GM: David Bell (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Randy Carlyle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last season: 22nd overall

Ins and Outs (Season 3 to Season 4)

Out:Vaclav Prospal (retired)

In: Tyler Johnson (draft), Danny Dekeyser (draft), Alex Stalock (draft), Anthony DeAngelo (draft), Alex Tuch (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 4)

 

 

 

Kyle Okposo, RW; Jaden Schwartz, C; Niklas Danielsson, LW; Ben Bishop, G, Tyler Johnson, C

 

 

 

Three Questions

1. When will the pain stop? After two seasons, management changed in Milan and a youth movement began under GM David Bell. Veteran leaders Ryan Callahan, Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Dustin Byfuglien and others were sent packing and the results were predictable. The team accumulated 24 fewer points in the standings and by the end of Season 3 were outscored by a goal per game on average. The task for Bell and coach Randy Carlyle is to start some new chemistry and a new team culture. Niklas Danielsson appears to be a big part of the rebuild. The 24-year-old left winger won Rookie of the Year honors last year, scoring 25 goals and 61 points. The Guerriero have several other bright stars on the horizon with three 80PO centers and three 80PO left wingers in the plan.

2. Who will support the top 3 defensemen? For Season 4, it looks like Trevor Daley and Andrew MacDonald are team’s best defensemen. Ultra-durable Johnny Boychuk will also play every day, but after him, the depth chart is murky. Second-year man T.J. Brennan and rookie Dan Dekeyser look to be the best bets to play, but neither is definitely for sure EURO material at the moment. And after them there is one more defense spot open.  The question for Bell is: Get the young guys experience or call for reinforcements from the free agent pool?

3. Looking ahead, who’s our goalie? Josh Harding and Ben Bishop are a fine goalie tandem today, but when the young skaters in Milan mature, they might need a better goalie if they are going to challenge for a championship. Bell, who has shown a willingness to wheel and deal, can hope to get one via the draft or free agency, or he can try to pry one from another team through trade. But there is no hurry. Italy’s team has some growing to do before that deadline comes.

History

Season                 Place        PTS        PP %      PK %      SPG        SAPG     GPG     GAPG    PIM

Season 3              22          62          13.3        81.3       26.88     31.39     2.72        3.71                11.62

Season 2              16          86         15.7        84.1       32.62     28.82     3.33        3.32                12.68

Season 1              7          101          19.8        85.6        31.23     27.30    3.74        3.15                11.41

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Gabriel Landeskog, LW, current age 22. Games played: 244; points: 246; -48

Season 2: Gerhard Unterluggauer, D, age 30. GP 139, Pts 74, +6

Season 3: Ben Bishop, G, age 27. GP 60, Save Pct. 88.5

Season 4: Tyler Johnson, C, age 23

Trade History

Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)

Traded Round 6 pick (used to draft David Perron), Round 21 pick (Mike Green) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Ossi Vaananen) to Paris for Round 3 pick (used to draft Dustin Byfuglien), Round 20 pick, and Round 26 pick (Jeff Woywitka)

Traded Gabriel Landeskog to Madrid for Dustin Brown, Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and Round pick (Chris Kreider)

Traded Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 22 pick (Jakub Kindl) to St. Petersburg for Round 18 pick (Brandon Gormley)

Traded Round 20 pick (David Steckel) to Bratislava for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Olexander Podbyedonostsev)

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Edinburgh for 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer)

Traded Zbynek Michalek and Jaroslav Spacek to Dublin for 2013 Round 2 pick (Niklas Danielsson) and $1.35 million

Traded Jordan Staal, Chris Kreider, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin) and $250,000 to Madrid for Henrik Sedin

Traded Brad Boyes to Athens for 2013 Round 3 pick (Magnus Johansson)

Traded Nik Antropov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Olexander Podbyedonostsev) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Matthew Dumba) to Helsinki for Jamie McGinn

Traded Viktor Stalberg, 2014 Round 1 pick (Cam Atkinson) and $1 million to St. Petersburg for Daniel Alfredsson

Traded Brian Rolston to Madrid for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Eliezer Sherbatov)

Traded Dustin Penner to Oslo for 2014 Round 3 (later traded) (Samuel Morin)

Season 2

* unknown. Might be as many as 5 trades

Season 3

Traded Dustin Brown and 2014 Round 2 pick (Marcus Foligno) to Stockholm for Kyle Okposo and 2014 Round 1 pick (Brendan Gallagher)

Details are sketchy but Milan made trades that sent Ryan Callahan to Berlin, Dustin Byfuglien to Athens and Mike Richards to Stockholm, receiving in return, Jaden Schwartz, Marcus Krieger, Matt Read, Joel Armia, a first-round pick and two second-round picks. David, if you have better records, we can correct it.

Traded Dimitrios Kalyvas to Athens for Johnny Boychuk

Traded Gerhard Unterluggauer and Matt Read to Berlin for Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb

Traded Magnus Johansson to Stockholm for Thomas Hickey

Traded Antti Niemi to Gothenburg for 2015 Round 1 and 2015 Round 3 picks