GM: Chuck Massaro (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Lindy Ruff (replaced Brent Sutter after Season 6, who replaced Bruce Boudreau after Season 3)
Last season: 13th overall (In playoffs, lost to Madrid in Round 1)
Ins and Outs (Season 6 to Season 7)
Out: Daniel Sedin (free agent), Troy Brouwer (free agent), Karl Alzner (trade), Erik Cole (retired), Matt Frattin (free agent), Teuvo Teravainen (trade), David Schlemko (free agent), Siim Liivik (trade)
In: Alexander Ovechkin (trade), Brent Burns (trade), Marcel Hossa (free agent), Scott Hartnell (free agent), Dany Heatley (free agent), Gerhard Unterluggauer (free agent, but lost on waivers), Connor Hellebuyck (draft), Dante Fabbro (draft)
In Place
(Key players signed past Season 7)
Alexander Ovechkin, LW; Tyler Myers, D; Tyler Ennis, LW; Zemgus Girgensons, LW; Tyler Toffoli, RW
Three Questions
1. Why would they trade for Ovechkin? Alexander Ovechkin was the first player ever drafted by the Fighting Irish, but he was traded, traded, traded and traded for a fourth time before playing his first game in green. His first year with the team that drafted him had to be considered a disaster by everyone. Expected to be one of the league’s leading scorers, like he was for two seasons when he played with the Copenhagen Tridents, Ovechkin wasn’t even close in Season 6. In fact, he was only 8th in scoring and 5th in goals on his own team, with 19 goals, 43 points and a minus 38 rating. But if you look at his history, you will notice The Great 8 under-performed in all four of his first seasons in a new city. Only in his second and third seasons at Copenhagen did he really take off, scoring 50 goals in Season 3 and almost 100 points two seasons in a row. Bratislava General Manager Chuck Massaro – who made exactly zero blockbuster trades in this league – gambled on the talented Russian, trading away four young players, including two with first-round talent and a first-round pick. He and all Eagle fans hope the first-year blues theory is a myth and that OV will excel with Jonathan Toews as his center.
2. What changes were made in the off season? Bratislava’s 13th place finish in Season 6 was its worst ever. The front office was counting on an infusion of veterans Daniel Sedin, Troy Brouwer and Karl Alzner to keep them in the top 10, but instead the Eagles dropped. Massaro made the three newcomers the scapegoats and sent them all away, hoping a new batch of free agents and traded-for vets will perform better. Alexander Ovechkin and former Red Star Brent Burns have the potential to score goals, and Marcel Hossa could contribute as a regular in the uniform his brother Marian used to wear, but the most intriguing additions to the team are old free agents Dany Heatley and Scott Hartnell, who both were unemployed several games into the season. Coach Lindy Ruff likes the experience the two wingers have and immediately gave them good ice time, playing them on the second line for several games and forcing Tyler Toffoli and Hossa down a line.
3. What are they bad at? The Eagles have been in the playoffs every year but they have never really had that goalie who could catapult them over a better team in the playoffs. They still don’t have that guy. Craig Anderson was the team’s starter for three seasons before being supplanted by Corey Crawford and now Marc-Andre Fleury is the one to whom the fans are pinning their hopes. The team has always stressed team defense as a way to take pressure off the goalie, but since Zdeno Chara retired, they have been giving up more shots per game. Tyler Myers, 27, has become the new Chara in Bratislava, but he could use another good defensive defenseman back there to share the load. Bratislava has a lot of players around 30 years old, so now is the time for them to make their move, which might explain the trades to get Ovechkin and Burns. To stay a top team in the future, they will need young goalies Leonardo Genoni and Connor Hellebuyck to exceed expectations because there are very few youthful reinforcements coming through this organization.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 6 13 88 17.9 81.5 30.70 27.52 3.20 3.13 9.20
Season 5 9 95 16.7 83.2 31.48 27.62 3.33 3.11 8.54
Season 4 11 93 17.3 77.1 33.94 27.01 3.71 3.50 11.93
Season 3 11 91 15.4 83.8 30.82 26.94 3.51 3.35 11.12
Season 2 6 101 18.3 82.7 31.43 26.76 3.57 3.28 11.67
Season 1 8 95 16.4 81.0 30.17 29.01 3.45 3.22 9.22
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Jonathan Toews, C, current age 29. Games played: 457; points: 538; +72
Season 2: Milan Gulas, C, age 29. GP 398, Pts 223, +65
Season 3: Michael Stone, D, age 26. GP 173, Pts 43, +13
Season 4: Zemgus Girgensens, C, age 22. GP 89, Pts 20, -4
Season 5: Morten Madsen, C, age 24. GP 3, Pts 0, -4
Season 6: Dylan Strome, C, age 19.
Season 7: Connor Hellebuyck, G, age 22
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 5 pick (used to draft Kimo Timonen) to Bern for Round 8 pick (Martin Erat) 2013 Round 1 (Weiyang Zhang) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Leonardo Genoni)
Traded Round 8 pick (David Desharnais) and Round 19 pick (Greg Zanon) to Geneva for Round 17 pick (Tomas Kopecky) and 2014 Round 1 pick (Michael Stone)
Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Oleg Podyedonostsev) to Milan for Round 20 pick (David Steckel)
Traded David Steckel to Edinburgh for Round 21 pick (David Moss)
Season 2
Traded Lee Stempniak and 2014 Rd 3 (Steve Olesky) to Paris for Philip Larsen
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Bud Holloway) to Geneva for Chris Kunitz and 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Copenhagen – Simon Hjalmarsson)
Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Simon Hjalmarsson) to Copenhagen for Matt Frattin and 2016 Round 1 pick (Morten Madsen)
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Julius Nattinen) to Belfast for 2016 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Solomonov)
Traded 2017 Round 2 (Daniel Sprong) pick to Copenhagen for Troy Brouwer
After Season 5 started
Signed Marek Daloga (free agent)
Season 6
Traded Luke Adam to Stockholm for Karl Alzner
Traded 2018 Round 3 pick to Milan for 2017 Round 3 Pick (Brendan Guhle)
After Season 6 started:
Traded Mark Pysyk to Stockholm for Simon Despres
Season 7
Traded Siim Liivik to Berlin for Leon Draisaitl
Traded Karl Alzner and Anthony Mantha to St. Petersburg for Brent Burns
Traded Teuvo Teravainen, Dylan Strome, Leon Draisaitl and 2020 Round 1 pick to Dublin for Alexander Ovechkin
After season started: Traded Dante Fabbro and Simon Despres to Berlin for Josh Gorges and 2019 Round 3 pick; bought out contract of Corey Crawford
