GM: Chris Patton (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Alain Vigneault (replaced Darryl Sutter)
Last season: 3rd overall; Cup winner
Ins and Outs (Season 4 to Season 5)
Out: Joe Pavelski (trade), Jonathan Drouin (trade), Devan Dubnyk (trade), Dan Boyle (retired), Matt Hunwick (free agent), Ben Lovejoy (free agent)
In: Alexander Ovechkin (trade), Cam Talbot (trade), Cody Franson (free agent), Vladislav Kamenev (draft), Jakub Krejcik (free agent), Todd Graham (free agent)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 5)
Sidney Crosby, C; Jonathan Quick, G; Nathan MacKinnon, RW; P.K. Subban, D; Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D; Matt Duchene, LW 
Three Questions
1. Is the retirement of Dan Boyle important? Last season, Belfast seemed to have just one hole in the entire lineup: the number 6 defenseman position. General Manager Chris Patton admitted so as the season progressed. They probably didn’t solve that problem this year. In fact, it’s probably more of a concern for Patton. Micki Dupont and newly-acquired free agent Cody Franson, who moved all the way from Dublin, make up the third pairing, but neither is Dan Boyle. The veteran who turned 39 years old decided to retire on top, Cup in hand. That decision leaves Belfast without an excellent leader, skater and passer on defense. His experience and leadership has not been replaced and that means repeating as champion will be more of a chore for the Giants.
2. What does the $9 million Russian man do to the team? You’re a defenseman or goalie and you see the other team has a line of Matt Duchene, Vladimir Tarasenko and Matt Moulson getting ready for a faceoff. What do you think? Are you a little scared? If you are playing the Belfast Giants, you’re thinking “Yippee, I avoided the top two lines.” A little dissatisfied with their $9 million man, Joe Pavelski, and with a bit of a logjam at center, Belfast traded him for another $9 million man, Alexander Ovechkin, giving up two young assets in the deal. Ovechkin, a left wing, lets Nazem Kadri move to a more familiar position at center. The great Russian is also in the final year of his contract, so Belfast might get some relief next season from the ever-tightening cap space problem that comes with having a team full of stars. So a dream come true for the champs is now officially a nightmare for 23 teams: Belfast has a line of Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and James Neal. Nathan MacKinnon might even get to join the line every so often to pump up his statistics. If not, McKinnon will have to “settle” for second line duty with Kadri and Ondrej Palat.
3. What about toughness and size? The Giants don’t appear to have many tough, grinding players and defensive specialists; instead their roster has been filled with slick, speedy, offensive wizards. Five of the Giants’ starters last season drew fewer than 15 minutes in penalties the whole season. Those five players produced 182 points. That’s a trade-off just about any coach would take. But truth be told, they are very aggressive. In fact, they ranked third in the EURO League in penalty minutes. The defensemen all play with intensity and play the body often, and they have heavyweight Micki Dupont available to settle scores. The moral of the story is when you play Belfast, you have to worry about trying to skate with Crosby, Palat and Tarasenko, etc., but that’s not all you have to worry about.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 4 3 108 16.7 85.1 32.99 28.99 3.60 2.74 12.63
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 29. Games played: 178; Save Pct. 90.6
Season 2: Tony Martensson, C, age 29. GP 244, Pts 191, -7
Season 3: Nathan MacKinnon, RW, age 20. GP 93, Pts 61, +16
Season 4: Ondrej Palat, LW, age 23. GP 82, Pts 59, +39
Season 5: Vladislav Kamenev, W, age 18.
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 (Roman 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
Season 4
Traded Tony Martensson, Olivier Roland, Ondrej Pavelec and Adam Larsson to Edinburgh for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and James Neal
Traded Filip Forsberg and Cory Schneider to Munich for Jonathan Quick
Season 5
Traded Joe Pavelski, Jonathan Drouin and 2016 Round 1 pick (Ville Vahalahti) to Copenhagen for Alexander Ovechkin
Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Solomonov) to Bratislava for 2017 Round 3 pick
Traded Devan Dubnyk to Zurich for 2019 Round 3 pick
Traded 2017 Round 1 pick to Bern for Cam Talbot
