Team owner: Sergei Smirnov, former director of JSC Proletarsky Zavod

Farm Club: Sibir Novosibirsk (Russia)

GM: Ben Stuller (3rd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Guy Boucher (replaced Paul Maurice in Season 7, who replaced Kevin Dineen after Season 4)

Last season: 17 overall, did not make playoffs

Ins and Outs

(Season 7 to Season 8)

Out: Ilya Kovalchuk (free agent), Brent Seabrook (free agent), Erik Johnson (free agent), Joe Thornton (retired), Tyler Bozak (free agent), Patric Hornquist (free agent), Jonathan Huberdeau (trade), Tobias Rieder ( trade), Jakob Chychrun (trade), Joakim Hillding (trade), Kari Lehtonen (trade), Anthony Mantha (trade), Colton Sceviour (free agent), Jacob Markstrom (free agent)

In: Sergei Mozyakin (trade), Vladimir Tarasenko (trade), Semyon Varlamov (trade), Ilya Nikulin (trade), Brent Burns (free agent), Ryan Getzlaf (free agent), Ryan Callahan (free agent), David Desharnais (free agent), Roman Polak (trade), David Bolland (free agent), Troy Brouwer (waivers), Nick Bonino (waivers), Drayson Bowman (free agent), Juuse Saros (draft), Taylor Raddysh (draft), Tyler Parsons (draft)

In Place

(Key players signed past Season 8)

Patrik Laine, RW; Sergei Mozyakin, C; Vladimir Tarazenko (RW); Cam Atkinson, RW; Jan Kovar, LW; Semyon Varlamov (G)

 

 

 

Three Questions

1. Will the roster changes ever stop in Petrograd? There have been a lot of changes in St. Petersburg since Ben Stuller took over as general manager, but the revolving door may stop spinning because the team is looking very much the way he probably wants it: Young, skilled forwards with a good goalie, some veteran leadership, and a lot of Russian last names to keep the fan base loyal and interested. Stuller wasn’t thrilled about losing Ilya Kovalchuk in the free agent market, and he probably was hoping to be able to resign defensemen Erik Johnson and Brent Seabrook, but he still managed to replace them – albeit not position for position – with quality veterans like Brent Burns, Ryan Callahan and Ryan Getzlaf. Stuller made a couple of major trades to bring in Semyon Varlamov in goal, as well as long-term talent up front in Sergei Mozyakin and Vladimir Tarasenko. He also made what seemed like a minor deal in trading a draft pick for veteran Roman Polak, but the trade will pay dividends immediately,  because the team had a real need for a tough, stay-at-home defenseman and Polak fits into the lineup beautifully. The Krasnyye Zvezdy roster looks stronger today than it did a few months ago and St. Petersburg fans have a legitimate chance of attending playoff games in their city this season.

2. Which will better, their offense or defense? The Krasnyye Zvezdy are used to giving up more goals than the score, but that trend could reverse itself soon, maybe even this season. Stuller has made some moves to pump up the goal scoring. The addition of Patrick Laine via a draft will surely help. For the next many years, Laine and and former Rookie of the Year Jan Kovar will buzz around on the first line with Sergei Mozyakin at center and that entertaining show starts this season. Whether or not the trio stays together for the bulk of the season depends on how things are going in Coach Guy Boucher’s estimation, but when Mozyakin, Kovar and Laine are together, opposing defensemen will have their hands full with three players with great puck skills and vision. Mozyakin and Kovar are faster than Laine, but that’s OK because by the time he joins the play, his linemates will have already moved some defenders around and be looking to marry their phenomenal passing skills with Laine’s deadly shooting ability. Mozyakin and Kovar were drafted second and third overall in the Season 5 draft. St. Pete is not a one-line team, however, and teams that focus too much of their attention on Mozyakin will get burned by Boucher’s other lines. In fact, the Karsnyye Zvezdy will rarely have a forward on the ice or the bench with an OV rating of less than 77, making it one of the deepest forward collections in the league.

3. How is their defense? The team’s goals against average will likely depend on how goalie Semyon Varlamov plays. The Russian netminder has played in the EURO League since it began, getting the majority of starts in Oslo over the previous five seasons. He is into his prime years now and the fact he posted personal bests in save percentage (90.9) and goals against average (3.18) is a very good sign for Petrograd fans. Stuller has given Varlamov and St. Petersburg a mostly new defense corps this season and the group seems long on size and toughness. Not all of the team’s defensemen will be good at moving the puck up ice, but half of them will be in Oscar Klefbom, Ilya Nikulin and Dmitri Kalinin. Not everyone back there will be good at clogging shooting lanes, but Roman Polak, Brenden Dillon and Nikulin will be. Nikulin and Brent Burns have cannons at the point and they will contribute goals for the team. The defense corps is a mixed bag and it will be essential to the team that Boucher has good defense pairs out there that will be able to cover for each other’s mistakes.

