Winnipeg Jets Troy Bodie, left, and Ottawa Senators defenceman Jared Cowen battle for the puck during the Kraft Hockeyville preseason NHL game. (Paul Daly/Canadian Press)

Winnipeg Jets rugged forward Troy Bodie hopes he never has to play another hockey game at Mile One Centre.

This is no slight intended to the wonderful people of Newfoundland. It's just that the 26-year-old left wing hopes to make the Jets out of training camp, stick with the NHL team he grew up rooting for and never have to be demoted to Winnipeg's AHL team, the St. John IceCaps.

"For reasons other than the people of St. John's, I would rather not come back," said Bodie, after he scored the game-winner in the Jets 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators in the 2011 edition of the Kraft Hockeyville preseason game in Sept.

"I've heard this is a great place to play, and now I can see why," Bodie added. "When the [St. John's Maple Leafs] were here, there was amazing support. That will probably be the case again [with the IceCaps], too."

Bodie hails from Portage La Prairie, about 45 minutes outside of Winnipeg. He loved the Jets when he was a kid and couldn't get enough of his favourite player, Teemu Selanne. When the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996, Bodie was shattered. He asked his mother if he could dip into his savings and contribute to the Save the Jets Fund. His mother wouldn't let him and instead the Bodies made a contribution as a family.

"The Jets were my team," Bodie said. "When they left I was devastated. I never cheered for or had a favourite team after that. If someone asked me what my favourite team was, I'd still say the Jets.

"I wanted to break my piggy bank, but my Mom wouldn't let me. She said that we would make a contribution as a family and we did. But I can't remember how much."

Now Bodie hopes to contribute to the Jets cause on the ice. He arrives on the scene with 107 games of NHL experience. After four years in Kelowna, three trips to the Memorial Cup and a junior championship in 2003-04, he began his pro career in the deep depths of the ECHL with the Stockton (Calif.) Thunder.

Bodie was drafted in the ninth round (278 overall) by the Edmonton Oilers in 2003. After stops in Stockton, Hamilton, Springfield, Mass. and Iowa, he finally made his NHL debut with the Anaheim Ducks in Jan. 2009 in a 3-1 loss in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. Guess who was on that Ducks team? Yup, Selanne.

But the Finnish Flash was injured when Bodie played four games that season. Still, when he finally met up with Selanne, he couldn't resist asking for an autograph.

"It was a quick hi and hello," Bodie recalled. "I didn't want to make him feel old and say I use to watch you and that I idolized him as a kid. But he did sign an Anaheim jersey for my Mom."

Bodie's father was a crop duster. He recently sold his business to Bodie's older brother, Jonathan and two friends.

The younger Bodie, who at 6-foot-4 and 219 pounds is a tough hombre, did his best to dust Ottawa's tough guy Chris Neil in a second period scrap. The fight was a draw. Still, Neil knocked down his opponent with a clean blindside hit. But the linesmen let the two fighters up to go at it and Bodie held his own.

"Every game is big for me and there are only going to get bigger from here on out," Bodie said. "It was good to get that goal and fight. It was a good showing."