Team Profile: Oslo Outlaws

GM: Chris Lee (3rd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Claude Julien (replaces Peter Laviolette)

Last season: 21st overall

Ins and Outs

(Season 3 to Season 4)

Out: Ryan Suter (trade), Jason Chimera (retired), DustinPenner (retired)

In: Eric Gelinas (trade), Morgan Rielly (trade), Marc-Andre Gragnani (free agent from Munich), Tomas Hertl (draft), Calvin de Haan (draft), J.T. Brown (draft)

In Place

(Key players signed past Season 4)

Tyler Seguin, C; Mikhail Grabovski, C; Mark Fayne, D, Tyler Kennedy, RW; Semyon Varlamov, G

Three Questions

1. Plan of attack? Oslo took a nose dive in the standings last season, dropping from 13th overall in Season 2 to 21st. But that was kind of GM Chris Lee’s plan. A trade last season signaled the start of a rebuild, when Tyler Seguin and Luca Sbisa came to town at the expense of Shea Weber and Pavel Datsyuk. Mark Giordano, Jimmy Howard and Thomas Vanek were also traded away for young talent and in this off season, Oslo traded away their top player, Ryan Suter for a pair of defensemen who will make them better in the future, but not now. For a few years, fans in Norway will have to settle for watching a team of potential and dreaming about what’s to come.

2. What’s Talbot’s future? Former coach Peter Laviolette liked offense and he left Max Talbot out of the mix when he posted the initial Season 4 line combinations on the dressing room wall. Claude Julien replaced Laviolette, changed the line combos a bit, but still left Talbot out. The top lines are in the making with Tyler Seguin centering rookie Tomas Hertl and Tyler Kennedy, and Mikhail Grabovksi centering P-A Parenteau and Guillaume Latendresse. Last season, Talbot tied Matt D’Agostini for the team lead in plus/minus at +6 and he’s plus 31 for his career. Lee and Julien appear to be revving up a fast, puck-moving team and giving the younger players ice time to build their experience. Talbot, 30, would come in really handy on the penalty kill, but he might not be part of the long-term plan.

3. Are the defensemen a team weakness? Oslo started the season with a win and a loss showing that scoring goals isn’t a major concern and Hertl looks to be a very exciting and productive player. But on defense, they allowed 8 goals in the two games and an average of 32.5 shots. If they want to be more competitive this year, they might have to look at upgrading the defense corps a little more. Luca Sbisa is the best of the bunch and playing well despite being only 24. Comparing player ratings with defensemen on other EURO teams would lead one to believe Oslo is among the weakest teams at that position. But the bottom two Outlaw defensemen – David Petrasek and Matt Niskanen – are plus 3 through 2 games. And Julien and his staff have a reputation of working well with defensemen.