Recently DUBNetwork had an opportunity to have a conversation with Seattle Thunderbirds General Manager Bil La Forge. In his first season, La Forge was extremely busy during the first 10 days of the 2019 calendar year, making six different trades.
East trip:
Seattle was one of those rare teams that was actually looking forward to their East Division trip after a stretch of play that saw them lose seven-of-eight, with six of those losses coming within the very tough U.S. Division.
With all those trades taking place on the six-game road trip through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, La Forge’s team turned their play around and won four-of-six. After starting out losing to the Brandon Wheat Kings 7-3, Seattle won four-of-five, including a 4-1 victory over the team with the best record in the WHL, the Prince Albert Raiders.
“It’s always a very taxing time of year. I thought our guys handed it very well. We had lots of added adversity this year with the trade deadline being on the trip and us being pretty active, especially at the start of the trip,” La Forge said.
With most of his big moves coming on the first two days of January, the team was given a chance to come together afterwards.
“I thought our coaches did a great job of resetting with the players and I thought the new guys that came in really brought a positive vibe and excitement level to our team. That translated into some of the best hockey that we have played all year.”
The four wins helped in the standings, they are now just one point out of the playoffs with two games in hand on the Kamloops Blazers. They now head back to a whole lot of divisional play, with a fair amount of those games coming against the top two teams in the U.S. Division, in Everett and Portland.
“I think that we feel now that the way we are set up now, every night that we go into a game, there’s a strong possibility that we can come up with two points. The East trip was something that after I saw the schedule, I was like – oh wow trade deadline on the road – that is not something I looked forward to. It really helped us though in terms of giving guys a chance to be with their new teammates 24-7.”
The way the Thunderbirds played toward the end of trip has La Forge filled with optimism, but he knows those rivalry games will be key in them making the playoffs for the seventh straight season.
“Despite it being hard, it was really the best thing for us at that time. That being said, we have to get points in the U.S. Division. I think everyone would acknowledge that it’s the best division in the WHL. But it’s the division we are in and we will do everything we can to make sure that happens.”
Trades:
The big moves Seattle made involved moving out Zack Andrusiak, who had 27 goals in 34 games before being moved to Everett, dealing starting goalie Liam Hughes who had played in 29 games and Reece Harsch, who had played 149 regular season and 25 playoff games for them.
Despite those losses, La Forge was quick to point out that he was not giving up on this season and got some players back in those move who will be counted on.
“The goal was to make us better now and in the future and I think with all due respect to those guys because they were great Thunderbirds- maybe the time was right for us to do a bit of a reset and I think we accomplished that.”
It was definitely a reset in net as Hughes, who started a vast majority of games for Seattle this season was sent to Lethbridge. La Forge had another goalie in mind though before he made that deal.
“Bringing in Roddy Ross solidified our goaltending enough that I felt comfortable with moving Liam. That was the first shoe to fall, moving those other two guys, we got people in their position that we think are not the same player, but maybe a different type of player and younger.
Seattle got players that could go right into their lineup in overage forward Sean Richards, 2000-born forward Keltie Jeri-Leon and 2001-born defenseman Zachary Ashton.
“We will get the chance to be better now and in the future. I’ve said it many times – we still think we are a legitimate playoff team and we are going to fight and battle every step of the way to get there. With the new energy, some of the youthful enthusiasm and the good feeling we have around here, I think we are on the right track.”
Goaltending:
Ross steps in to help fill the shoes of the 19-year-old Hughes along with 2001-born netminder Cole Schwebius. La Forge had been keeping an eye on Ross for awhile and moving Hughes gave him a spot to put him in.
“Roddy historically has put up real good numbers wherever he’s played. I know that with my old team, I watched him quite a bit in Saskatchewan Midget, but then we had scouts speaking very highly of him at the start of the year in Camrose. We added him to our list and had Ian Gordon, our goaltending consultant go out and other members of our staff go watch him and we were very confident that he was a WHL-level goaltender.
