EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips have a sniper returning to the fold.
And as a result their roster conundrum just got a lot more complicated.
Left wing Ondrej Fiala was reassigned to Everett by his NHL team, the Minnesota Wild, on Thursday, adding a large dose of offensive skill to Everett’s roster.
However, it also creates a serious logjam for both Everett’s overager and European roster slots.
Fiala, a native of the Czech Republic who turns 20 in November, spent the previous two seasons in Everett, putting up 33 goals and 35 assists in 90 games. Between those seasons he was selected by Minnesota in the second round of the 2006 NHL draft.
However, Fiala was also hampered by injuries those two seasons, missing 54 games. Particularly troublesome was a knee that twice required surgery, including one that controversially saw Fiala leave the Tips on the eve of the playoffs last spring.
But there’s no doubt the smooth-skating Fiala, who did not sign a contract with Minnesota, can be a force in the WHL this season.
“He’s a first-line player in this league,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said of Fiala. “He’s very talented, and he’s 100-percent healthy and cleared to play. He was flying in our training camp, so for him it’s got to be a real benefit that the knee is no longer a problem.
“This is obviously a big year for him because he’s a 20-year-old and (the Wild, who retain his rights for another year) have this year to sign him. So he’s looking to have a banner year.”
Fiala was scheduled to arrive in Everett on Thursday night and be available for this weekend’s games.
That’s where things get tricky. Everett now has six overagers — forwards Fiala, Dan Gendur, Brennan Sonne and Brandon Campos, defenseman Dane Crowley and goaltender David Reekie — on the roster, and the Tips can keep just three beyond the Oct. 11 overager cutdown date. Reekie is exempted from that until he recovers from his bout with mononucleosis.
Add in the fact that Everett also has three Europeans — Fiala and 18-year-old forwards Lukas Vartovnik and Vitali Karamnov — for two slots, and that Fiala would require both an overager and European slot, and the sorting gets a little tricky.
Because Fiala is an overager the Tips have until Oct. 11 to sort out both the overager and European situations. Everett may need every single one of those days to make the decisions.
“We’re going to look at different things over the next four games,” Soetaert said. “We’ll look at it with (Fiala) in our lineup and without him in our lineup and see where we go.”
The Tips are allowed to dress just three overagers and two Europeans in games.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/section/BLOG12
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