Team owner: Neil Patrick Harris, American actor and Smurf fanatic

Farm Club: Kolner Haie 

GM: Guybrush Threepwood (only GM in team’s history)

Coach: Adam Oates

Last season: 7th overall (In the playoffs, lost to Berlin)

Ins and Outs

(Season 7 to Season 8)

Out: Jimmy Howard (free agent), Jeff Carter (trade), Ryan Callahan (free agent), Roman Polak (trade), Evgeny Kuznetsov (trade), Jiri Tlusty (free agent), Mike Green (free agent), Nick Bonino (waivers), Nathan Horton (free agent), Klim Kostin (drafted but traded away)

In: Aleksander Barkov (trade), Talgat Zhailauov (free agent), Phil Kessel (free agent), Ossi Vaananen (free agent), Kyle Brodziak (trade), Anthony Nigro (free agent), Tim Erixon (free agent), Filip Hronek (draft)

In Place

(Key players signed past Season 8)

 

Calvin Pickard, G; Andrey Bykov, LW; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C; Vadim Shipachyov, RW; Staffan Kronwall, D

 

Three Questions

1. The Smurfs had an unsually down year. Are they OK with that?  The Smurfs have always been quick to anger, and no one wants to be in Milan’s shoes this year, but the drop was expected. When the team sputtered at the beginning of Season 7, General Manager Guybrush Threepwood started the team down a new road, kicking several veterans out of the car and picking up youngsters in their place to come along for the ride. A massive trade with Athens gave both teams a facelift and it stunned Berlin fans a little when they learned superstar Logan Couture would be wearing a different powder blue jersey in the future. But Berlin fans have always shown a lot of faith in Threepwood and they seem anxious to see what his latest creation will do. As it turned out, Berlin was still able to break 100 points for the season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Andrey Bykov and Vadim Shipachyov are the new Couture, Loui Eriksson and Ryan Callahan, the line that will be counted on for offense and propulsion as the team attempts to climb even higher in the standings.The three young guns already showed German fans what they are capable of. Last season, Nugent-Hopkins, the playmaker, racked up 83 points and both of his wings netted more than 30 goals. The team was knocked out of last season’s playoffs when Milan scored two one-goal wins in Games 6 and 7 of their first-round matchup. Talk about making the Smurfs angry! Las Vegas oddsmakers are already giving Milan 9 goals for their first game of the season against Berlin on Oct. 15 (Websim time). Coach Adam Oates’ biggest challenge will be not allowing revenge to totally consume his little blue guys.

2. What is most surprising about the Smurfs? Judging by all the publicity he gets, one would assume Erik Forssell led the team in scoring last season, but if you look closely, you will see that’s not the case. Forssell’s worldly potential has yet to be realized. The 23-year-old Swede scored just 9 points in 82 games. Stefan Ulmer, a 25-year-old Austrian defenseman is another source of surprise in Berlin. Ulmer quietly played a key role on last year’s team. A very fast skater, Ulmer dished out 24 assists last season and blocked 77 shots. Not many saw that sort of play coming so early from a player who was selected in the second round of the Season 5 draft by St. Petersburg. He is paired with ruffian Erik Gudbranson on the Smurfs’ second defense pair at the moment, behind the duo of Staffan Kronwall and Ossi Vaananen. Surprise number 3 is what Coach Adam Oates is doing with the leadership of the team. Oates has veteran Phil Kessel, 31, who was signed as a free agent from Dublin, but Phil was not given a C or an A for the front of his jersey. Instead, young Vadim Shipachyov was named captain with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Aleksander Barkov as his assistants. All three are 25 or younger. A fourth surprise is that the Smurfs allowed more shots against them than they had shots on goal last season. That is the first time that occurred in the German city since Season 2. Still, the team was able to average .25 goals per game more than their opponents, which either says a lot about goalie Calvin Pickard (89.7 save percentage last season) or about the sniping ability of Berlin’s shooters … or both.

3. How will the off-season changes affect Berlin? GM Threepwood made some fine moves, as he always seems to do. He lost a lot of size and experience through trades and free agency, but he gained significant puck skills up front and a top-level blueliner in former Rouge Eiffel Ossi Vaananen. Berlin doesn’t have three strong forward lines … but it will in the future. The Smurfs are loaded with potential up front in the aforementioned line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins/Andrey Bykov/Vadim Shipachyov as well as centers Aleksander Barkov, Talgat Zhailauov, Christian Dvorak and Erik Forssell. That’s five centers right there who could play second line or better in five seasons. It seems Threepwood will eventually have to trade or have Oates teach a few of them how to play wing. But in the meantime, Berlin will continue to score enough goals to win games. Kessel has mad skills, speed and shooting ability and he will be looking for soft spots as speedy little Zhailauov and thug-like Zack Kassian get defenders paying attention to them on the second line. Berlin is relatively weak on lines three and four but Barkov, Tomas Vincour and others will mature quickly for the Smurfs. Threepwood retained the Smurfs who tend to get angry quickest. Maybe that’s because the Smurfs have always played at their best when they were at their angriest. Staffan Kronwall, Erik Gudbranson, Bykov and Kassian all tend to get emotional quickly and sometimes they take dumb penalties, but Oates has always seemed to be able to get his Smurfs to channel their anger in production ways.

