The two-Headed Monster

At the Major Junior level of hockey, there are two objectives: win championships, such as a Chynoweth Cup or Memorial Cup (heck, why not both) and to develop players for the pro level, preferably, the NHL.

Over the last decade, the Thunderbids have been in four WHL Championship series and won two Chynoweth Cups. They've certainly hit the first objective. Meanhile, since 2010 the T-Birds have had, I believe, some 25 players drafted by NHL teams.  Another half dozen who weren't drafted eventually signed pro contracts. Many of those 30-plus have reached the NHL level. I think you can put a check mark behind objective number two.

The Thunderbirds have found their greatest success reaching both objectives in the the last six years thanks to the LaForge-O'Dette partnership. It almost sounds like I'm talking about a law firm, but of course I'm speaking of General Manager Bil LaForge and Head Coach Matt O'Dette.

Matt O'Dette took the reins as Thunderbirds head coach in the summer of 2017.  Seattle was coming off their first ever WHL title.  O'Dette was promoted from assistant coach to head coach when his predeccesor, Steve Konowalchuk, left for the NHL.

Bil LaForge came on board the following summer. Long time GM Russ Farwell had moved "upstairs" taking on the position of Vice President of Hockey Operations and  the T-Birds landed on LaForge, who had been the head scout for Everett, as his replacement.

Often when a new GM comes on board, one way they put their stamp on the organization is to bring in a new head coach. Instead LaForge's first move was to give O'Dette a ringing endorsement. The rest as they say, is history. Together the partnership of LaForge and O'Dette, in the two key hockey operations positions on the team, has produced nothing but positive results.

In six years working together this tandem has brought to the T-Birds two Western Conference titles, a U.S. Division banner, two appearances in the league championship series, one Chynoweth Cup and a berth in the championship game of the 2023 Memorial Cup.

But it doesn't stop there. In those six years 22 players who have played under their regime, heard their names called at an NHL draft.  There are hundreds of draft eligible players from all over North America and Europe who are hoping to be selected on draft day every summer. To have just one of your player's names called is a statistical longhost. To average almost four players per draft over a six year time frame is astronomical. But that's what Team LaForge-O'Dette has done.

But they don't do it alone. As they say, it takes teamwork to make the dream work.  To get those players on the podium on draft day mean hiring the right scouts. It means bringing on board the right assistant coaches. It means having the right people in place to help with player development. And LaForge and O'Dette have done that.

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Back at the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, the T-Birds were set to select 15th in the first round but as the top nine picks came off the board, LaForge and his team of scouts saw one player still available. A player they had given a top five grade. So LaForge made a phone call and sent that 15th overall pick and a third round pick to Prince Albert to move up to the tenth spot in the draft.  They used that #10 pick on Braeden Cootes. The same Braeden Cootes who just got drafted 15th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft by the Vancouver Giants. LaForge and his team know what they're doing.

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Last summer, with the 11th overall pick, Seattle chose Czechian Matej Pekar in the first round of the CHL Import Draft. The T-Birds still had a pick in Round Two, 71st overall. They went back to Czechia and took a flyer on Radim Mrtka, even though it looked like he would stay in Czechia to play professionally in the top men's league.  When rumors started to float around in October that Mrtka could be headed to Seattle I asked LaForge about taking a gamble with that second pick.  He had done it with Sam Knazko and he had done it with Tim Stutzle. No harm in swinging for the fences. The one thing that stuck with me was he said Russ Farwell was the one who went to bat for picking Mrtka.  Great case of a GM listening to those around him, especially someone who has been doing this for a long time. Mrtka was just selected 9th overall by Buffalo in the NHL Draft. 

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In his playing days, Matt O'Dette was a defenseman.  He played for the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL and was drafted in the 7th round of 1994 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers. He played parts of 14 seasons as a d-man professionally.  Now he has become a developer of D-men. As a T-Birds assistant coach he helped guide both Shea Theodore and Ethan Bear into becoming WHL Defenseman of the Year winners. Had Kevin Korchinski come back for his 19 year old season, rather than sticking in the NHL, he may have had a third earn the honor. In his 12 years in the T-Birds organization, first as an assistant coach and now as head coach, a dozen T-Birds defenseman have either been drafted (10) by the NHL or signed pro contracts. The latest two are Mrtka and Ashton Cumby.

The T-Birds acquired Cumby from the Wenatchee Wild in January of 2024 in exchange for a 6th round pick.  Seattle and O'Dette helped turn him into a prospect of the Chicago Blackhawks, who chose him in the 6th round (162nd overall) of the 2025 NHL Draft. 

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I'm not too surprised Cumby got drafted.  At the end of the season he was mulling over five or six offers from NHL team to attend their training camp if not selected in the draft. He was a wanted man.