By Dan Kinvig - Abbotsford News

Published: October 27, 2009 1:00 AM

For the Sidney Crosbys of the world, the road to professional hockey employment is more straightforward than a Saskatchewan highway.

Then there are the Jason Jaffrays of the hockey galaxy – players who lack the blue-chip pedigree, but rise from relative obscurity to establish themselves.

Ask Jaffray, the 28-year-old Abbotsford Heat centre, to trace his journey in pro hockey, and he'll spin you a whale of a tale.

"My career has kind of jumped all over the place," noted Jaffray, reflecting on an eight-year odyssey that has taken him through Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Manitoba, before landing him in Abbotsford.

We'll begin Jaffray's tale in his final year of junior hockey with the Western Hockey League's Kootenay Ice. Jaffray was a key cog on a stacked Kootenay squad, but the Ice shipped him to the Swift Current Broncos at midseason. Jaffray was gutted when the Ice went on to win the Memorial Cup, but before you bemoan his misfortune, it should be noted that his truncated tenure with Kootenay wasn't a total loss. It was in Cranbrook that Jaffray ended up meeting his future wife Michelle, who was the daughter of his billet family.

Jaffray was undrafted out of junior hockey, so he signed on with the ECHL's Roanoke (Virginia) Express in the fall of 2002. With the Express, he had the good fortune of playing on a line with a pair of returning league all-stars, and he earned ECHL rookie of the year honours after racking up 34 goals and 51 assists in 64 games.

Following a couple of seasons with the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers, Jaffray got his first extended look at the AHL level with the Cleveland Barons in 2004-05. Playing on a line with future NHLers Ryane Clowe and Marcel Goc, Jaffray posted 10 goals and six assists in his first 30 games.

But then, Jaffray's career hit an unexpected roadblock. The Barons forgot to renew his working visa, and in the post-9/11 United States, that meant an immediate one-way ticket back to Canada.

Jaffray was suddenly unemployed, and there was nothing he could do but point his vehicle towards his hometown of Olds, Alta.

But somewhere between Cleveland and Olds, Jaffray's cell phone rang. Manitoba Moose general manager Craig Heisinger was on the other end of the line. Two Moose forwards had come down with some sort of sickness, and Heisinger wanted to know if Jaffray could be in Hamilton to suit up for a game against the Bulldogs that night.

Problem was, the puck dropped in six hours, and Jaffray was about an eight-hour drive away from Hamilton. No matter – Jaffray pulled a U-turn, put the pedal to the metal and made it to the rink just minutes before the start of the game.

The Bulldogs beat the Moose 3-1 that night, but Jaffray scored the lone goal for Manitoba. It's a goal he remembers to this day.

"Alex Burrows threw it to me from the corner, for a back-door tap-in," he recalled with a smile. "I definitely didn't have my legs that night, and I had a gas-station sub as my pregame meal. It was just kind of one of those things that was meant to be."

Indeed, it was in Manitoba that Jaffray's career really started to find some traction. Over four-and-a-half season with the Moose, playing alongside the likes of Burrows, Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa, Jaffray became the franchise's all-time leader in game-winning goals, power-play goals and plus-minus, and No. 2 in goals, assists and points.

The Vancouver Canucks, the Moose's parent club, took notice, and in 2007 Jaffray inked his first NHL contract. He played 33 games as an injury fill-in with the Canucks between 2007 and 2009, tallying four goals and six assists in the process.

But when Jaffray looked at the Canucks' depth chart and saw young up-and-comers like Cody Hodgson, Michael Grabner and Sergei Shirokov, he started to wonder whether he was in Vancouver's long-term plans. So this past summer, he opted for a fresh start and signed with the Calgary Flames as a free agent.

Jaffray cracked the Flames roster out of training camp this fall, only to be sent down to Abbotsford after a couple of weeks. He still feels good about his decision to join the Flames' organization, though.

"I don't think I would have had a chance at making Vancouver out of camp," he said. "I knew if I came into a new camp and fresh system, I could open up some eyes. It's not going to matter who's drafted . . . it's about who's going to fight for that spot, who's going to score goals in the preseason, who's going to do the right things.

"I think my style of play really fits in well with the Calgary Flames' style of play, and it's been a good fit for me. I think I have gotten that opportunity, and it's just a matter of waiting for an injury or a call-up to get back."

Jaffray was already a familiar face to Abbotsford hockey fans thanks to his time with the Canucks, and he further endeared himself by scoring goals in his first three games with the Heat. The stocky centre blends tough-as-nails play along the boards with a sniper's finish, and while he's been a mainstay on the Heat's top line, it's no stretch to envision him being an effective third- or fourth-line checker at the NHL level.

According to Heat coach Jim Playfair, Jaffray's job is to "develop an NHL-style game" while toiling with the Heat.

"He's got to have those details of his game in place so that when he goes up there (to the NHL), it's a slide for him, not a major step," Playfair explained. "We can't expect him to be a top goal-scorer down here and then be a top defender up there. He's got to be a top defender in both places, so that it becomes a natural slide for him, not a major adjustment."

With the Heat, Jaffray finds himself in a leadership role on a youthful outfit, which has been a bit of an adjustment coming from a veteran-laden Moose club.

"I've come from a team in Manitoba where I played with Mike Keane and Nolan Baumgartner and Jason Krog – guys who have been around so long, you almost take it for granted that when something is going wrong, they'll straighten it out," he noted. "Here, it seems like there are only three or four guys who are married on this team. In Manitoba, there were only three or four guys who were single."

Away from the rink, Jaffray has found that fatherhood has helped him to focus. He and Michelle have a two-and-a-half year old daughter named Kennedy, and she's been a fixture at Heat games cheering for her dad.

"It's life-changing," said Jaffray, noting that his breakout season with the Moose (2006-07) coincided with Kennedy's birth. "You could have a real crappy game, and you come home, and you've got this little girl who's smiling and happy to see you. You walk in the door, and it just changes everything."