History

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

Season 7               7            101         19.0        84.8        28.04     28.43       3.13       2.88      11.99

Season 6               3            112          20.6        85.9       34.41      26.46       3.62      2.60       8.72

Season 5               2            128          19.6        89.1       34.96     26.10        3.73       2.50       7.80

Season 4               6            106         19.7        83.8        33.17      26.79      3.62        2.74      8.46

Season 3              3             107          20.7        83.8        34.32     27.62       3.74       2.95      9.82

Season 2              18             83         16.1        81.1        30.05      30.62      3.27        3.59       9.80

Season 1              16             87         18.3        81.1        30.56      28.84        3.17        3.24       6.37

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Logan Couture, C, current age 29. Games played 543; Points 657, +65

Season 2: Mikko Lehtonen, RW, age 25. GP 480, Pts 183, +86

Season 3: Aleksander Barkov, C, age 23. GP 285, Pts 86, -4

Season 4: Leon Draisaitl, C, age 22. GP 4; Pts 0, plus-minus 0

Season 5: Christian Dvorak, C/LW, age 21. GP 2; Pts 0, plus-minus 0

Season 6: Timo Meier, RW, age 21.

Season 7: Adam Mascherin, C/LW, age 19.

Season 8: Klim Kostin, C/W, age 18.

Trade History

Season 2

Traded Mikhail Grigorenko, R.J. Umberger, Brayden Colburn and Round 2 pick later traded (Josh Morrissey?) to Madrid for Slava Voynov, Round 1 pick later traded to Stockholm in the Loui Eriksson deal and 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Robert Hagg)

Traded Brian Campbell, 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano) to Madrid for Erik Ersberg

Traded Colton Gillies to Helsinki for Jarkko Immonen

Traded Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Madrid’s) (Sean Monahan) to Stockholm for Loui Eriksson

Traded Mikka Kiprusoff to Athens for Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 (Brian Flynn)

Traded Tim Erixon, Andrey Bykov and  2014 Round 2 pick  (Robert Hagg) to London for Semyon Varlamov *Apparently missing some trades here, although that first trade with Madrid might actually be several.

Season 3

Traded Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb to Milan for Matt Read and Gerhard Unterluggauer

Traded Semyon Varlamov and Jarkko Immonen to Oslo for Jimmy Howard

Traded Ryan Wilson to Munich for 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak)

Traded Kris Versteeg to Moscow for 2015 Round 1 pick (Leon Draisaitl)

Season 4

Traded Matt Read to Edinburgh for Tony Martensson

Traded Slava Voynov, Martin Erat and 2017 Round 3 pick to Copenhagen for Dion Phaneuf

Traded 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou(name changed to Alexander Kerfoot)) to Edinburgh for 2017 Round 3 pick (Niklas Svedberg)

Season 5

Season 6

Traded Erik Ersberg to Stockholm for 2019 Round 2 pick

Traded Brian Flynn and 2018 Round 2 pick (Tyler Benson) to Bern for 2018 Round 2 pick (later traded – Joonas Donskoi)

After Season 6 started:

Signed Tim Gleason  (free agent); claimed Martin Havlat  (waivers)

Traded 2019 Round 2 pick to St. Petersburg for Stefan Ulmer

Traded David Pastrnak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Dennis Cholowski) to Prague for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (formerly Bern’s – Joonas Donskoi) and 2019 Round 2 pick (formerly Stockholm’s) to London for Erik Forssell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Adam Mascherin)

Season 7

Traded Leon Draisaitl to Bratislava for Siim Liivik

Traded Aleksander Barkov to Prague for Calvin Pickard

Traded 2020 Round 1 pick and 2021 Round 3 pick to Prague for Andrey Bykov

Traded David Krejci and 2020 Round 2 pick to Stockholm for Jeff Carter and 2020 Round 1 pick

After season started: Traded 2019 Round 1 pick to Lisbon for Evgeny Kuznetsov and 2019 Round 2 pick

Traded Logan Couture, Loui Eriksson, Alexander Edler and 2021 Round 2 pick to Athens for Vadim Shipachyov, Staffan Kronwall and Tomas Vincour

Traded Josh Gorges and 2019 Round 3 pick to Bratislava for Simon Despres and Dante Fabbro

Traded Dion Phaneuf to London for 2019 Round 2 pick

Signed Matt Donovan (free agent), claimed Roman Polak (waivers)

Season 8

Traded Jeff Carter to Copenhagen for Kyle Brodziak and 2020 Round 3 pick

Traded Evgeny Kuznetsov and Klim Kostin to Prague for Aleksander Barkov

Traded Roman Polak to St. Petersburg for 2021 Round 3 pick