After doing their due diligence, they signed the 2000-born goalie and watched as he won his first three starts.
“In saying that, making that change, is not an easy decision, but I think that he came in and has been really good for in all four games that he has played.”
La Forge and his coaches like how they are set up for the future with Schwebius and Ross.
“I think it’s like every position in our lineup. I met with coach this morning and we talked about how we do have competition now and that’s exciting. We have what we believe are more top-nine forwards and more top-12 forwards in spots, same thing with the defensemen and I think we have two goaltenders that are going to battle for ice time, in a positive manner. I think that’s so important. They are going to push each other and they are also going to help each other. They are both good kids and they’ve really accepted the roles they’ve been given. Which is, when you’re starting that night, you are the number one goalie, so you’ve got to go play like one.”
Return of Kukuca from World Juniors:
At the same time the trades were happening, Seattle was without 1999-born Slovakian import Andrej Kukuca, who was playing for his home country at the 2019 U20 World Junior Championships.
Since he came back, Kukuca has five goals and two assists for seven points in five games.
“He seems to have really fit in well with (Jaxan) Kaluski and (Tyler) Carpendale and I think that group has been really good. He definitely did bring back a little more confidence back with him. When you play against the best junior players in the world that tends to happen and he’s been good for us every night.
Kukuca and Slovakia went 1-3 in the Preliminary round and then lost to Russia in the Quarterfinals.
“He’s also been playing Thunderbird hockey. He’s been getting in on the forecheck, turning pucks over. Having him come back has been a big asset for us and he’s come back and has played very well.”
Henry Rybinski:
While dealing away some of the more well known players, La Forge brought in a player that a lot of WHL teams had to be coveting in 2001-born left wing Henry Rybinski.
After a 12-point 16-year-old season, Rybinski was expected to be a key player with the Medicine Hat Tigers. After a game on October 24th though, he left the team and requested a trade.
At the start of the season, he was a “C” rated prospect for the 2019 NHL Draft.
“Getting Henry was extremely important to us. It was something that I had been working on for a long time, since it was announced that he wasn’t going back to Medicine Hat. In saying that, we gave up a fair number of assets but in the other trades we also accrued a lot of assets.”
La Forge moved a second round pick in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft, a third round pick in the 2020 draft and unsigned prospect Aidan Brook for Rybinski.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t empty the cupboard in terms of draft picks. We acquired draft picks and re-used them is the best way to put it.”
Since coming to the Thunderbirds he has five assists in five games.
“Henry has been playing top-six minutes for us on the wing and we believe he is top line or top two-line center going forward after this season. I think that the way he plays is very similar to the way (Matthew) Wedman and (Nolan) Volcan – the guys that are our identity – the way they play. It’s very exciting to see him out there, force pucks to be turned over and make players better. I think he’s a point=a-game guy since we picked him up. The chemistry that he’s had with Sean Richards and Noah Philp has been tremendous.”
Dillon Hamaliuk:
Wrapping up my talk with La Forge, we talked about the loss of 2000-born forward Dillon Hamaliuk during his draft year.
Hamaliuk was on the bad end of a knee-on-knee collision with Portland defenseman Matthew Quigley back on December 29th.
“I feel terrible for Hammer. He’s a great kid. I’m confident that he will come back better than ever next year. We had to make sure that we were doing the best thing for Dillon and getting the surgery done right away and giving him the most time to recover was the right thing.”
Hamaliuk had 26 points in 21 games prior to the injury.
“Losing him as a player is one thing but not having him around our guys is really difficult. I think he’s got his injury behind him now and come back strong to show whatever team drafts him they’ve got a great player and we will be happy to help him in any way we can.”
Seattle came back home this week, but heads back out on the road for a game Friday night against the Tri-City Americans, before heading back home for a Saturday tilt with the Victoria Royals.
