GM: Marc Peninou (2nd GM in team’s history)
Coach: Randy Carlyle (replaced Lindy Ruff)
Last season: 5th overall
Ins and Outs (Season 4 to Season 5)
Out: John Tavares (trade), Tony Martensson (trade), Andrei Kostitsyn (free agent), Braydon Coburn (waivers), Nicklas Grossman (free agent), Alexei Ponikarovsky (free agent), Patrick O’Sullivan (free agent)
In: Claude Giroux (traded), Martin Thornberg (trade), Steve Ott (free agent), Blake Comeau (free agent), David Booth (waivers), Marc Peninou (draft), Scott Conway (draft), Luka Gracnar (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 5)
Jamie Benn, LW; Claude Giroux, C; Kari Lehtonen, G; Gurkan Cetinkaya, D, Luke Schenn, D
Three Questions
1. Should fans be nervous? Edinburgh make great strides in Season 4, leaving their traditional spot in the middle of the standings and jumping all the way up to the number 5 spot with 107 points. Reason to get really excited for Season 5. But then there was the matter of staying under the spending cap. General Manager Marc Peninou traded away two key members of the team and let some lesser parts leave in free agency. Reason for a little worry. John Tavares, the team’s marquee name, was swapped for Claude Giroux. Tony Martensson, who is good defensively, a former 30-goal scorer and in his prime, is gone, traded for what ended up to be nothing when Matt Read and Peninou couldn’t agree on a contract. Edinburgh also lost Braydon Coburn to waivers in a money-saving move. The return for Tavares was much better. Giroux will slot into the center spot on the top line with big-time goal scorers Jamie Benn and Rick Nash to his sides. Giroux is a slightly better passer than Tavares and plays with more intensity. Tavares has him beat in some other areas. The loss of Martensson/Read hurts Edinburgh. It ultimately means the Capitals’ third line will be weaker than Peninou would like. High-intensity forwards Steve Ott, Casey Cizikas and perhaps Blake Comeau could form a line that would be a handful for opponents, but they won’t be a serious threat to score much.
2. How important to the Caps is Brandon Dubinsky? The 29-year-old American will see many more minutes this season. In his previous four years, Dubinsky could be counted on for about 40 points as a third-line center. With Martensson gone, Dubinsky will probably center the second line with Olivier Roland and most likely Martin Thornberg. Dubinsky is intense and doesn’t often mind his manners. It would be better for him and Edinburgh if he keeps his penalty minutes from sky-rocketing. He has gone over 90 minutes every season in the league and over 100 minutes twice. But his real value might be on the power play. Edinburgh had a great offensive season last year – second only to Paris in goals scored – and the PP was a big reason. It clicked at a rate of 82.4 percent. Dubinsky and Giroux can both play the point on the power play, which gives coach Randy Carlyle room to move forwards around on his PP units.
3. And what about the preventing opponents’ goals department ? Goalie Kari Lehtonen was the MVP of the Season 1 playoffs, when he led Geneva to the EURO Cup. Peninou is praying for more magic from the 32-year-old Finn. The team has invested a lot in Lehtonen, who will earn $9 million-per-year this season and next, but he can’t do the job by himself. A little help from the defensemen will be required. The top two back there are Luke Schenn and young Turk Gurkan Cetinkaya. The latter doesn’t skate very well, and he isn’t strong with the puck, but he plays a great defensive game. If he stays healthy, he should be able to make more than 200 hits and block about 100 shots. Captain Jay Bouwmeester and fellow 32-year-old Fedor Tyutin are mainstays on the blueline and they will be asked to mentor youngsters Adam Larsson and Cetinkaya.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 4 5 107 20.3 82.4 32.22 29.05 3.77 3.02 9.98
Season 3 13 83 15.7 81.3 30.16 28.44 3.44 3.51 10.66
Season 2 12 93 17.8 82.3 30.05 27.26 3.51 3.43 12.13
Season 1 12 90 15.2 80.8 29.84 29.06 3.11 3.13 9.11
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Henrik Lundqvist, G, current age 33. Games played: 264; save pct. 91.6
Season 2: Gurkan Cetinkaya, D, age 23. GP 144, Pts 49, -8
Season 3: Casey Cizikas, C, age 23. GP 26, Points 7, -2
Season 4: Sam Reinhart, C, age 19.
Season 5: Marc Peninou, RW, age 22.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Daniel Sedin) and Round 5 pick (Ray Whitney) to Bern for Round 2 pick (Derek Stepan)
Traded Round 15 pick (Evgeny Kuznetsov) to Bern for Dan Winnick
Traded Nick Bjugstad to Minsk for Matt Hunwick, for Round 25 pick (Daniel Paille) and another Round 25 pick (Alexei Emelin)
Traded Round 21 pick (David Moss) to Bratislava for David Steckel
Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer) to Milan for Andrew Cogliano
Traded Artem Anisimov, Blake Wheeler and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic to St. Petersburg for James Neal, Andrei Kostitsyn and Karl Alzner
Traded Henrik Lundqvist to Helsinki for John Tavares, Ilya Bryzgalov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jakub Kovar) and $5 million
Traded David Steckel and 2013 Round 3 pick (Jamie Oleksiak) to St. Petersburg for Kyle Wellwood
Season 2 – None
Season 3 – None
Traded James Neal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Belfast for Tony Martensson, Olivier Roland, Ondrej Pavelec and Adam Larsson
Traded Ondrej Pavelec, 2016 Round 1 pick (Simon Hjalmarsson), 2017 Round 2 pick to Geneva for Kari Lehtonen
Traded Derek Stepan, Dan Winnick, Chris Stewart and Francois Beauchemin to Madrid for Rick Nash, Braydon Coburn, Fedor Tyutin and Patrick O’Sullivan
Season 4
Traded John Tavares to Lisbon for Claude Giroux
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick to Berlin for 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou)
Traded Tony Martensson to Berlin for Matt Read
Traded 2018 Round 2 pick to Copenhagen for Martin Thornberg
After Season 5 started
Claimed Bryan Bickell (waivers)
Signed Alexander Sulzer (free agent)
Signed Mike Cammalleri (free agent)
Claimed Nino Niedereitter (waivers)
Signed Grant Clitsome (free agent)
Signed Andy Sertich (free agent)
