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This article was published 13/12/2011 (3214 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PAUL SANCYA / THE CANADIAN PRESS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Detroit Red Wings left wing Johan Franzen (93), reaches for the puck in a game last April as Minnesota Wild right wing Antti Miettinen (20), controls it. The Winnipeg Jets have claimed Miettinen off waivers, though he will not play with them against his former team the Wild tonight.

The Winnipeg Jets have bolstered their thinning forward ranks by claiming NHL veteran forward Antti Miettinen off waivers.

Miettenen, 31, is a veteran of 472 NHL games with the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild and has 89 career goals and 212 career points. But he won’t be in Winnipeg in time for Tuesday’s game against the Wild as he is in Finland and the Jets are working to arrange travel for him and his family.

"We’re working on getting him here right now," said GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. " Since the waiver-claim was successful we’ve had several contacts with him trying to get flights and everything like that for him and his family. It gives (head coach) Claude (Noel) a lot of versatility. He’s someone who has played a lot on the power play, he’s played penalty kill minutes and he’s an experienced NHL player that can come into the lineup and can fit in a lot of different places.

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"He’s shown a lot of versatility in his game. He competes hard, and the homework we did on him behind the scenes said he was a real good character person that can bring a lot to a dressing room and to a team."

The Finnish left winger had played in 20 games with Kazan Ak-Bars in the KHL this fall – scoring two goals and adding six assists – before getting out of his contract, and on Monday signed as a free-agent with the Tampa Bay Lightning for two years at $1.5 million per year plus a $500,000 signing bonus and a no-move clause. But the Jets claimed him before the 11 a.m. deadline this morning.

Last year with the Minnesota Wild he had 16 goals and 35 points.

Meanwhile, some other news from the Jets’ injury front: defenceman Ron Hainsey is good to go and has been activated from injured reserve. That move meant Arturs Kulda was placed on waivers and the team hopes to send him back to the St. John’s IceCaps. But Nik Antropov, Eric Fehr and now Alex Burmistrov, who injured himself at practice this week, won’t be in the lineup. That will likely mean the team goes with an extra defenceman against Minnesota.

Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait