GM: Michael Sauer (third GM in team’s history)
Coach: Mike Johnston (replaced Bob Hartley after Season 4)(Hartley replaced Claude Noel after Season 3)
Last season: 15th overall
Ins and Outs
(Season 4 to Season 5)
Out: Nikita Scherbak (trade), Kevin Bieksa (waivers)
In: Jindrich Barak (draft), Sakari Salminen (draft), Connor Bleackley (draft), Ryan Gunderson (draft), Ivan Huml (draft)
In Place
(Key players signed past Season 4)
Brendan Gallagher, RW; Ryan Johansen, RW; Sean Monahan, C; Mike Green, D; Olli Maatta, D
Three Questions
1. A 25-point improvement last year … was it a mirage? No. The Eagles are improving. Stockholm’s forwards are young – except for Pavel Datsyuk – and they should all be a little better than they were last season. Plus Ryan Johansen and Sean Monahan are coming to reinforce the top players. Those two will start on the fourth line with Colin Greening, according to early exhibition game lineups. The Eagles are looking really good on the blueline with 6 competent players. Cam Fowler and Zach Bogosian are the best of the lot, but the other four are good. Veteran Kevin Bieksa couldn’t even get into the lineup and was waived. And in goal, Braden Holtby’s two seasons have featured save percentages over 90 percent. Give GM Michael Sauer credit for his patience and thought-out rebuild. The Eagles’ days of hanging around the number 24 place in the standings are gone like a wallet left on a subway train.
2. Are Jeff Carter and Mike Richards married to each other? We don’t believe so. Should they be? That’s another question. They were filthy in Philly, linked in Los Angeles and they’ve stuck in Stockholm. Richards has been granted top line minutes the last two years and he responded with his best season (31 goals and 77 points). Carter, meanwhile, saw fewer minutes than he had been accustomed to, but his game seemed to improve overall. He scored 30 goals and had 67 points last season and his plus-minus rating was 27 goals better than it was in Season 3 and 40 goals better than it was in Season 2. On top of that, he had more takeaways than giveaways for the first time in his career. Not only do Richards and Carter offer a powerful 1-2 punch at center, they are also the team’s leadership core. Carter is captain and Richards is assistant captain.
3. How bright is their future? Eagles fans must be drooling when they look at the young players on their team. Olli Maatta leads a youthful group of 10 Stockholm players who are 22 or under and loaded with potential: Maatta (90 PO), Brendan Gallagher (87), Curtis Lazar (84), Sean Monahan (82), Mattias Sjogren (83), Jindrich Barak (82), J.T. Miller (81), Sakari Salminen (80), Cody Ceci (79) and Ryan Gunderson (78). Only a couple years older than that group are Cam Fowler, Zach Bogosian, Ryan Johansen, Marcus Foligno and Braden Holtby. The future is very bright in Sweden.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 4 15 82 16.9 79.1 26.33 32.91 3.04 3.26 10.00
Season 3 24 57 14.5 77.8 25.77 32.01 2.65 3.76 11.02
Season 2 24 49 12.7 80.0 25.37 34.78 2.33 3.93 11.18
Season 1 11 93 21.5 80.4 32.61 30.01 3.48 3.28 9.01
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Cam Ward, G, current age 31. Games played: 272; Save Pct: 89.6
Season 2: Mattias Sjogren, LW, age 22. GP 209, Pts. 48, -19
Season 3: Brendan Gallagher, RW, age 22. GP 84, Pts. 31, -17
Season 4: Olli Maatta, D, age 20, GP 82, Pts. 24, +5
Season 5: Jindrich Barak, D, age 19.
Trade History
Seasons 2 and 3
Traded Kyle Okposo and 2014 Round 1 pick (gotten back later in a trade) (used to pick Brendan Gallagher) to Milan for Dustin Brown and 2014 Round 2 pick (Marcus Foligno)
Traded Cam Ward to Athens for Miikka Kiprusoff and Michal Neuvorth
Traded Josef Vasicek to Paris for Derek Brassard, Ryan Ellis and T.J. Brodie
Traded Miko Koivu to Paris for Jaden Schwartz and 2014 Round 1 pick (probably traded later (lost track))
Traded Loui Eriksson to Berlin for Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Madrid’s) (Sean Monahan)
Traded Mark Fayne and 2014 Round 3 pick (Guillaume Latendresse) to Oslo for Mark Giordano
Traded Ryan Clowe to Paris for 2014 Round 3 pick (Thomas Hickey)
Traded Mark Giordano and Matthieu Garon to Copenhagen for Jonas Hiller and Darroll Powe
Traded Eric Staal to Gothenburg for Sam Gagner, 2014 Round 1 pick (later traded) (Jonathan Drouin) and 2015 Round 2 pick (?)
Traded Thomas Hickey to Milan for Magnus Johansson
Traded Rick Nash and 2015 Round 2 pick (Milan’s) (Jake Virtanen) to Madrid Jeff Carter, Ryan Johansen and 2015 Round 1 pick (later traded) (Tomas Hertl)
Traded Dustin Brown to Moscow for Marcus Johansson and James Van Riemsdyk
Traded Travis Hamonic to Paris for Dmitri Orlov and 2014 Round 1 pick (Bern’s) (Jake Muzzin)
Traded Magnus Johansson to Munich for Anton Babchuk
Traded Sam Gagner, Michal Neuvirth and 2015 Round 1 pick (Madrid’s) (later traded) (Tomas Hertl) to London for Braden Holtby
Traded Jordan Caron to Paris for Mike Green
Not sure of the exact trades but traded away Kyle Okposo, Mikko Lehtonen, Jaden Schwartz and 3 draft picks and received Rick Nash, Mike Richards, Dustin Brown and Kevin Bieksa in return.
Season 4
Traded James Van Riemsdyk and Jakub Petruzalek to Dublin for Bobby Ryan
Traded Shane Doan, Anton Babchuk and Corey Potter to Bern for Mike Cammalleri and Dalton Prout
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick to Minsk for 2015 Round 2 pick (?)
Traded 2018 Round 3 pick to Paris for Viktor Fasth
Traded T.J. Brodie to Copenhagen for Colin Greening
Traded Jonas Hiller to Madrid for Tomas Vokoun and 2015 Round 2 pick (Nikita Scherbak)
Season 5
Traded James Van Riemsdyk and Jakub Petruzalek to Dublin for Bobby Ryan
Traded Dmitri Orlov and Kake Muzzin to London for Zach Bogosian
Traded Nikita Scherbak to Helsinki for 2016 Round 2 pick and 2016 Round 3 pick (Oslo’s).
*I failed to save trades in season 2 so I lost track of many Stockholm transactions.
