Owner: Jim Balsillie, Canadian businessman

Farm Club: Monaco Gamblers 

GM: Stephen R  (4th GM in team’s history)

Coach John Tortorella

Last season: 2nd overall, (In playoffs, defeated Geneva, then lost to Lisbon)

Ins and Outs  (Season 8 to Season 9)

Out: Loui Eriksson (free agent), Jason Pominville (free agent), Derek Ryan (free agent), Bobby Butler (free agent), Dimitrios Kalyvas (free agent), Ladislav Smid (free agent)

In: Tomas Vincour (trade), Alec Martinez (free agent), Jori Lehtera (free agent), Roman Polak (free agent), Cal Clutterbuck (free agent), Steve Downie (waivers), Jordan Caron (waivers), Peter Thome (draft), Robin Salo (draft).

In Place (Key players signed past Season 7) 

Logan Couture, C; Brandon Sutter, C; Alex Edler, D; Erik Johnson, D; Jimmy Howard, G

 

 

 

Three Questions

1. What kind of season was that? It was a really great season for Athens – their best ever, in fact – but it ended with a bad, bad taste. It was like following a great gourmet meal with a bile burp. That foul taste was so bad, it made the previous general manager push away from the table and leave. Stephen R is now in charge of the front office. Athens simply got on a roll halfway through the season. It appeared they were skating faster and smoother and tightening their defensive structure with every game. And it seemed manifest destiny that they get all the breaks. The Gods passed Bratislava at the top of  the Southern Conference and they were neck and neck with Minsk for the President’s Trophy until fading at the proverbial last minute. In the playoffs, Athens faced a tough Lisbon team in Round 2 and then they shot themselves in the foot with a salary cap blunder that led to the suspension of star center Logan Couture. They couldn’t recover and that, unfortunately, will be all that’s remembered from a glistening season.

2. What are the Gods’ strengths? The Gods have a lot of them and they really play like a team, but the numbers indicate Athens had a really good year thanks to their goaltending more than anything else. Their 2.49 goals against average tied them with Minsk for the best in the league, and the fact that eight teams allowed fewer shots per game than Athens did points to the quality of goalie Jimmy Howard. The 35-year-old American had to face more shots than one-third of the league’s starting goalies, but he still posted the top goals against average (92.1) and won his second-ever Best Goalie trophy. Another strength on the Gods squad is the center position. Logan Couture and Anze Kopitar are the 1st and 5th highest ranked (93 and 89 OV) centers in the league and they both play on the same team. They are also the 6th and 8th leading scorers in league history. Brandon Sutter is the center on the third line and he is good enough for top minutes on some teams. He is definitely one of the best defensive forwards in the business.

3. Problems? Stephen R didn’t go crazy during free agency and because of that, the Gods have plenty of breathing room under the salary cap. The team’s biggest problem might be deciding whether to call up a good player from the farm club and risk waiving him later or save room for trades with GMs desperate to reduce their own payrolls. Stephen R made a shrewd trade to acquire a winger he really needed, getting Tomas Vincour, who is a solid in all areas and he should get the chance to show what he can do with more ice time because the Gods are weak on both wings. Losing Loui Eriksson and Jason Pominville will do that to a team. Another possible area of concern in Athens is toughness because the Gods were one of the least-penalized teams in the league last season, but free agent defenseman Roman Polak was a good pickup because he will provide more grit and toughness.

History

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

Season 8              2            116         20.3        88.0         32.39     29.46    3.40     2.49     6.80

Season 7              6             102        23.1        83.5         32.24     28.63    3.60     3.26     7.28

Season 6             12            89          20.2        81.6         32.46     28.78    3.18    3.24      8.22

Season 5              7              102         21.8         83.2       32.76   28.89     3.74       3.15      9.74

Season 4              4             107          21.4         85.3       31.91    29.00     3.62      2.72     11.50

Season 3              6             100          20.7         85.4       33.82    27.72     3.72      3.00     13.16

Season 2              9              97           20.5          82.2       30.07    29.89     3.52      3.17       12.48

Season 1              20             63          16.4          76.7      28.20    31.60     2.54     3.61     9.77

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Ryan O’Reilly, C, current age 28. Games played: 625; points: 531; +50

Season 2: Staffan Kronwall, D, age 25. GP 560, Pts 243, +95

Season 3: Samuel Morin, D, age 24.

Season 4: Artturi Lehkonen, LW, age 23. GP 43, Pts 13, +9

Season 5: Miks Indrasis, LW, age 23. GP 100, Pts 25, -7

Season 6: Tanner Pearson, LW, age 25. GP 24, Pts 2, plus/minus +1

Season 7: Noah Juulsen, D, age 21.

Season 8: Esa Lindell, D, age 23. GP 82, Pts 22, +4

Season 9: Peter Thome, G, age 21.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 9 pick (used to draft Nick Foligno) to Geneva for Round 13 pick (Marcus Kruger) and Round 14 pick (Mark Scheifele)

Traded Round 15 pick (Stefan Elliott) to Minsk for Matt Cullen

Traded Evander Kane and Alexander Sulzer to Dublin for Scott Hartnell, Tim Gleason, 2013 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Nail Yakupov), Round 2015 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Matt Nieto) and $5 million

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

Traded 2013 Round 3 pick (Magnus Johansson) to Milan for Brad Boyes

Season 2

Traded Michal Rozsival and 2014 Round 1 pick (Justin Schultz) to Prague for Nick Kronwall

Traded Nazem Kadri and Round 2 pick (lost track of this one; might have been Brendan Pirlini in 2014) to Belfast for 2013 Round 1 pick (Vadim Shipachyov)

Traded Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 pick (Brian Flynn) to Berlin for Miikka Kiprusoff

Traded Miikka Kiprusoff and Michal Neuvirth to Stockholm for Cam Ward

Traded Marcel Hossa to Prague for Michael Ryder

Traded Jared Spurgeon and Nick Johnson to Prague for Michal Rozsival and Kyle Palmieri

* seem to missing 3 trades that occurred in this general period.

Season 3

Traded Mark Scheifele to Prague for Joel Armia

Traded Johnny Boychuk to Milan for Dimitrios Kalyvas

Season 4 

Traded Brooks Orpik, Bryan Bickell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Ivan Provorov) to Copenhagen for Alex Goligoski

Season 5

Season 6

Traded David Backes, Kyle Palmieri and a 2018 Round 1 pick (Olli Juolevi) to Moscow for Andrew Ladd, Jaroslav Halak, Brandon Sutter and a 2018 Round 2 pick (Noah Juulsen)

After Season 6 started:

Traded Ryan O’Reilly to Moscow for Anze Kopitar

Signed Christian Folin (free agent), Jack Hillen (free agent)

Lost Mike Indrasis (waivers)

Season 7

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

Lost Trevor Daley (waivers)

Season 8 

Traded 2019 Round 2 pick  (Denis Malgin) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Erik Kallgren) to Minsk for Colin Wilson

Season 9

Traded 2021 Round 3 pick to Berlin for Tomas Vincour