Thank You Toby Enstrom!

[VictoriaJetsFan]

This situation is very odd. Doesn't seem to be Enstrom like behaviour at all. Something doesn't feel quite right about this story.

That said if he leaves a healthy Kulikov, improving Chiarot and emerging Niku is an acceptable base from which to mover forward..

 

[Jets2point0]

The offense with Enstrom is more than dry, but Jets GA numbers will miss Toby next year *if* he doesn’t return.

He was the Jets best defender in preventing the other team’s offense. That’s a pretty good and important thing. Jets don't have much in defensive drivers although both Morrissey and Trouba are learning.

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Niku, but he’ll be an offensively tilted rookie defender if he makes the team. I also don’t see any of Kulikov, Morrow, or Chiarot being anything but a large step backward from Toby.

Isnt there a well known saying that the hardest thing to do in the NHL is score? If the offense with Toby is more than dry, ideally we can insert someone who is still defensively responsible but at least has the confidence/ability to shoot the puck?

That’s great that he can prevent shots, but I think you have to be more dynamic than that if you want playing time/roster spot on a Stanley Cup contender

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Toby's wife has basically said a goodbye to Winnipeg on Instagram. It's safe to say Toby's time is done here. He has been a great Jet through out his time here despite so many criticizers. Thank you Toby.

Link???

It is what I have expected for some time but I don't want to jump the gun.

If true then I hope the Jets arrange some kind of official farewell event. Thanks Toby.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Overpaid every second as a Jet. Peaked in Atlanta 2010. See you.

Very gracious reaction.

 

[jetsforever]

Too bad about him being mad about the scratch. I wasn't happy with it either although he could have taken it better. I hope his Jets career doesn't have to end on this somewhat sour note.

 

[Jetfaninflorida]

How is it a "lack of professionalism"? He did his exit meetings with the coach and GM like he was supposed to, cleaned out his locker and just left early without doing interviews. You are not required to do an interview with the media on the locker cleanout day. Many Jets did not do them (Buff, Connor, Chiarot come to mind). Toby is generally media shy and if he was not going to do an interview, it sounds reasonable to book an early flight to Sweden.

People just looking for controversy when there is none. Nothing to see here folks!

I don't know about the nothing to see. Doesn't seem normal. Seems like he was the only guy that bolted early and didn't even show up on locker clean out day to say bye to the boys. Hope he at least did it privately.

https://www.tsn.ca/report-enstrom-not-happy-with-game-5-scratch-1.1092622

 

[Ducky10]

I don't know about the nothing to see. Doesn't seem normal. Seems like he was the only guy that bolted early and didn't even show up on locker clean out day to say bye to the boys. Hope he at least did it privately.

https://www.tsn.ca/report-enstrom-not-happy-with-game-5-scratch-1.1092622

It seems really odd to me that someone would throw shade on a guy in a thank you thread to that person.

That's just me though.

 

[garret9]

Isnt there a well known saying that the hardest thing to do in the NHL is score? If the offense with Toby is more than dry, ideally we can insert someone who is still defensively responsible but at least has the confidence/ability to shoot the puck?

That’s great that he can prevent shots, but I think you have to be more dynamic than that if you want playing time/roster spot on a Stanley Cup contender

No clue if that saying really means anything. It seems just as meaningful as "defense wins championships" or other meaningless quotes.

That said, offense DOES drive results more than defense does. That said that doesn't mean a person good at defense should be ignored just because they don't drive offense.

Honestly, I'd argue that preventing goals is actually harder, because people poorly evaluate who actually is good at defense. Generally speaking, people conflate that for being safe. It is true that offense slightly drives success more than defense, in part due to the voodoo that is goaltending.

The whole dynamic argument is BS too. Dynamic is a qualitative description of how a player garners results. Measure of results is something else. Substance vs style. Hockey is simple: if GF > GA, then result=win. GF is (almost, if pedantic) equal to GA.

