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.

I didn’t see a lot of Robins, in fact I only seen two games in person and watched a further two online so most of what I hear about Robins is from word of mouth from many friends who continue to go along to games. Most of the opinions are positive with a few citing that his performances fell away every so slightly after a blistering start to the year. But given the Giants injury woos last term, including a few to Robins, and with the amount of extra ice time the top players were required to put in, fatigue might well have been the reason for the dip in his scoring.

He’ll be a welcome addition regardless to a team that is off to a poor start to the season. Going forward the Giants have failed to create enough and losing Awada was one of the reasons. Thornton brought himself back but was rumored to be still injured and so that was never going to work long term, but signing up a player that knows the city, knows the team and who can settle in instantly seems like good business to me.

Robins left the Giants to go (and rightly so) chasing the money in Denmark with the Rodovre Mighty Bulls but no longer had he arrived when his contract was cancelled due to the teams financial problems. Unlike his Giants team-mate from last season and new team-mate at Rodovre Paul Deniset, who was also released, Robins failed to grab another contract (Deniset signed with Aalborg also of Denmark), and now finds himself back where he finished last season.

With the league finally scrapping the whole ‘you must de-register a non-playing import to bring in a replacement and he cannot play again for 6-games’ rule of idiots, the Giants do not have to worry about Thornton stepping back out of the team. Should any other injuries arise he will be the first replacement and can even consider putting himself in for tactical reasons and sitting a fellow import as a ‘healthy scratch’ should the nature of an upcoming game require it.

As much as the Giants could do with Robins immediately, they will have to wait until after this weekends double header with Cardiff due to paper work going through.

Other fans are raising concerns about the Giants’ defensive depth this coming season but I have neither the time nor the energy to get into such a speculative debate just yet. We’re still in mid-July have still a month and a half before the team take to the ice in anger.

The core of the team is certainly looking strong with this signing and his young age certainly bodes well for a pretty youthful squad unlike some previous years. Steve Thornton has compared him to Bobby Robins from last season and whether he is a direct replacement for Robins remains to be seen though their has been rumors of Robins heading to mainland Europe. If Bateman could put up the strong numbers he did in the ECHL then he should be a star in the Elite League. This University of Ulster set up certainly is a great move by the Giants and is pulling in players they might otherwise have missed out on.

Pat Bateman
Forward
Born May 20 1982  -- Calgary, ALTA
Height 6.01 -- Weight 195 -- Shoots L

                                           -Regular Season-  --- Playoffs ---
Season   Team                        Lge   GP  G  A Pts PIM  GP  G  A Pts PIM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002-03  Crowsnest Pass Timberwolv   AJHL  34 14 31  45 145
2003-04  Northern Michigan Univers   NCAA  36  7  7  14  66
2004-05  Northern Michigan Univers   NCAA  35 12 17  29  87
2005-06  Northern Michigan Univers   NCAA  39 10 19  29  87
2006-07  Northern Michigan Univers   NCAA  41  7  8  15  89
2006-07  Milwaukee Admirals          AHL    3  0  0   0   2  -- -- --  --  --
2007-08  Stockton Thunder            ECHL  40  5  6  11  21  -- -- --  --  --
2008-09  Gwinnett Gladiators         ECHL  72 24 28  52 124   5  2  1   3  10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also being announced was another new signing and another new British one at that. Goaltender Stephen Murphy. He replaces Stevie Lyle who last week chose to sign in Cardiff despite having a year left on his Giants contract . . . whether he was released or walked remains to be seen but the Giants were quick off the mark to replace him with a fellow Brit.

Deciding if it was the right move to go British in goals and bring in an extra import on the ice will make for good debating but the decision has been made now and it’ll be up to Thornton to put a strong team in front of Murphy. He had a very solid season in Manchester last year so the Giants will be looking for him to build on that.

It is good to see the signings coming in thick and fast, Thornton has been wasting no time in getting a core of players together before the summer months really even begin.