The ultimate homecoming

By Kristina Rutherford

SPORTSNET STAFF

As the buzzer sounded at Winnipeg Arena and the Jets skated off the ice for the last time, Derek Meech stood in shock.

His face paint messy from tears, the 12-year-old was dressed in white for the final fight, and this was it.

The Jets were leaving town.

"It was hard to see them leave," Meech, now 27, recalls. "After the game, none of the fans were leaving and tons of people were crying. It was a great experience but it was also pretty sad."

The Winnipeg native never dreamed that 15 years later the franchise would return—and even better—that he’d be a part of the homecoming.

Meech is a new addition to Winnipeg’s defence alongside the likes of big Dustin Byfuglien and Tobias Enstrom, two holdovers from the Atlanta Thrashers franchise that relocated to Winnipeg after a 12th-place finish in the Eastern Conference last season.

After spending parts of four seasons with the Detroit Red Wings including a Stanley Cup win in 2008, Meech played the 2010-11 campaign with club’s AHL team, putting up 10 goals, 27 assists and carrying a plus-12 rating in 74 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Since signing a one-year, two-way deal with the Jets this summer, Meech remains among only a handful of new faces on a team looking for its second-ever playoff berth.

The team is again led by captain Andrew Ladd, whose career-high 59 points were tops on the club last season and it resulted in him being rewarded with a five-year, $22-million contract this summer.

The blueline remains largely unchanged, but joining the likes of Bryan Little, Nik Antropov and Evander Kane up front are new additions Kyle Wellwood, Tanner Glass and Eric Fehr.

The team’s only other Manitoba native, Fehr put up 21 goals for Washington two seasons ago but is coming off surgery and will miss the start of the season.

The trio of new Canadians up front—from Windsor, Ont., Regina, Sask., and Winkler, Man.—shouldn’t have too much trouble acclimatizing to the frigid, frostbite-causing temperatures Winnipeg is known for, but Meech says it could be a tough transition for guys used to balmy Atlanta.

"Ooh, it’ll be different for them," he says, laughing. "For people who are born here, they don’t even know the difference. It doesn’t phase them anymore."

While the mosquitoes in the summer and unbearably cold winters may have players dreaming of a trade to a different climate, Meech couldn’t be happier to get a chance to play back at home, where his family and friends still reside.

"Hearing that the Jets were coming back to town, I wasn’t sure if it was rumours or if it was actually going to happen," he says. "I knew it would be a really cool thing if it did."

The timing was perfect. A free agent last summer, Meech approached his agent and requested that he chat with the Jets brass. When he heard about their contract offer, he hit the roof.

"Just being able to say that I signed with the Winnipeg Jets is a pretty surreal feeling, that’s for sure," he explains.

It’s not the first time a Manitoba-born player has gone out of his way to return to Winnipeg to play hockey.

When the team began play in the World Hockey Association in 1972, nine Manitoba natives were on the roster. Among them were former NHLers Ab McDonald—the team’s first captain—and goalie Joe Daley, who both retired as Jets and still call Winnipeg home.

Daley says there was a lot at stake at the time in leaving the Detroit Red Wings to join the Jets in a new league that was going up against the most powerful and successful hockey league in the world.

"It was a gamble, but I was willing to take it for the chance to move home," he said. "I think the idea of being able to play in your hometown and be a hero here in Winnipeg is really exciting."

Now the owner of a sports memorabilia store in the Winnipeg, Daley and his family have season tickets for the Jets.

"We got lucky," he says.

The last game he was at a Jets game was that emotional farewell 15 years ago, though unlike Meech and his family, he didn’t stick around until the end of the game.

"I had to leave because I didn’t want to get emotional," Daley explains. "Having been part of something that got started and having been there at the end, just thinking about the fact that that was it, it was very hard. I’m very passionate as a Jet and very proud of being a Winnipeg Jet."

What it will be like on Sunday at the MTS Centre when the Jets make their long-awaited return in the season opener against Montreal, Daley could not do justice in words.

And what it will be like to be out there on the ice in front of that raucous hometown crowd?

"I can’t even begin to think about how it’s going to feel," Meech says. "I think it’s going to be an unbelievable atmosphere.

"There’s a ton of pride in this city. You can say the Jets left, but I don’t think they ever really did because the Winnipeg fans are always so good. There’s a ton of passion in the city. A ton of passion."