Silvertips pick forward from Finland

The Everett Silvertips knew their unfavorable position in the 2010 Canadian Hockey League import draft made for an even larger dose of uncertainty in what is annually an uncertain event.

So, when their turn finally rolled around Tuesday afternoon, the Tips nabbed a player with whom they could at least eliminate some of the variables.

The Tips dipped back into Finland to nab two-way forward Jesse Huhtala with the 51st pick, setting themselves up to field two Finns during the 2010-11 season.

Huhtala, who is entering his 17-year-old season, hails from the town of Pori and measures in at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds. Last season, he played for Assat in Finland’s U-18 junior B league, tallying 14 goals and 14 assists in 22 games.

And in Huhtala the Tips have two certainties. First, with Finnish defenseman Rasmus Rissanen returning to fill one of Everett’s two European roster slots, the Tips have someone who can help Huhtala settle in North America. Second, Huhtala has told Everett he will report.

“His agent assured us he was going to come,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “There’s no question of that or we wouldn’t have taken him. He wants to play in the CHL. And having Rissanen around will help make the transition a little easier because he speaks the same tongue.”

Everett has a solid history in the import draft, which is major-junior hockey’s biggest crapshoot. Every player the Tips ever drafted has reported, and most of those have at least been able to contribute. Last year with two high first-round picks, the Tips acquired Rissanen and Czech defenseman Radko Gudas, both of whom were critical to Everett finishing tied for the best record in the WHL’s Western Conference.

But this year the Tips were drafting late in the first round, and Everett even considered passing if the right players were no longer available.

However, Huhtala interested Everett enough to prompt the Tips to exercise their pick.

“He’s a player we kind of identified in February or March,” Soetaert said. “We did some work on him and watched some video on him. I don’t mind him. He has decent size, he’s strong on his skates, he has good hands and he can play all three forward positions. We think he can be a pretty good player. When he comes to training camp we’ll see if he fits.”

There’s still an outside chance Gudas, who was picked in the third round of last weekend’s NHL draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning, could return to Everett for his overage season. Gudas, as a 20-year-old, is eligible to play professionally in the minor leagues and is expected to move on to the pro ranks. But if he is returned to Everett for his overage season, the Tips will have an excess of Euros and will need to make a move.