One year after bailing the Winnipeg Jets out of a massive jam at the Expansion Draft by waiving his No Movement Clause which helped GM Kevin Cheveldayoff protect as many young players as possible, Tobias Enstrom ended the toughest season of his professional career – and all but likely his 11 years as a member of the Atlanta Thrashers / Winnipeg Jets organization – as a healthy scratch in the playoffs.

A bitter end to what was otherwise a very productive if not underappreciated time as a Winnipeg Jet.

To say it was a tough season for Enstrom would be a massive understatement. The injuries. The dip in quality of play that we’ve typically seen from Toby. The way it all has ended for him with the Jets.

When he did play, he was fantastic especially in his own end of the ice. It’s about half of the sample size you’d get with a player that’s played a full season of hockey, but take a look at this chart of shot rates against the Jets in 5v5 situations when Enstrom was on the ice. (Chart as always provided by the fantastic work of Micah Blake McCurdy and his site hockeyviz.com)

That blue all in front of the net and up the middle of the ice is exactly what the Jets wanted from their defensemen this season and when Enstron was on the ice it happened. If you look at other charts (you can find them with the players here) you’ll see results like this ranging from somewhat comparable (Byfuglien) to not at all what the Jets had in mind (Myers).

Was Enstrom flashy or any kind of producer on offense? Not really, and that’s maybe where a lot of criticism and frustration over his game comes in. He hasn’t produced over 35 points in a season since the team flew north to Winnipeg and his 10 goal season in 2013-14 was only one of two double digit goal seasons he’s had in his career. His strong defense has typically produced strong point share stats (defensive point share numbers are estimates of points contributed by a player due to his play on defense) but the last couple of seasons that number which hovered in the 3 to 5 point ranged dipped to 1.3 two seasons ago and 1.8 this past season.

The other criticism he faced was that he wasn’t overly big or physical. He could shut a play down with a big hit if needed, but Enstrom has been such a cerebral player that sees the ice well that it’s never been needed to be a part of his game like it has a Byfuglien or Trouba.

When mistakes were made – and granted he made more of them this season especially as he battled injuries – they stuck out like a sore thumb on Enstrom because it was A: something we weren’t used to seeing from him and B: there was nothing fans could fall back on as something overly positive that stood out as an obvious positive.

It was unfair to Toby, but in a way it also was fair.

Again it’s a smaller sample size than one would like to use, but this “with or without you” chart shows that when Enstrom was on the ice, score-adjusted shot rates against were low, but so too were score-adjusted shots for.

Enstrom was really good at what he was supposed to be, a defenseman defending. he helped on the other end of the ice as well but it was with a style of play that doesn’t lend itself to any kind of highlight reel and that’s kind of been the story of his career and why he’s always been so underrated and underappreciated.

Again, injuries limited his time and of course everyone remembers how the playoff run and season ended, with Enstrom set as a healthy scratch although it could be argued that he was also dinged up quite a bit and dealing with some injuries that clearly hindered his play. No points in 11 games played and while at times he did play well, there were errors in his game that we have not really seen from him and he did look slower on the ice.

Enstrom has already stated that he’s pretty much done with the Jets which makes for a sad ending to a very good career with the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise. That said, any team that signs him is going to be taking a risk as he’s coming off an injury filled 2017-18 and is starting to see father time catch up with his ability. With some of the young talent the Jets have coming up, it may have been for the best that Toby pulled the pin on a potential return before the Jets had to make the tough decision not to re-sign him.

Wherever he decides to go, be it somewhere else in the NHL, or back home to play in Sweden, we will continue to root for Toby. Hopefully in time the Jets and their fans can give him a proper send off befitting of someone who has dedicated 11 years to one club.