Miners acquire Vatanen from the Norsemen.

Miners acquire Vatanen from the Norsemen.

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

The Sudbury Miners and Minnesota made a move early Tuesday morning, as the Miners sent
pending RFA forward William Karlsson, along with prospect forward Troy Terry, to the Minnesota
Norsemen in exchange for defenceman Sami Vatanen and Minnesota’s 2 nd and 3 rd round picks in 2019.

In a brief press conference prior to Tuesday afternoon, General Manager Terry James
commented on the trade and gave the reason for why they dealt for Vatanen.

“We think he (Vatanen) has very good offensive abilities. He has very good speed and is an
excellent skater. He has shown that he is creative with the puck and we know he can lead a successful
breakout quickly and efficiently. He doesn’t have the hardest shot but it’s very accurate. We feel he is
an excellent complement to the young group of defenceman we are assembling here in Sudbury”.

The knock against Vatanen, is that scouts have always commented about his limited size. At
only 5’10, his size at times has made him vulnerable to the physical game but Vatanen does have the
skating to overcome these deficiencies. This was one of the main reasons that Vatanen dropped to the
7 th round in the 2010 CCHL Entry Draft.

For Minnesota, they get a player who is starting to grow into his potential, along with a solid
prospect who was getting caught in a numbers game in Sudbury. In Willam Karlsson, the Norsemen get a 24 year-old center, who is armed with excellent hockey sense and very good passing skills. He has shown that he can play solidly in all three zones and has started to add scoring to his resume. Karlsson was acquired by Sudbury in the August 2017 trade that also brought highly touted defenseman, Mikhail Sergachev to the Miners.

Prospect Troy Terry is a center who had shown some upside as a mid-round pick for the Miners.
Scouts say he has a CCHL caliber wrist shot and can score from all areas of the offensive zone, but scouts say he needs improvement playing in his own end. Terry was drafted by Sudbury in the 5 th round of the 2017 CCHL Entry Draft (124 th overall) and is currently in his junior year at the University of Denver.