Euphoric Raffl planning to capitalize on his break

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This article was published 08/10/2015 (3649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was the news of a lifetime for 29-year-old Austrian forward Thomas Raffl, and something he’d been waiting to hear since the day he first laced up a pair of skates.

So when it broke Tuesday afternoon he’d been offered a one-way contract with the Winnipeg Jets, fulfilling what has been a life-long dream — and a three-week mission during training camp — it wouldn’t be a far reach to assume he likely wanted to find the keys to the rooftop of the MTS Centre and share with the whole world his newest achievement. He will be paid the NHL minimum salary of US$575,000 no matter where he plays this season.

“Obviously everybody,” said Raffl, grinning widely, when asked who he’d planned to spill the beans to first.

But that wasn’t exactly how things played out.

At the time ink was being put to paper, the 6-4, 234-pound Raffl was on the ice with the Jets, still believing he was clinging to a professional tryout.

Once practice ended he still didn’t know, despite a herd of reporters eager to find out if he’d made the team since the Jets had to finalize their roster to the league just hours later.

“I didn’t know anything so I kind of denied everything,” said Raffl, who was granted a leave from his club team EC Red Bull Salzburg, “and then I looked at my phone and my agent wrote me a message that said, ‘Congrats on a one-way contract’ and then, yeah, it definitely made me very happy at that moment.”

The next moment he was on his way home, thinking off all the people who’d helped him along the way, all the family and friends he wanted to share the good news with. Only they were one step ahead, thanks to his brother Michael, 23, a forward with the Philadelphia Flyers and someone who shares the same agent.

“By the time I got home and tried to call the guys, my brother did it already,” he said, still smiling. “I tried to call my parents, told them that I signed and they were like ‘Yeah, we know!'”

But don’t think that is going to put a damper on things for Raffl, who now finds himself in the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to start the season. It’s not his first choice on where he planned to be when the Jets drop the puck on the 2015-16 season tonight in Boston, but it’s a certainly a step in the right direction.

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“When I made the decision from Austria I wasn’t expecting a one-way deal. I was expecting a grind, to fight all year and that’s what I’m ready for,” said Raffl. “It was just a grind the past three weeks and now I finally got my first step. I got a contract and now I have to continue working the same way and deserve my spot on the team.”

Asked what he learned about himself in his first NHL camp, Raffl said there were few surprises, but that the hard work has just begun, and he’s willing to do whatever he can to keep his dream alive.

“It’s good players out there but there’s always a way to beat them,” he said. “You just got to find it and the hardest working guy is going to make it.”

Now, he’ll get his chance to prove it.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.