GM: Ralph Booth (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Michel Therrien
Last season: 1st overall, lost in Cup Finals
Ins and Outs (Season 3 to Season 4)
Out: None
In: Philipp Grubauer (draft), Jared McCann (draft), Thatcher Demko (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 4)
Corey Perry, RW; Evgeny Malkin, C; Kris Letang, D; Tukkaa Rask, G, Ken Kuusk, D
Three Questions
1. How did they lose? General Manager Ralph Booth has constructed a flat-out juggernaut. How Moscow beat them in the Cup Finals goes down as one of those great mysteries, like crop circles. Paris zoomed up from 19th place overall in Season 1 to win the Cup the next season. Then it was the President’s Trophy and a Finals appearance in Season 3. Here’s the really bad news for the rest of us. Every starter from that season except Drew Miller (signed by Bern) is back this year. And only 5 forwards and 2 defensemen are past their 30th birthday. Mike Ribiero (33 points in 77 games as a third-liner) is the old fogey of the team at 34. On top of that, they have about $8 million in cap space.
2. Is it Lupul or Loophole? Trying to find a problem with Paris is like trying to find something wrong with Jennifer Aniston, just not nearly as much fun. So we’ll take a cheap shot at Joffrey Lupul. You would think a guy with his shooting and passing skills who gets to play regularly with Malkin and Perry would have more than 58 points in a season, but that was his max in Season 2. And he missed 8 games due to injury last season. What a bum.
3. How about long-term? OK, since their present is nearly perfect, let’s pick on their future. Let’s see what they have in the way of youth … Pietrangelo and Hamonic are 24 and Kuusk is 20; Kyle Turris, Josef Vasicek and David Perron are 25-27 and Rask should only have a good 8 years left in him, and Andre Burakovsky is in the system, so …. well Paris sucked in Season 1, so there.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 3 1 116 18.0 84.5 33.88 27.52 4.09 2.93 13.85
Season 2 3 (Cup)104 20.6 81.5 31.40 31.22 3.67 3.34 12.57
Season 1 19 72 22.8 79.8 27.65 33.06 3.07 3.68 9.09
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Alex Pietrangelo, D, current age 24. Games played: 238; points: 149; +27
Season 2: Ken Kuusk, D, age 20. GP 111, Pts 44, -4
Season 3: Viktor Fasth, G, age 31. GP 16, Save Pct. 87.6
Season 4: Philipp Grubauer, G, age 22
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Dustin Byfuglien), Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier), and Round 26 pick (Jeff Woywitka)to Milan for Round 6 pick (used to draft David Perron), Round 21 pick (Mike Green) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Ossi Vaananen)
Traded Round 7 pick (Dennis Wideman) to Geneva for Round 15 pick (Ryan Ellis), Round 25 pick (Ben Lovejoy) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Jason Krog)
Traded Adrian Aucoin to Bern for Round 13 pick (Dmitri Orlov), Round 19 pick (Carlo Colaiacovo) and 2014 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Jake Muzzin)
Season 2
Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Thomas Hickey) to Stockholm for Ryan Clowe
Traded Dmitri Orlov and 2014 Round 1 pick (Jake Muzzin) to Stockholm for Travis Hamonic
Traded Derek Brassard, T.J. Brodie and Ryan Ellis to Stockholm for Josef Vasicek
Traded Jaden Schwartz and 2014 Round 1 pick (Peter Mueller) to Stockholm for Miko Koivu
Traded Philip Larsen to Bratislava for Lee Stempniak and 2014 Round 3 pick (Steve Oleksy)
Season 3
Traded Mike Green to Stockholm for Jordan Caron
Season 4
Traded Viktor Fasth to Stockholm for 2018 Round 3 pick
