Enstrom lauded for ‘unselfish’ move
By waiving no-movement clause, Winnipeg retained some key players in expansion draft
WINNIPEG — Plenty of general managers would love a mulligan when it comes to the NHL expansion draft that took place last June to stock the roster of the Vegas Golden Knights.
You can be sure the Florida Panthers would love to go back and find a way to keep one, if not both, of Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith.
The Minnesota Wild would have preferred not to lose Erik Haula and Alex Tuch. The Washington Capitals would prefer to have Nate Schmidt on their defence corps and the Columbus Blue Jackets certainly wish William Karlsson had enjoyed his breakout season in their organization instead.
Thanks to some creative thinking by general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, the Winnipeg Jets are one of the few that came away virtually unscathed by the expansion process.
Not only did the Jets not lose a player expected to be on the 201718 roster, they didn’t sacrifice any of their highly valued draft picks or prospects either.
After plenty of negotiating, the Jets agreed to swap first-round picks with the Golden Knights (moving down 11 spots from 13th to 24th).
In return, the Golden Knights agreed to choose pending unrestricted free agent Chris Thorburn instead of any of the other exposed players.
As the Jets and Golden Knights get set to face off in Game 2 of the Western Conference final Monday at Bell MTS Place, it’s important to remember the Jets wouldn’t have ended up in nearly as good of shape had veteran defenceman Toby Enstrom not agreed to waive his no-movement clause in order to leave himself exposed in the expansion draft.
Enstrom had been with the organization since he was chosen in the eighth round (239th overall) of the 2003 NHL draft and spent 10 seasons playing in the NHL.
Going into the final year of a fiveyear deal that pays him $5.75 million per season, Enstrom had no interest in going to an expansion team or leaving the Jets.
It would have been well within his negotiated rights to say no when Cheveldayoff asked him about the possibility of waiving his no-movement clause.
Instead, Enstrom agreed.
“It’s kind of an idea of what maybe goes on in our locker-room. He’s willing to take that risk for the team with the idea that we can keep those guys,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said on Sunday. “You can figure out who the names might have been and then you watch our game last night and realize how important those guys are to our team and what we would have lost.
“That was really significant and you don’t do that if you don’t care about the team, the city or the organization. You want to keep the team together and you want to be a part of it, so he put himself at risk for the good of the team and we benefited greatly from it.”
Had Enstrom said no, it’s almost certain the Jets would have chosen to protect four defencemen and four forwards and one goalie instead of three defencemen, seven forwards and a goalie.
Had that not happened, one of Mathieu Perreault, Adam Lowry, Joel Armia, Andrew Copp or Enstrom could have been suiting up for the Golden Knights on Saturday instead of helping the Jets earn a 4-2 victory in the series opener.
“I wasn’t surprised. Toby, he’s loved being part of this team and he’s been here since the beginning with me,” said Jets centre Bryan Little, who has played with Enstrom for 11 NHL seasons. “To see him do that was very unselfish.”
Enstrom was limited to 43 games during the regular season because of injury and he also sat out the opening round against the Minnesota Wild, but he’s back alongside his longtime defence partner Dustin Byfuglien and playing his role as the steady security blanket.
And the Jets are three wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup final for the first time in franchise history.
“Toby has always been a team-first kind of guy,” said Jets defenceman Ben Chiarot. “He’s quiet, he goes about his business and for him to do something like that for the better of the group just speaks volumes about the kind of person that he is.”
Enstrom prefers to stay out of the spotlight, but he’s universally loved by his teammates.
“It’s just the kind of guy Toby is,” said Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba. “He’s the kind of teammate you want to have on your team.”