General Manager Todd Kelman announced today that the LBM Belfast Giants have signed 27 year old Canadian forward Jeffrey Szwez. Szwez comes to Belfast after spending last season in Philadelphia with the Phantoms in the American Hockey League where he scored 12 goals in 69 games. The 6’3” winger has spent most of the last five years of his professional career in the American Hockey League, the top affiliate league of the NHL.

— belfastgiants.com, 18 October 2009

Szwez from what you read, what you hear and the stats you see will be the ideal guy to replace George Awada. He is big, strong, can hit hard, has a nose for goal and can drop the gloves. All the sort of qualities Awada brought to the Giants team before he went down for the rest of the season with injury. You could even go as far as to call Szwez a poor man’s Paxton Schulte and if that proves to be the case then we’re in for a treat of a player.

Of course, as always, I say all that without ever having see him play or without even having heard of him, but if he can come in and do what we expect he might then he’ll be a big help to a Giants team which is starting to find its feet. It’ll also allow coach Steve Thornton to go back behind the bench and rest his hand injury which he has been playing with since Awada went out of the line-up.

Szwez is expected to arrive on Tuesday morning and should be making his debut Giants game on 24 October against Nottingham.

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