GM: Bryan Camara  (4th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Willie Desjardins (Replaced Peter Laviolette after Season 4)(Laviollette replaced Todd McLellan after Season 3)

Last season: 5th overall (Defeated Madrid in Round 1, lost to Paris in Round 2)

Ins and Outs  (Season 5 to Season 6)

Out:  Shea Weber (free agent), Zach Parise (free agent), Alex Steen (free agent), Jan Laco (free agent), Kyle Brodziak (trade), Adam Lowry (trade)

In:  Joe Pavelski (trade), Dustin Byfuglien (free agent), Marian Hossa (free agent),  Marcus Foligno (trade),  Damon Severson (draft), Mathew Barzal (draft), Evgeny Svechnikov (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 6)

John Tavares, C; Steven Stamkos, RW; Drew Doughty, D; Joe Pavelski, C; Jared Spurgeon, D

 

 

 

 

Three Questions

1. What will Stamkos and Tavares do for an encore? United in Portugal thanks a trade, John Tavares and Steven Stamkos set records in their first year together. Tavares had 82 assists and 121 points to overshadow his 39 goals. Stamkos, the league’s all-time leading scorer, hammered home 59 goals and scored 119 points. Last season, they couldn’t decide if Zach Parise or Alex Steen was their left wing. Parise scored 78 points and Steen had 74. Now both are gone to free agency. Uh-oh, right? No problem for shrewd GM Bryan Camara. He traded for Joe Pavelski before the signing period, converted him to a left winger and boom – Lisbon now has an incredibly scary top line of Tavares, Stamkos and Pavelski. The turnover left Lisbon a little short on the second line, but Marian Hossa was signed to take the place of Steen or Parise, depending on who you think was the second liner.

2. And on defense? A similar turnover occurred on the blueline as Shea Weber left Portugal during free agency and Camara was able to replace Weber with the only guy in the league with as hard of a snapshot. Dustin Byfuglien will be paired with Drew Doughty. The result of the Weber-Byfuglien exchange is a downgrade for Lisbon, but the four defensemen behind them are all a year older and better than they were in Season 5.  Sami Vatanen, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Holos and Seth Jones are all young and adept puck movers. Coach Willie Desjardins won’t worry at all when Lisbon has the puck, but he might while they are defending.

3. What’s the very best thing that Lisbon can do in Season 6? The best thing would be for a Lisbon player to get a high stick in the face and then bleed. After that, the best thing would be to get a two-hander across the back of the knee that results in a major penalty. OK, any injuries to top players would be disastrous. But Lisbon had the best power play in the league last season and this season, and they will be just as potent in Season 6. If you take a penalty against them, you will be giving Tavares, Stamkos, Byfuglien, Doughty and either Hossa or Pavelski more ice time. Good for Lisbon, really bad for you.

History

Season                 Place        PTS        PP %      PK %      SPG       SAPG     GPG     GAPG    PIM

Season 5                5            108        23.0      82.9       31.28     27.27    3.91     3.20      8.23

Season 4              14            82          18.5       77.9       30.63    31.39     3.38     3.73      9.70

Season 3              16             83           20.2     80.9       28.39    31.09     3.41      3.46     11.80

Season 2              21            70           13.0      80.3      27.78    30.67     2.83     3.73     11.83

Season 1              23             57          18.8       76.4      26.76    32.20     3.04     4.38     9.78

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Steven Stamkos, C, current age 26. Games played: 562; points: 443; -3

Season 2: Karri Ramo, G, age 24. GP: 230; Save Pct. 88.4

Season 3: Seth Jones, D, age 22. GP: 164; points: 36;  -5

Season 4: Sami Vatanen, D, age 24. GP: 164; points: 50; -15

Season 5: Nicolas Aube-Kubel, RW, age 19.

Season 6: Adam Lowry, LW, age 21.

Trade History

Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)

Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Brent Seabrook) and Round 4 pick (Jason Spezza ) to Bern for Claude Giroux

Traded Round 7 pick (Slava Voynov), Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and 2013 Rd 2 pick (Erik Ersberg) to Madrid for Max Pacioretty

Season 2

Traded Josh Gorges to Prague for Jared Spurgeon

Season 3

Traded 2014 Rd 2 pick (traded later) (Hunter Shinkaruk) to Minsk for Jonas Holos

*From the commissioner: missing one trade. My notes aren’t good for part of Season 2.

Season 4

Traded Travis Zajac to Helsinki for Kyle Clifford and Gareth Roberts.

Season 5

Traded Max Pacioretty to Moscow for Darnell Nurse, 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Copenhagen) and 2017 Round 1 pick.

Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Linus Klasen) to Gothenburg for Zach Parise

Traded Dougie Hamilton, Gareth Roberts and 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Bratislava – Marten Madsen) to Copenhagen for Shea Weber

Traded Claude Giroux to Edinburgh for John Tavares

Transactions after the start of Season 5:

Claimed Mike Ribeiro (waivers)

Signed Hayden Hawkey (free agent)

Claimed Jordan Caron (waivers)

Traded Joe Thornton to Bern for Evgeny Kuznetsov and Mats Rosselli Olsen

Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Melker Karlsson) to Moscow for Aleksey Kalyuzhny

Traded Jacob De La Rose to Copenhagen for Clarke MacArthur

Season 6

Traded Kyle Brodziak and 2018 Round 1 pick to Copenhagen for Joe Pavelski and 2018 Round 3 pick (Bern’s originally)

Traded 2017 Round 2 pick (Colin White) to Minsk for 2017 Round 2 pick (Mathew Barzal) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Svechnikov)

Traded Adam Lowry to Stockholm for Marcus Foligno

After Season 6 started:

Traded Clarke MacArthur to Dublin for 2018 Round 2 pick

Claimed Matt Martin on waivers

Season 7

Traded Nick Bjugstad to Milan for Niklas Danielsson

Traded Marcus Foligno, Darnell Nurse and 2019 Round 3 pick to St. Petersburg for Wayne Simmonds and 2019 Round 2 pick (Berlin’s)