Geoff Platt

Geoff Platt

Platt playing for Ilves in 2008
Born (1985-07-10) July 10, 1985
Toronto, ON, CAN
Height 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight 183 lb (83 kg; 13 st 1 lb)
Position Centre
Shoots Left
SHL team
Former teams
Växjö Lakers
Columbus Blue Jackets
Anaheim Ducks
Dinamo Minsk
Ilves
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
CSKA Moscow
National team  Belarus
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 2005present

Geoff Platt (born July 10, 1985) is a Canadian-Belarusian ice hockey player, currently playing for the Växjö Lakers of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He has also played for HC Dinamo Minsk and CSKA Moscow of the KHL, Ilves Tampere of the Finnish SM-Liiga and the Columbus Blue Jackets and Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Born and raised in Canada, Platt played major junior in the Ontario Hockey League before spending several years between the NHL and its minor league affiliate the American Hockey League (AHL). In 2008 Platt received an offer to join Ilves in Finland, briefly playing in Belarus beforehand. He played in Finland for one season before returning to Minsk the following year, and spent nearly five full seasons with Dinamo before being traded to Lokomotiv in 2013. Platt had previously played for the Canadian national under-18 team, winning a gold medal at the 2003 IIHF World U18 Championships, but in 2012 he acquired Belarusian citizenship, and having satisfied the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) criteria, was able to represent Belarus starting at the 2014 IIHF World Championship held in Minsk.

Playing career

Platt played junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League for the North Bay Centennials, Saginaw Spirit and the Erie Otters. He has played in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Anaheim Ducks.

On February 26, 2012, after playing for five years with Dinamo Minsk, Platt accepted Belarusian citizenship.[1]

In the 2013–14 season, as leading scorer of Dinamo Minsk in the midst of his 6th season with the club, Platt was traded to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl for monetary compensation on December 30, 2013.[2] He was later signed to a two-year contract extension with Lokomotiv through to the 2016 season on January 3, 2014.[3]

On August 16, 2015, a few days before the start of the new KHL season, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl broke the contract with him.[4] Lokomotiv's general manager explained this by the uncertain legal status of foreign players in KHL (Lokomotiv had signed 6 foreign players including him while the limit of foreign players for the Russian clubs is only 5 players in the roster) and by Geoff's lack of the Russian passport.[5] Two days later he signed a contract with CSKA Moscow.[6]

Platt left Moscow upon the conclusion of the 2015-16 campaign and took his game to Sweden, signing with the Växjö Lakers of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) on June 23, 2016.[7]

International play

Medal record
Representing  Canada
Ice hockey
World U18 Championships
2003 Yaroslavl

Platt was a member of the Canadian national under-18 team during the 2003 IIHF World U18 Championships. He scored three goals in seven games as Canada won the gold medal.[8] After acquiring Belarusian citizenship in 2012 and playing the required amount of time in Belarus, Platt became eligible to represent Belarus in 2014. His first IIHF tournament was the 2014 World Championship, which was held in Minsk.[9] Platt scored three goals and two assists as Belarus finished seventh in the tournament.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2001–02 North Bay Centennials OHL 63 4 6 10 34 5 0 0 0 6
2002–03 Saginaw Spirit OHL 62 32 22 54 79
2003–04 Saginaw Spirit OHL 27 7 13 20 49
2003–04 Erie Otters OHL 28 18 11 29 22 9 9 1 10 22
2004–05 Erie Otters OHL 68 45 34 79 84 6 2 3 5 16
2004–05 AC Boardwalk Bullies ECHL 2 0 2 2 0 3 0 0 0 0
2005–06 Syracuse Crunch AHL 66 30 35 65 58 6 3 0 3 6
2005–06 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 15 0 5 5 16
2006–07 Syracuse Crunch AHL 52 27 21 48 59
2006–07 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 26 4 5 9 10
2007–08 Syracuse Crunch AHL 15 4 3 7 6
2007–08 Portland Pirates AHL 60 28 30 58 49 18 8 9 17 24
2007–08 Anaheim Ducks NHL 5 0 0 0 2
2008–09 Dinamo Minsk KHL 13 2 3 5 8
2008–09 Ilves Tampere SM-l 45 19 18 37 54 3 1 0 1 4
2009–10 Dinamo Minsk KHL 56 26 18 44 77
2010–11 Dinamo Minsk KHL 54 18 15 33 46 7 4 3 7 4
2011–12 Dinamo Minsk KHL 47 13 17 30 42 4 1 0 1 4
2012–13 Dinamo Minsk KHL 50 13 15 28 76
2013–14 Dinamo Minsk KHL 40 15 14 29 8
2013–14 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL 16 6 5 11 2 18 5 4 9 20
2014–15 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL 60 17 13 30 24 6 1 0 1 2
2015–16 CSKA Moscow KHL 55 21 14 35 46 12 6 4 10 12
NHL totals 46 4 10 14 28
KHL totals 382 131 114 245 329 47 17 11 28 42

International

Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM
2003 Canada WJC18 1st, gold medalist(s) 7 3 0 3 0
2014 Belarus WC 7th 8 3 2 5 0
2016 Belarus WC 12th 7 3 2 5 2
2016 Belarus OGQ NQ 3 0 2 2 0
Junior totals 7 3 0 3 0
Senior totals 18 6 6 12 2

References

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