Team Profile: Frankfurt Inferno

GM: Bryan Camara (4th GM in team’s history)

Coach Todd McLellan

Last season: 16th overall

Ins and Outs (Season 3 to Season 4)

Out: Travis Zajac (trade), Nathan Gerbe (free agent, Copenhagen)

In: Kyle Clifford (trade), Gareth Robrets (trade), Sami Vatanen (draft), Josh Ho-Sang (draft), Jacob De La Rose (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 4)

Steven Stamkos, C; Karri Ramo, G; Drew Doughty, D, Dougie Hamilton, D; Claude Girooux, RW

Three Questions

1. Another rung this year? The Inferno has been steadily climbing the ladder every season and they should be able to creep up more in Season 4. The only loss this season is Travis Zajac at center. Everyone else on the young roster is another year more experienced. Actually, Zajac will be tough to replace. Frankfurt doesn’t currently have a legitimate second line center, so their point total could suffer unless they find one. They have oodles of cap space and might go the free agent route.

2. With age comes salary. Should Frankfurt worry? The Inferno have two mega stars who make $7 million per (Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty). This off season, with Claude Giroux up for a new contract, GM Bryan Camara had to be wary of running into the same problem the NHL’s Lightning did with Lecavalier/St. Louis/Richards, and the Penguins are currently having with Crosby/Malkin/Letang. Camara did very, very well in signing Giroux and Alex Steen to reasonable contracts this week. Aside from Stamkos, Doughty, Giroux and Steen, only three other Inferno players are getting paid more than $2 million. Camara can turn some of his attention to next contract season, when he will consider what to offer Max Pacioretty.

3. Can the young defense hold? The top line of Claude Giroux, Steven Stamkos and Max Pacioretty has terrorized opposing teams since Season 1 and the trio accounts for a huge percentage of Frankfurt’s offense. It looks like the three 24- to 26-year-olds will keep it up for a few more seasons. On defense, there is no doubt Frankfurt will have one of the top pairings in the league when Stamkos and crew reach their peak. Doughty and Dougie Hamilton should compliment each other and be able to play at a very high level. Young stars in waiting on the blueline include Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Holos, Seth Jones and Samu Vatanen. Those six will form a solid defense corps in five seasons, but they probably can’t do the job today. The pressure will be on Yannick Weber and any free agents who Camara acquires to stem the tide until the young D-men are ripe.