Now that said, even if you were right, that's an overly simplistic way to look at things.

I'm going to make up numbers as an example...

A: One guy is replacement level offense and is 95th percentile in defense.
B: One guy is replacement level defense and is 65th percentile in offense.
Offense is 55% of the battle and defense is 45% of the battle.
A may be a larger impact and harder to get than B.

Offense may be harder to come by (and slightly drives results more than defense), but elite defense is not easy to come by and worth more than meh offense.

 

[bumblebeeman]

Did someone from the team say that Enstrom won't be back or is all just conjecture at this point?

 

[Tommigun]

Enstrom is a pro. I doubt he had issues with the game 5 benching. Maybe I'm wrong, just a gut feeling.

I'd suggest it was his exit interview with management that had him leave without speaking to the media or cleaning out his locker.

Was likely told that he's not in the teams future next year & bolted out the door.

Pure speculation, but a better explanation for his actions.

Could be. But I read an article in Sweden’s biggest newspaper that said Enström indeed was mad at having to sit game 5, and that was the reason for him leaving town ASAP. But they were mostly quoting that article so it may just be speculation on their part.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

hopefully he continues to play hockey back in Sweden. I think the physical toll of the game was taking a toll on him. He will be missed he was good loyal soldier for a long time.

 

[surixon]

Copp was also pissed at being benched in game 5 and stated as much.

People need to remember that these guys are all very proud and ambitius people. I would find it odd if they weren't upset at sitting out.

Now who knows if he handled it well or not. We really only have an article stating he left before locker room clean out day. Even if he was here it wouldn't have mattered because the team wouldn't have had him speak anyhow.

They essentially only sent out the teams core players/leaders anyhow. None of the depth players sans Mason (Step in for buff) were made available.

 

[Duke749]

Why toss insults? Many Jets fans feel similar sentiment.

And yet in a “Thank you” thread, people wanna come in and trash him.

 

[Jets2point0]

No clue if that saying really means anything. It seems just as meaningful as "defense wins championships" or other meaningless quotes.

That said, offense DOES drive results more than defense does. That said that doesn't mean a person good at defense should be ignored just because they don't drive offense.

Honestly, I'd argue that preventing goals is actually harder, because people poorly evaluate who actually is good at defense. Generally speaking, people conflate that for being safe. It is true that offense slightly drives success more than defense, in part due to the voodoo that is goaltending.

The whole dynamic argument is BS too. Dynamic is a qualitative description of how a player garners results. Measure of results is something else. Substance vs style. Hockey is simple: if GF > GA, then result=win. GF is (almost, if pedantic) equal to GA.

Now that said, even if you were right, that's an overly simplistic way to look at things.

I'm going to make up numbers as an example...

A: One guy is replacement level offense and is 95th percentile in defense.
B: One guy is replacement level defense and is 65th percentile in offense.
Offense is 55% of the battle and defense is 45% of the battle.
A may be a larger impact and harder to get than B.

Offense may be harder to come by (and slightly drives results more than defense), but elite defense is not easy to come by and worth more than meh offense.

Interesting take and I don’t necessarily disagree, but I think ‘dynamic’ is valid in the sense that you can’t have players on the ice that borderline refuse or are unable to shoot the puck whatsoever, especially seeing that by quantitative metrics offense drives results more than defense, however nominally. Not only that, but when you don’t shoot the puck it also makes it more difficult to pass in the o-zone

Toby is very good in his own zone, I don’t think it’ll be easy to replace that component whether it’s sacraficing that to add some offensive upside, but ultimately Toby is replaceable

 

[SensibleGuy]

Did someone from the team say that Enstrom won't be back or is all just conjecture at this point?

It’s one of those “ where there’s smoke there’s fire” situations. At this point there’s more than enough smoke for me to see that there’s some truth to the story that Toby was very unhappy with the benching in what he must have already determined was to be his last game (if they lost of course). The comment from his wife is clearly a good by for good, not just “for now.”

