Owner: Sara Sampaio, Portuguese super model
Farm Club – HC Porto (Portugal) 
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: 8th overall (In playoffs, defeated Madrid, then Athens, then Bratislava, then lost to Belfast in Finals)
Ins and Outs (Season 7 to Season 8)
Out: Joe Pavelski (free agent), Wayne Simmonds (free agent), Martin Erat (free agent), Damon Severson (trade), Yannik Weber (trade), Alexei Kalyuzhny (free agent), Troy Brouwer (waivers), Mike Fisher (free agent), Brandon Bochenski (free agent), Matt Greene (free agent)
In: Dion Phaneuf (trade), Michael Grabner (trade), Josh Bailey (waivers), Tyler Bozak (free agent), Gustav Forsling (free agent), Brendan Gaunce (free agent), William Carrier (free agent), Michael McCarron (free agent), Zachary Sanford (free agent), Lias Andersson (draft), Casey Mittelstadt (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 8)
John Tavares, C; Steven Stamkos, RW; Drew Doughty, D; Max Domi, LW; Karri Ramo, G
Three Questions
1. They were so close. How close will they come this year? We were wrong about Coach Willie Desjardins last year in this space, basically saying he is garbage, and we owe him an apology because he did a great job managing a team that seemed to be too dependent on one forward line. Sorry Willie, old friend. We’ll risk eating crow again this year by saying Lisbon HC will have a hard time recreating Season 7 when they barged through the playoffs and into the Cup Finals. The team lost some good forwards and replaced them with average players. The economic crisis and salary cap surely played a big role in the loss of Joe Pavelski and Wayne Simmonds, who both contributed greatly to the team, even if they couldn’t make the incomparable top forward line. Pavelski wasn’t what he once was, but last season he hustled, played smart hockey, scored 20 goals and assisted on 38. Simmonds scored just under Pavelski levels and he also played with an edge and was not shy about standing up for his teammates. Whether we are right about Lisbon being worse up front this year might come down to Tyler Bozak, who has really improved his game over the years and did an excellent job in St. Petersburg last season, scoring 21 goals and adding 41 assists. Bozak will at least match what Pavelski did in terms of points last season, but Pavelski did a lot of the intangibles that Bozak hasn’t yet exhibited. Not many forwards hustle like Pavelski does and his veteran presence and leadership qualities kept pushing the top line to perform, especially during the playoffs. Ryan Kesler is still there to do that sort of work, but having Kesler and Pavelski there to inspire from the bench and in the dressing room was a key part of a very good recipe. Josh Bailey and Michael Grabner were onboarded this year and the fans and coach will be looking for them to make up for the loss of Simmonds.
3. Where have they improved the most this season? The addition of Dion Phaneuf through a trade is the most obvious improvement in Lisbon. The 33-year-old is just what Lisbon needs back on the blue line as a complement to star Drew Doughty. Too bad they didn’t have Phaneuf at the end of Season 7. Doughty does just about everything well and what he doesn’t do, Phaneuf does do – like offer intensity and leadership. In the last two seasons, Phaneuf’s hit totals have gone down, but he remains someone you really don’t want to encounter in a corner, and although he scored just 5 goals last season, he powered in 20 shots two seasons before that, so look for him to get extended powerplay time with Doughty. Both men are in good enough physical condition to skate 25 minutes per game all season long. Phanuef’s presence is a bonus because it allows Jared Spurgeon to reduce his average ice time. While he probably doesn’t like that notion, the coach does. Spurgeon led the defense corps in TOI (time on ice) last year and he’s just not built for that kind of work. With Doughty, Phaneuf, Spurgeon, Sami Vatanen, Jonas Holos and young but steady Seth Jones, Lisbon has one of the best defense corps in the league. They are not great at shot blocking, but they are great at poke checking, puck possession and puck moving.
3. What will hurt Lisbon the most? Injuries would hurt both literally and figuratively. The team is right up against the salary cap so General Manager Bryan Camara will have to be nimble when injured players – and their salaries – return to the pro team. They also don’t have an abundance of depth. Desjardins and Camara would love to see Marian Hossa and Matt Martin skating in Lisbon instead of Porto, but the salary structure won’t allow for it. Instead, William Carrier and Frank Vatrano are in the starting lineup every day. Gustav Forsling is the seventh defenseman on the team and there isn’t an eighth. As was the case for a couple of seasons now, the top of the Lisbon roster is as solid as it gets, while the bottom is exceptionally fragile. For Lisbon to do well in the standings, it is essential to keep Captain John Tavares and linemates Steven Stamkos and Matt Moulson healthy. Stamkos and Tavares finished 1-2 in scoring in the league last season and Moulson was 15th. That trio will again be a dominant force and Lisbon will get at least 10 wins just from those three weapons.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 7 8 99 18.5 83.5 30.83 28.18 3.74 2.99 8.18
Season 6 15 86 16.1 81.6 29.99 27.80 3.11 3.16 9.76
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 28. Games played: 574; points: 760; plus-minus +27
Season 2: Karri Ramo, G, age 26. GP: 370; Save Pct. 88.9
Season 3: Seth Jones, D, age 24. GP: 328; points: 81; -8
Season 4: Sami Vatanen, D, age 26. GP: 318; points: 91; -12
Season 5: Nicolas Aube-Kubel, RW, age 21.
Season 6: Adam Lowry, LW, age 23. GP 10, Points 1, +2
Season 7: Frank Vatrano, RW, age 22. GP 2, Points 0, plus-minus 0
Season 8: Lias Andersson, C/LW, age 18.
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
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 – Marten Madsen) and 2017 Round 1 pick (Adam Lowry)
Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Linus Klasen) to Gothenburg for Zach Parise
Traded Dougie Hamilton, Gareth Roberts and 2016 Round 1 pick (Moscow’s, 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 (Jaccob Slavin) to Copenhagen for Joe Pavelski and 2018 Round 3 pick (Bern’s originally – Max Jones)
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 (Frank Vatrano)
Claimed Matt Martin on waivers
Season 7
Traded Nick Bjugstad to Milan for Niklas Danielsson
Traded 2020 Round 3 pick to Belfast for Matt Moulson
Traded Marcus Foligno, Darnell Nurse and 2019 Round 3 pick (Tyler Parsons) to St. Petersburg for Wayne Simmonds and 2019 Round 2 pick (Berlin’s) (later traded and used to pick Filip Hronek)
Traded Emerson Etem and Magnus Paajarvi to Dublin for Ryan Kesler
Traded Matt Martin (later reacquired off waivers) to Dublin for Brendan Perlini
Traded Evgeny Kuznetzov and 2019 Round 2 (Berlin’s) pick (Filip Hronek) to Berlin for 2019 Round 1 pick (Lias Andersson)
Season 8
Traded Damon Severson and 2021 Round 3 pick to London for Dion Phaneuf and Michael Grabner
Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (Nikita Zaitsev) to Munich for 2020 Round 2 pick
Traded Yannik Weber to Dublin for 2021 Round 3 pick