History

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

Season 7             17             73            18.9      81.8        30.66       30.04       3.00      3.56      10.37

Season 6             22             65            16.9       79.2        31.18      28.32        2.85     3.62       11.83

Season 5             12              85            17.3       82.4         30.27    29.70       3.10      3.22       11.10

Season 4              23             57          14.20      85.60      30.07    30.96       2.52       3.46       12.02

Season 3              12               89          16.8        82.8        30.6     29.72       3.16       3.29       12.60

Season 2              2             106         17.1        84.9        32.87      29.78      3.29        2.65       10.95

Season 1              3             118         20.5        83.7        32.41     27.82        3.60        2.44        9.05

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Pekka Rinne, G, current age 36. Games played: 470; Save Pct. 90.7

Season 2: Danis Zaripov, LW, age 26. GP 263, Pts 61, +27

Season 3: Cam Atkinson, RW, age 28. GP 359, Pts 133, -32

Season 4: Mats Zuccarello, LW, age 30.  GP 317,  Pts 137, +30

Season 5: Jan Kovar, LW, age 26. GP 245, Pts 158, -43

Season 6: Tobias Rieder, RW, age 23. GP 77,  Points 17, -2

Season 7: Patrik Laine, W, age 19. GP 4, Points 6, +2

Season 8: Juuse Saros, G, age 21.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 6 pick (used to draft Patrik Berglund) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Thomas Powell) to Minsk for Round 4 pick (used to draft Brent Burns)

Traded Patrick Kane to Zurich for Brad Richards

Traded Round 18 pick (Brandon Gormley) to Milan for Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 22 pick (Jakub Kindl)

Traded James Neal, Andrei Kostitsyn and Karl Alzner to Edinburgh for Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, Blake Wheeler and Artem Anisimov

Traded Daniel Alfredsson to Milan for Viktor Stalberg, 2104 Round 1 (Cam Atkinson) and $1 million

Traded Kyle Wellwood to Edinburgh for David Steckel and 2013 Round 3 (Jamie Oleksiak)

Season 2

Traded Jarome Iginla to Helsinki for Martin St. Louis and 2015 Round 3 pick (Jakub Vrana)

Traded Martin St. Louis to Gothenberg for Devante Smith-Pelley, Ales Hemsky and 2016 Round 2 pick (Alexander Toryanik)

Traded Kevin Bieksa to Stockholm for Gotherburg’s 2015 Round 2 pick (David Savard)

Season 3

Season 4

Traded Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, Blake Wheeler and Pekka Rinne to Gothenburg for Erik Johnson, Martin St. Louis, Antti Niemi, Zack Phillips, Scott Harrington, 2018 Round 1 pick (Jeff Chychrun), 2016 Round 3 pick (Andreas Englund), and 2017 Round 3 pick (Yakov Trenin)

Season 5

Season 6

After Season 6 started: Traded Stefan Ulmer to Berlin for 2019 Round 2 pick

Season 7

Traded Devante Smith-Pelly and 2018 Round 1 pick (Shayne Gostisbehere) to Oslo for 2018 Round 1 pick (Patrik Laine)

Traded Mats Zuccarello-Aasen and a 2018 Round 2 pick (Louis Domingue) to Stockholm for Mattias Sjogren

Traded Artem Anisimov, Brad Richards and 2019 Round 3 pick (Matt Benning) to Zurich for Ilya Kovalchuk

Traded Wayne Simmonds and Berlin’s 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to Berlin and used to pick Filip Hronek) to Lisbon for Marcus Foligno, Darnell Nurse and a 2019 Round 3 pick (Tyler Parsons)

Traded Brent Burns to Bratislava for Karl Alzner and Anthony Mantha

after season started; Traded Karl Alzner to Moscow for Travis Sanheim; claimed Chris Tanev (waivers)

Season 8

Traded Joakim Hillding to Stockholm for Ilya Nikulin

Traded Jonathan Huberdeau, Tobias Rieder and Jakob Chychrun to Belfast for Sergei Mozyakin and Vladimir Tarasenko

Traded Kari Lehtonen and Anthony Mantha to Oslo for Semyon Varlamov

Traded 2021 Round 3 pick to Berlin for Roman Polak