He was a very good D man, but he’s pretty much a lock to miss 25% or more of every season at this point due to injury. His body can’t take the abuse anymore...

 

[Tommigun]

He won’t be back. I read the Swedish comments on his wife’s Instagram page and his wife said that they’ll be moving back to Sweden for the time being, and that’s all she knows atm. They are not coming back. People who seemed to know her were also commenting that the end of something is the beginning of something else. Good bye Toby! Shame that he didn’t get any kind of ceremony, and I just hope he said goodbye to his former teammates before he left.

 

[irunthepeg]

I hope he is willing to fly in for a ceremony at some point. He deserves it. Took way too much criticism. What he did with his NMC was one of the most loyal things a player could ever do to help out a team and nobody should have expected him to do that.

Half of you people coming in here to shit on him in a Thank You thread are probably very gracious he allowed us to protect 7F, 3D, 1G... or is that just "in the past" now... smh.

Thanks for everything, Toby!

 

[Trilliann]

Link???

It is what I have expected for some time but I don't want to jump the gun.

If true then I hope the Jets arrange some kind of official farewell event. Thanks Toby.

..In the comments she says they're gonna live in Sweden for now, definitely sounds like Toby's gone

 

[SensibleGuy]

I hope he is willing to fly in for a ceremony at some point. He deserves it. Took way too much criticism. What he did with his NMC was one of the most loyal things a player could ever do to help out a team and nobody should have expected him to do that.

Half of you people coming in here to **** on him in a Thank You thread are probably very gracious he allowed us to protect 7F, 3D, 1G... or is that just "in the past" now... smh.

Thanks for everything, Toby!

I mostly concur...but I do think it's worth remembering that (afaik at least) there was an agreement in place with VGK at the draft that they wouldn't take Toby if he was exposed...

 

[Jetfaninflorida]

I hope he is willing to fly in for a ceremony at some point. He deserves it. Took way too much criticism. What he did with his NMC was one of the most loyal things a player could ever do to help out a team and nobody should have expected him to do that.

Half of you people coming in here to **** on him in a Thank You thread are probably very gracious he allowed us to protect 7F, 3D, 1G... or is that just "in the past" now... smh.

Thanks for everything, Toby!

Considering what we did for Thorburn, we really should do something (more) for Enstrom. The guy paid a heavy price for this team. Don't get me wrong, he was paid $ very well. But he paid a heavy price physically for this team.

 

[irunthepeg]

I mostly concur...but I do think it's worth remembering that (afaik at least) there was an agreement in place with VGK at the draft that they wouldn't take Toby if he was exposed...

It's not so much the fact that he did that where he would get exposed but we literally needed a d-man to be exposed to make sure Buff, Trouba and Myers were all protected.

 

[Mud Turtle]

Thank you Toby for your years of dedication to this franchise. You always worked hard and covered for a lot of other people’s errors all these years.
You had a great run and all the best in the future whatever you decide to do.

 

[Mud Turtle]

Toby among the league D-men 400 minutes played this past regular season:

4th in corsi against/60
5th in fewnwick against/60
4th in shots against/60
12th in goals against/60
1st in scoring chances against/60
1st in high danger chances against/60

He is probably the best shutdown defenseman in the league. Yes he will get a job.

Definitely kept shots to the outside. Nice career.

 

[Jetfaninflorida]

I'm still not convinced that he is not coming back. I mean, the exit was strange so maybe it was not the final exit. I could see Chevy making a play for him for a couple years at a couple million a year. He may be back still. I am not ruling it out. I know it's a thank you thread, but I don't think it is necessarily the last thank you thread for Toby. It would be nice to see a proper good bye event and send off too.

 

[10Ducky10]

I don't think he is coming back but I'd offer him 1.5m for a year to be our 7D. He'd probably play in 25-35 games with our injury history.