FULL-CIRCLE MOMENT FOR JETS PROSPECT ALFONS FREIJ
One of the first things that Alfons Freij did as a member of the Winnipeg Jets was make Jimmy Roy feel old.
Roy, the team’s director of player development, was making the rounds at the NHL Draft in Vegas last weekend after the Jets took the Swedish defenceman in the second round when he was shown a picture from 2015.
“Doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it made me feel really old to see a kid (in the picture), and then he’s up here (at the draft),” Roy, 48, said Thursday as the on-ice portion of development camp got underway.
Freij was nine when he made the 6,500-kilometre trek from his native Sweden to the middle of Canada for a tournament at the Jets’ practice facility.
Nearly a decade later, the facility’s Instagram account posted an updated shot of Freij posing for the same picture on Thursday, his arms draped over the same railing where giant background posters of Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba have been replaced by Cole Perfetti and a Manitoba Moose ad.
“There were two tournaments, actually,” Freij said. “Pretty fun couple weeks here in Winnipeg. We lost all our games, so that wasn’t good. But I had such a good time here in Winnipeg. So that’s the story about it.”
It turns out the tournament was a preview of things to come for Freij, now 18, along with a chance for anyone watching back then to see some future NHL talent coming up.
“My buddy Herman Traff (2024 third-rounder) got drafted to New Jersey, he was on the same team as me,” Freij said. “One of my teammates at home, Joel Svensson (2024 third-rounder), he was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s pretty fun to see those boys getting drafted as well.”
Trouba and Scheifele were some of the first NHLers Freij saw up close that year.
A moment to be awestruck and also a chance to dream.
“We wanted to be there one day (in the NHL),” Freij said. “That was one of my goals.”
Last weekend in Vegas was the first step, and this week in Winnipeg is the second.
Kevin He, meanwhile, is taking in Winnipeg for the first time.
The Jets took the Ontario product in the fourth round last Saturday, making him the highest-drafted China-born player in NHLer history.
“I had no idea when I was going to go and when Winnipeg (traded up in the draft to take me) I was very happy, very excited,” He said. “It was a surreal moment.
“It was a huge honour. I had my whole family at the draft, some of them I hadn’t seen in a long time. I just saw my two nephews—one is six years old, the other one’s one and a half—so I had a chance to see him for the first time at the draft. It was a lot of fun.”
He might not be familiar with the city, but he knows a few of the faces in the dressing room.
“Me and Kieron Walton (Winnipeg’s 2024 sixth-round pick) played together growing up in minor hockey, so we’ve always been best friends growing up,” He said. “That was pretty fun to see him come here as well.”
He also knows Winnipeg’s 2023 first-rounder Colby Barlow quite well, too. All three play against one another in the Ontario Hockey League.
Those battles will resume in the fall, with He heading back to the Niagra IceDogs.
For now, it’s all about soaking in his first strides with a Jets practice sweater on.
“Just try to showcase my skills,” he said. “Just compete. I also haven’t been on the ice in a little bit here, so just try to get my legs going.”
Speaking of that, there’s less emphasis on the on-ice portion of development camp this year, a shifting trend across the NHL.
“We got away from the on-ice testing this year just because some kids haven’t skated in the summertime, some kids have,” Roy said. “Maybe it gives a bit of a false sense of security if they do well or kids don’t do well. Some of the stuff on ice we’re trying to get away from a little bit, but the off-ice stuff you want to do.”
This includes bringing in Jets captain Adam Lowry to speak to their wide-eyed players.
“What he said and what path he took will resonate with these guys incredibly,” Roy said.
“He talked about his path from where he grew up with his dad and being a hockey family. He talked about where he lived, the places he played junior hockey in Swift Current. He talked about the things that he does to prepare himself for games. His path, the first time he was sent down and how disappointed he was, how he had to go back down to St. John’s at the time, the Moose at the time, and work on his game and figure that out to get back up there.
“Those are all great growing experiences that kids are going, it’s going to happen. So to hear it from him, it has huge impact, more than I could ever tell a kid or a coach could ever tell a kid.”
X: @scottbileck
2024-07-04T23:57:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd