GM: Chris Patton  (only GM in team’s history)

Coach: Darryl Sutter

Last season: 19th overall

Ins and Outs (Season 3 to Season 4)

Out: Tony Martensson (trade), Olivier Roland (trade), Ondrej Pavelec (trade), Adam Larsson (trade)

In: Joe Pavelski (free agent), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (trade), James Neal (trade), Matt Moulson (free agent), Dan Boyle (free agent), Ondrej Palat (draft), Michael Dal Colle (draft), Rob Fabbri (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 4)

 Sidney Crosby, C; Joe Pavelski, C; P.K. Subban, D; Nathan MacKinnon, RW; Justin Faulk, D; Matt Duchene, LW

Three Questions

1. Is there a draft in here? Kudos to GM Chris Patton on his drafting ability. The Giants were dismal offensively in Season 1, even with Sidney Crosby, Rick Nash and Matt Duchene. Their 2.33 goals per game rarely got them anything and their 10.1 power play efficiency rating was embarrassing. Patton’s drafting has solved the goal drought problem and given the Northern Irish fans a lot to look forward to. In the Season 2 draft, Belfast didn’t have a first-round pick, but they had back-to-back picks in round 2, and they hit homers with both. Tony Martensson was picked 28th overall and Olivier Roland 29th. Both have turned in 78-point seasons already and both have more than 100 points  after two seasons. In the next draft, Patton made a trade to give him the 4th and 10th picks in the first round and with them he selected two prospects: Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin. The latter is still without attributes, sat out an NHL season to work on his overall game, and is expected to be an offensive star, while MacKinnon won NHL Rookie of the Year honors and received Websim attributes that even Patton couldn’t have expected. And this season, Belfast got lucky and won the draft lottery for the first overall pick, taking Ondrej Palat, whose future is as bright as MacKinnon’s. With those two in the lineup for the first time, expect Belfast to be the league’s most improved team. And they just added Joe Pavelski, Matt Moulson and Dan Boyle through free agency today. And just in case you didn’t think Patton’s drafting wasn’t great, he also claimed these three promising prospect forwards in the last two drafts: Michael Dal Colle, Filip Forsberg and Rob Fabbri.

2. Are the goalies too old for this team?  What? The Belfast Giants and old in the same sentence? Belfast has two good goalies in Cory Schneider and Ondrej Pavelec, who at age 28 and 27, respectively, probably haven’t hit their prime just yet. But on a team of young 20s who will really explode with talent and goals and be millimeters from the Cup five years from now, will the current goalies still have “it”?  Patton has a contingency plan in prospect Andrei Vasilevskiy, but he better get some NHL time soon or Patton will be at the goalie store in Season 8.  (Update: Pavelec was traded before the season)

3. What about toughness and size? The Giants are turning into one of the league’s most dynamic skating teams. Pavelski, Crosby, Kadri, Duchene, Moulson, Hodgson, Palat, MacKinnon, Martensson, Roland, Granlund, Bourque, Tarasenko … No it’s not a list of candidates for this year’s Lady Byng Trophy, it’s the Belfast Giants forward contingent. They can all skate and dipsy-doodle, sure, but could a monster like Brian Boyle or Milan Lucic wipe them all out single-handedly? Victor Hedman is the most imposing Giant, but he needs to worry about playing defense occasionally. He can’t be protecting all night long every night. P.K. Subban led the team in fights last season with 3. Tied for second on the team was everyone else with 0. (Update: Martensson and Roland were traded before the season in a deal that added James Neal to the Giants)

History

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

Season 3              19             76             20.2         82.9      30.17    31.26    3.20    3.41    11.18

Season 2              20             72              15.6        79.1       29.17    33.04   3.20    3.61    12.57

Season 1              21              61             10.1        77.9        23.85    37.40   2.33    3.67    10.29

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Cory Schneider, G, current age 28. Games played: 130; Save Pct. 90.6

Season 2: Tony Martensson, C, age 28. GP 162, Pts 133, -28

Season 3: Nathan MacKinnon, RW, age 19. GP 12, Pts 7, -7

Season 4: Ondrej Palat, LW, age 22

Trade History

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

Traded Round 12 pick (used to draft Sami Salo) and Round 24 pick  (Douglas Murray) to Bern for Round 10 pick (Devan Dubnyk)

Traded Round 11 pick (Romas Josi) and Round 15 pick (Andrej Sekera) to Minsk for Round 10 pick (Mikael Granlund)

Season 2

Traded 2013 Round 1 pick (Vadim Shipachyov) to Athens for Nazem Kadri and Round 2 pick (lost track of this one; might have been Brendan Pirlini in 2014)

Traded Rick Nash to Stockholm for Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Jonathan Drouin) *Not 100 percent positive about the pick or if there was another part to the trade, but pretty sure.

Traded Tony Martensson, Olivier Roland, Ondrej Pavelec and Adam Larsson to Edinburgh for James Neal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson

* one trade missing that occurred around here