Thunderbirds GM Bil La Forge reflects on season ahead amidst WHL Championship
By Charles Hamaker
Kent, WA – Seattle Thunderbirds general manager Bil La Forge sat at his desk inside of the Showare Center, heavily invested in screens on the morning of May 15th, just a day before the third game of the WHL Championship. Before and after speaking with me, La Forge seemed calm and focused as the Thunderbirds were returning home for the next three games of the series after splitting the first two up in Winnipeg. As Seattle’s general manager, he’s seen success in recent years, and is looking to add to the trophy case after being named the WHL executive of the year for 2023.
Humility behind the honors
That last sentence is impressive on its own, but it required a lot of work to achieve. This Thunderbirds roster was already impressive following the end of the 2022 season, putting up a tough fight in last year’s WHL Championship series against the Edmonton Oil Kings before falling short. La Forge went to work, with the help of assistant manager Jared Crooks, bringing in HEAVY artillery to bolster this team when the Thunderbirds acquired Brad Lambert in June, Luke Prokop in October, and then Colton Dach and Dylan Guenther in January. Seattle was already capable of a deep playoff run with names like Jared Davidson, Jordan Gustafson, Lucas Ciona, and Thomas Milic between the pipes. La Forge and Crooks weren’t satisfied, and went into overdrive to make sure that this playoff run reached the heights that they were aiming for, and the journey is partially there.
“I mean, I think you look at hard work, but I look at hard work from our organizational standpoint. Jared Crooks, the assistant general manager, does a ton of hard work with me and our scouting staff, our coaches. It’s something that no one individual can accomplish. It’s a group effort and I realize that and I’m thankful for them. I think Jared and I might have sat down and said, hey, this is pretty cool, shows we’re going in the right direction. And again, with the work of our coaches, you can get the best players in the world, but if the coaches can’t coach them, you’re not going to be nominated for something like that. So grateful, but also understanding that it’s everybody. It’s not just the name on the plaque, it’s the name on the front of the jersey.”
The next flock
With those massive trades to acquire NHL-Ready talent, La Forge had to sacrifice some of the team's “future” in the form of draft picks as the team looks to secure a second WHL Championship in the immediate future. With that being taken into consideration, the 2023 WHL Prospects draft wrapped up just last week, in an opportunity for Seattle to add young talent to their franchise that will come up and be the potential future of the team. Although they were without many of the picks they originally had a year ago, La Forge was happy with what the Thunderbirds were able to come away with and is optimistic that the team could replenish those picks in upcoming drafts if that’s in the cards.
“We’re extremely excited about the group that we had. I mean, obviously when you’re going into a draft, knowing your first picks at 87, you have to kind of think outside the box a little bit, and I thought our staff did a really good job of doing that. I mean, we went to a league, we’ve had a lot of success in the JPHL. It’s not the standard route for kids, it’s not the flashy sports school, but it’s a league that we’ve drafted guys out of that. Coster Dunn played there, Scott Ratzlaff played in that league, Pickford’s played in that league, I think. Who else? Schaefer. There’s a bunch of guys that have played in that league that have done really well for us. We got some guys out of there that we thought were first or second round talents that slipped in the draft. It made a lot of sense for us to do that. Moving a future pick for two picks this year made sense for me because I have four years to get to that pick again. And who knows, I can probably replenish that one before that time. It made sense for me that I can get two extra guys in this draft and we’re picking a little later. It’s two more swings, right? I thought that made sense for our group. And yeah, we were ecstatic at the end of the day with the crop of kids that we selected.”
Seattle Thunderbirds goaltender Thomas Milic throughout the year (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Thomas is turning heads
Thunderbirds goaltender Thomas Milic has had an outstanding 2022-23 season after a great year prior, being regarded as the primary reason that Seattle fought so hard against Edmonton in the 2022 WHL Championship. Despite that success and eye-popping performances at the World Juniors, Milic is still overlooked by scouts and doesn’t get a ton of attention from the media. I wanted to ask La Forge about his thoughts on that lack of coverage and attention on Milic, and what his general thoughts were on the player that recently was named the WHL goaltender of the year.
“I think he was just named goaltender of the year for the Western Hockey League. So, I think everyone’s starting to see what we’ve seen here for three years now. Milly’s a consummate player on our team. He’s part of the leadership group. We call him Big Game Milly, right. The bigger the game, the better he plays. He’s so focused and business like that. Maybe it’s taken the rest of the world a couple of years to catch up to us in terms of we knew how good he was, and the same goes for both our goalies. Ratzy, too, is another good goalie. I think that he’s (Milic) going to get his attention. He’s going to get his love from the next level. I’m hoping it’s in this year, in June of the entry draft, but eventually he’s going to get it. We know how good he is, the league knows how good he is, and the world saw how good he was at the World Juniors, so I’m confident that he’s going to get it at some point. Hopefully it’s right away here at the next NHL Draft. ”
Shouting out those in the “supporting” cast
While names like Guenther, Lambert, Jared Davidson, and a few others get the main attention when it comes to this team because of the players that they are and the fact that they’ve been drafted, the Thunderbirds have incredible depth up and down the lineup. While those players mentioned previously are incredible and do perform, Seattle couldn’t get to this point as dominantly as they have without having other helping hands chip in as the Thunderbirds wear their opponents down. That’s thanks to younger players and those who don’t get the same praise that certain stars do, and I wanted to get La Forge’s take on those players on this Seattle roster.
“I think especially when the guys that were at the World Juniors were gone, I think we went ten and one or ten and one or something during that time. And it was the Ratzlaff and the Pickford and Hyde Davidson, Jared Davidson, that group that really led us. But I think in the playoff run, you look no further than a Sam Popowich. He doesn’t get the press or the glory, but he kills every penalty for us, whether he plays seven minutes or 17 minutes. He’s the hardest working guy on the ice. I think he’s been great. Prokop has been really good, not a guy that gets a lot of points for us, but defends really well, has that veteran leadership. I think it’s the guys that are leading the group from behind the scenes, the ones that some people don’t realize. And like I said, Popowich and Pickford, Prokop, Mekai Sanders, another guy, McNelly, who’s coming in the last series and provides it might only be three or four minutes a night, but it’s eventful and exciting and the guys really enjoy it. Kyle Crnkovic another one done a lot of really good things for us.”
Seattle’s love for their Thunderbirds
To wrap things up, I wanted to get the perspective La Forge had as a general manager on the Seattle fanbase. Considering the weight that his decisions have, good or bad, it could be a love-hate relationship between front office members and the fanbase of a team. La Forge, in his fifth year with the Thunderbirds, had nothing but glowing remarks to say about the team’s fans and even shared some stories from his own personal experience about them. It is fun to know that despite all the time and work that they must commit to making the team better and what goes into a day-to-day, front office members like La Forge notice what the fans are saying and at very minimum receive it.
“Our fan base is second to none. Everyone says best fans in the WHL with every team, but I’ve been around the game for a long time now and around the league for a long time, there is zero doubt in my mind that these are the most passionate fans in the WHL. They travel well, when we’re in our rink they’re exciting. There’s a great culture in it. There’s a lot of long-standing traditions and they know about it. I don’t even think it’s just this year. Like, I’ve been here five years now and when I came in in year one and we weren’t the level of team that we are right now, they were still as passionate about it and still stopped you in the concourse and had an opinion or a question in the most positive way possible. So, yeah, it’s a great place to play, it’s a great place to live and we’re fortunate here in Kent, the support we get, so I don’t take it for granted one day.”