BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

ST. PAUL - It was amazing symmetry, the forces that combined just an eight-hour drive down the I-29 from Winnipeg, before making that left turn at Fargo, N.D.

That the new Jets first draft would be held here in St. Paul, a simple drive from Winnipeg, rather than in some far-flung market was pure fluke. That it was held in another city that lost a National Hockey League team (the North Stars), and got another one back (the Wild), was perhaps some kind of karma for the long-suffering fans of Winnipeg.

So what did the NHL's newest team do when it got here?

Well, they went off the board with the seventh pick, selecting centre Mark Scheifele, who was listed at No. 41 by The Hockey News. But in doing so they got a kid who eschewed college for a spot on the Barrie Colts, which of course is coached by a favourite Winnipeg son Dale Hawerchuk.

More karma, no?

"He always told me about the big (painting of) Queen Elizabeth they used to have, and how it's really cold," Scheifele said of Hawerchuk. "So he was actually kidding around. He said, 'If you get drafted by Winnipeg, they're going to bring a parka instead of a jersey.'

"I hear it's a great organization. He loved it there," Scheifele continued. "I think he was there nine years and he was captain. He had a great time there. He said it was an unbelievable organization to play for, so I'm very excited."

The couple hundred or so Winnipeg fans here made this a special night, chanting "Go Jets, go!" from the outset, even before team owner Mark Chipman announced that the team would indeed be known heretofore as the Winnipeg Jets.

"The name means so much in Winnipeg, in Manitoba," Chipman said later. "We thought about different ways of doing it, but we just kept coming back to the Jets."

The uniforms won't be out for a while, while the colours and logo will "be different, for sure," than the one Jets fans are used to. But there will time for all of that later on.

This night was about Winnipeg being back in the club for the first time in forever, with new GM Kevin Cheveldayoff stepping to the microphone to announce the draft pick, the first tangible act of NHL involvement this second coming has seen.

"Just trying to keep my knees from going out from under me," Chipman said of his turn on stage, sounding like he'd been drafted in Round 1 himself. "That's a daunting experience."

In Scheifele, Jets fans get a 6-foot-2 centreman who shoots right-handed, was born in Kitchener and is destined for likely two more years of junior. He's well spoken, and genuinely thrilled to be the kid first selected by the reborn Jets.

"It was definitely really cool to have that many fans here and hear them screaming," he said. "The one guy told me back at the arena in Winnipeg they were going bonkers."

Bonkers back home, yet not so much here. One Jets fan was already second-guessing Cheveldayoff's first ever draft pick, a sure sign of a good hockey town getting the old hockey engine revving once again.

"I can't believe they didn't pick (Sean) Couturier," said 35-year-old Marcel Sabourin, who drove down from Ste. Anne, 30 minutes east of Winnipeg. "That was… I guess they know what they're doing, but… Everyone was chanting, 'We want Sean.'"