On to Plan B

With no luck and no chance of seeing Finnish goalie Jonathan Iilahti cross the pond to play junior in the same city home to the NHL team that owns his rights, the Giants were forced to go with a Plan B.

In trading for Saskatoon overage goalie Adam Morrison on Tuesday, Giants general manager Scott Bonner is simply conceding his team will not have Iilahti in its lineup this season and are moving forward without him.

"It puts a change in our plans to get Adam Morrison," Bonner said Thursday. "We had to give up a guy we really liked in Michael Burns. It changes your dynamics whereas before you have your 20, 25-goal overage winger and you have a goalie we were pretty high on in Iilahti, but hopefully it works out."

What can be a risky endeavour for junior teams in drafting Europeans appeared minimal where Iilahti was concerned.

Not only was he a Canucks draft pick, but his NHL club wanted him in junior where they could keep a close, watchful eye on their prospect this season.

The feeling was mutual from the goalie. Iilahti went for lunch with the Giants during his time at the Canucks’ development camp, thinking the Western Hockey League would be an ideal next step in his progression.

He would also be near the site of the upcoming world juniors, held in Calgary and Edmonton.

"It would have been the perfect fit for him," Bonner said.

Instead, what ensued was a course of red tape that included missed deadlines and an uncooperative Finnish team, with the end result being another full year in Finland for Iilahti. As of last week, Bonner indicated Iilahti’s home club, the Espoo Blues, made it clear they would not make him available to play in Vancouver following the world junior tournament.

The first opportunity missed came during a busy time for Iilahti’s parent club. The deadline to sign European players came and went the same day the Canucks were playing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

"Obviously, they were a little preoccupied at that time," Bonner said. "By the time we drafted him (in the CHL import draft in late June) and found all this out, it was basically a week and a half before our camp."

Realizing their young goalie could be lost to North America, the Finnish Blues transferred Iilahti’s rights to the pro league—as Bonner put it, making it "a little more attractive for him to stay on that side of the water."

There’s always risk in drafting and bringing over European players to the Canadian Hockey League. While Bonner says it’s the first time such a situation presented itself for his team—and looking at it as a learning lesson--it’s not the first frustrating situation involving a European. Last year, Slovakian forward Marek Tvrdon suffered a separated shoulder that limited him to just 12 games.

After surgery, Tvrdon was sent home since there wasn’t much he could do for the next month and a half. He came back to Vancouver to continue his English lessons and trained with the Giants’ strength coach, but was chomping at the bit to get back on the ice.

"It was tough on him," Bonner said. "It’s deceiving because after that first month he thought his shoulder felt fine and he was telling us he’s ready to go, ready to play, wants to play. But doctors know better than young players and they just wouldn’t let him go and they told him he has to wait it out."

Now healthy, Bonner is optimistic to get the most out of his big Slovakian.

He’s hoping Tvrdon can eclipse the 30-goal plateau playing on a line with the supremely-skilled Brendan Gallagher and likened Tvrdon’s playing style to those found in Detroit, the team that drafted him in the fourth round last summer.

"He’s a big, strong, weighty winger," Bonner said of the 6-foot-2, 217 pound player. "When he’s on, he’s a lot like (Johan) Franzen and (Tomas) Holmstrom and those big, strong guys tough to move off the puck. He’s just got to learn the pace in our league’s pretty high and you have to stick with it.

"One thing (head coach) Don (Hay) teaches is where guys know what to expect from the pro level and I think Don will give him good habits. If he buys in, he’ll be fine."

The Giants are hoping the same can be said for them this season.