Silvertips GM new to import draft

Garry Davidson is sailing into uncharted waters.

The Everett Silvertips general manager is dealing with a new challenge in the form of today’s Canadian Hockey League import draft.

Davidson, hired in February, has background as a general manager in the British Columbia Hockey League. May’s bantam draft was nothing new as he ran Portland’s bantam draft as the organization’s director of player personnel.

But the import draft, in which the 60 teams in the WHL, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League fill their two European player roster slots, is a brand new beast for Davidson.

“(With Portland) I made some calls to my European contacts, but primarily it was (general manager) Mike Johnston and (assistant general manager) Travis Green who handled the import draft,” Davidson said Tuesday as he was making final preparations for today’s draft.

“It’s a very difficult task,” Davidson added. “There’s lots of good players out there, but you have to find out if they’re going to come, and then you have to do background checks to find out of they’re good people. It’s a very difficult chore.”

Everett, by finishing with the fourth-worst record in the WHL last season, holds the 11th pick overall. That’s the earliest the Tips have picked since selecting defenseman Ivan Baranka second overall as an expansion team in 2003.

“We certainly hope that with the 11th pick we’ll be able to get a real solid player,” Davidson said. “We’re not even sure what position we’re going to take, we’re going to take the best available player.”

Davidson said the Tips will also use their second-round selection. German defenseman Dominik Bittner, who was a solid contributor last season, is eligible to return as an overager. However, Bittner has signed to play professionally in Germany next season and will not be back.

The import draft typically is a crapshoot. Selections are made based more on connections with player agents than on ability. Whether the players will actually report is always in question. And even if they do report, one never knows how well the player will settle in a foreign land.

Everett has a solid history in the import draft. The Tips have never had a player not report after being drafted, and most of those players have contributed in some way. Several of those — Baranka, defenseman Radko Gudas, winger Ondrej Fiala — have been immediate impact players.

However, the Tips have had less luck of late. Everett’s first pick each of the past two years, Finnish winger Jesse Huhtala in 2010 and Slovakian winger Vladimir Dolnik last year, were both sent home midseason after making little impact.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.