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Slater played for the Atlanta-Winnipeg franchise for 10 seasons but his contract wasn’t renewed after the 2014-15 season.

While nobody likes to be discarded, Slater said he could see then that the Jets had a plan to build around their more youthful players and he understood completely.

“When we were there, you could see it coming,” Slater said. “Three years ago when I had to leave from there you could definitely see they were building for the future. It has kind of come pretty quick for them. They’ve done a real good job up there.”

Slater had kudos in particular for Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who has shown patience in getting the team to this point — they are 32-14-9 this season and are battling for first place in the Central Division — despite going through some lean years.

“Chevy is a fantastic GM, they’ve got great scouts working for them,” Slater said. “It’s a great job that they’re doing up there.

“I was there when we were going through some tough years and they never swayed from the plan. They stuck to their plan and it’s paying off for them. They’re doing it the right way.”

As for Slater, he was ready to retire at the end of last season until the NHL decided to pull the plug on the Olympics.

“This whole thing came up and sparked me and got my mindset ready again,” Slater said.

“Your goal is always to play in the NHL, your dream was to play in an Olympics,” he said. “It was a dream and I’m about to make it a reality here.

“To have 10 years in the NHL was fantastic. When you start getting older and the years go by it’s kind of a foregone conclusion that you are not going to get into an Olympics. This is the pinnacle of my career for sure.”