GM: Tony B (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Dan Bylsma

Last season: 6th overall. In playoffs, defeated Bratislava; lost to Berlin

Ins and Outs (Season 6 to Season 7)

Out: Derek Roy (waivers), Alex Steen (free agent), Nathan Gerbe (free agent), Marc-Andre Bourdon (waivers), Erik Gudbranson (waivers), Carlo Colaiacovo (free agent), Olli Jokinen (retired), Benjamin Conz (buyout), Kevin Klein (buyout), Eddie Lack (buyout)

In: Zach Boychuk (free agent), Nick Deslauriers (free agent), David Schlemko (free agent), Josh Manson (draft), Riley Tufte (draft), Tage Thompson (draft)

In Place (Key players signed or restricted free agents past Season 7)

Erik Karlsson, D; Shea Weber, D; Gabriel Landeskog, LW; Derek Stepan, C; Robin Lehner, G

 

 

 Three Questions

1. How are the Royals in goal? Robin Lehner is now in his fourth season as the Royals’ starting goalie and the big Swede has a firm foothold on the job. He is just 25 years old and last year he won 41 games, losing just 17 in regulation time while compiling an impressive 91.0 save percentage, placing him fifth best in the league in that category. Where Lehner faltered last season was in the playoffs, saving pucks at only an 84.2 percentage, which was nowhere near good enough to get Madrid past Berlin in Round 2. Darcy Kuemper is a capable backup, but Madrid’s eggs are clearly all in a basket labeled Lehner, so he needs to stay healthy and strong for the Spaniards. General Manager Tony B has three promising young goalies in the system in Ontario-born goalies Malcolm Subban, Mark Visentin and MacKenzie Blackwood. If they develop the way many scouts say they will, Madrid will be strong in this position for the next decade.

2. Who will emerge as leaders on this team? Veteran defenseman Shea Weber is captain of the Royals with Erik Karlsson and Derek Stepan as his assistants, but this is a group that has a lot of players with determination and leadership ability. Every Madrid fan will be looking for Weber and Karlsson to lead the way every night, but the team has enough depth to give the pair an occasional breather. Don’t be surprised to see Sean Couturier pulling Madrid out of one slump and someone like Gabriel Landeskog, Andrej Meszaros or Patrik Berglund coming through to end another. Madrid has puck skills and skating speed, but they are also very strong in the cerebral part of the game which calls hockey sense, leadership and experience into play. This season, the team has welcomed aboard several youngsters in Reto Suri, Zach Boychuk, Loic Lamperier, Mikhail Grigorenko and Jake Virtanen up front and recent draft pick Josh Manson on defense, but with Dan Bylsma – Madrid’s coach since Season 1 – and the leadership contingent in the dressing room, anticipate smooth debuts for the young Royals.

3. Will they challenge the top teams this season? Aside from missing the playoffs in Season 2, Madrid has made playoff hockey a habit, but in their first four trips to the playoffs, the Royals were bounced out in the very first round. Last season, they took a step forward, beating Bratislava in the first round before tangling with a semi-angry group of Smurfs who banished the Spaniards to the golf course. Over the last three seasons, Madrid’s goals-per-game average has been going up and their goals-against average has been going down. Better yet, their point total went up 11 points from Season 4 to Season 5, and then another 7 points last season. That improvement makes sense because their top stars are mostly in their upper 20s with a couple of seasons left before they are in their prime as a group. Shea Weber is tied for being the oldest on the team, but he is so good, it will take another four seasons before his skills deteriorate to the point where GMs are thinking about ushering him out of the league. So Madrid’s best chance to win a Cup seems to be any time in the next three of four seasons. If they get a healthy roster and Lehner playing at his best for stretches of 10 games at a time, especially in the playoffs, they could be champions.

History

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

Season 6                6           105        18.8        86.6      32.23          27.91       3.21         2.82       9.13

Season 5              11              92        19.7         82.10     31.13         28.98       3.17         3.09       9.27

Season 4              17             81         19.5         83.6       30.77      32.00        2.99         3.40       10.79

Season 3              8               94          18.7        78.0        33.35     28.30        3.51         3.28       9.45

Season 2              17            83         17.4         83.9        31.72      28.74        3.15          3.33       9.76

Season 1              9              95          22.6        80.3        30.85       29.05        3.68        3.29        9.01

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Erik Karlsson, D, current age 27. Games played: 490; points: 317; -69

Season 2: Erik Ersberg, G, age 29. GP 80, Save Pct. 88.4

Season 3: Marko Dano, C, age 22. GP 124, Pts 46, -30

Season 4: Haydn Fleury, D, age 21

Season 5: Loic Lamperier, LW, age 22. GP 8, Pts 0, -4

Season 6: MacKenzie Blackwood, G, age 19.

Season 7: Josh Manson, D, age 24.

Trade History

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

Traded Max Pacioretty to Frankfurt for Round 7 pick (used to draft Slava Voynov),   Round 10 pick (later traded) (Trevor Daley) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Erik Ersberg)

Traded Dustin Brown, Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and Round 11 pick (Chris Kreider) to Milan for Gabriel Landeskog

Traded Sammi Pahlsson to Bern for Round 20 pick (Brandon Prust) and Round 22 pick (Mark Visentin)

Traded Michal Neuvirth, Nick Johnson and 2013 Round 1 pick (Martin Ruzicka) to Athens for Tomas Vokoun

Traded Henrik Sedin to Milan for Jordan Stall, Chris Kreider and 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Milan for Biran Rolston

Season 2

Traded Slava Voynov, 2014 Round 2 pick (traded later) (Robert Hagg), Round 1 pick (traded later) (Sean Monhan) to Berlin for R. J. Umberger, Brayden Coburn, Mikhail Grigorenko and a second-round pick(traded later) (Josh Morrissey?)

Traded Erik Ersberg to Berlin for Brian Campbell and 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano)

Traded Saku Koivu to Prague for Chad Larose and 2015 Round 2 pick (Jake Virtanen)

* seem to be missing one trade that probably occurred in here somewhere

Season 3

Traded Jeff Carter, Ryan Johansen and 2015 Round 1 pick (Nikita Kucherov) to Stockholm for Rick Nash and 2015 Round 2 pick (Haydn Fleury)

Season 4

Traded Tomas Vokoun and 2015 Round 2 pick (Nikita Scherbak) to Stockholm for Jonas Hiller

Traded Rick Nash, Fedor Tyutin, Braydon Coburn and Patrick O’Sullivan to Edinburgh for Derek Stepan, Chris Stewart, Dan Winnick and Francois Beauchemin

Season 5

Traded Marko Dano and 2017 Round 2 pick to Copenhagen for Andrej Meszaros

Traded Jordan Staal to Minsk for Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Copenhagen for 2016 Round 2 pick (Reto Suri)

Traded Brian Campbell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Jean Gabriel Pageau) to Copenhagen for Brooks Laich, Andrew Cogliano and Nick Holden.

Season 6

Traded Nick Holden to Helsinki for Derek Roy and Carlo Colaiacovo

After Season 6 started:

Traded Lee Stempniak, Dan Winnik, Jonas Hiller and 2018 Round 1 pick to Copenhagen for Nathan Gerbe and Colin Greening

Traded Nick Leddy and Chris Stewart to Moscow for Blake Wheeler, Marc-Andre Bourdon and 2018 Round 3 pick

Lost Jonas Hiller (waivers)

Season 7

After season started: lost Roman Polak (waivers); signed Josh Jooris (free agent); signed Colin Miller (free agent)