on the ice for Day 1 of training camp in September.

“Having that familiarity in the organization is great, but I know for a fact I can’t take anything for granted, that I’ve got to come in and earn a spot,” said Jaffray.

“Knowing the coach and the GM and the owner is great, but my focus is on making that opening-day lineup and being in the city for the home opener.”

And so, what the 30-year-old Jaffray hopes to now prove is he is a legitimate NHL winger who can play regular minutes and make a regular contribution in the show. His AHL numbers are solid and it’s his belief that in his 36 career NHL games with Vancouver and Calgary (four goals, six assists) he showed enough layers to warrant another look.

“I’ve got a well-rounded game,” Jaffray said. “I played with Markus Naslund and Mason Raymond in my first season with the Canucks and the next season I filled on the fourth line with Darcy Hordichuk and Mike Brown and still put up points, got in a few fights and stayed on the positive side of the plus-minus.

“I think any team can use a guy like that. I can fill in in a bunch of different situations and even if I start the season as an extra player in the lineup or as a third- or fourth-line guy.

“You know what you’re going to get from me when you call me up. It’s not a roll of the dice with a young 20-year old who might be awestruck with being in the NHL.

“I’ve been there before, I’ve done it and they know what they’re going to get from me.”

Goal No. 1 is to now do it all over again with the same organization… this time wearing a Jets’ jersey.

“It’s a little weird thinking of it that way,” Jaffray said. “When you play for a team for five or six years and then you’ve got the opportunity to play in the NHL in the same rink, in the same city in front of the same fans, that would be a dream come true.

“Just watching how the city reacted with the move and how crazy they were in the streets… that was fun to watch and it just makes you work that much harder to make the opening day lineup.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca