Owners – Two of Northern Ireland’s most famous sons: actor James (Jimmy) Nesbitt (probably best known internationally for his part as one of the dwarves in the Hobbit trilogy); and model/actor/’GLAMOUR sexiest man of 2017′ Jamie Dornan of ‘Fifty Shades’ fame.

Farm Club: Belfast Bruins 

GM: Chris Patton  (only GM in team’s history)

Coach: Alain Vigneault (replaced Darryl Sutter)  

Last season: 6th overall; (In playoffs: defeated Helsinki, Copenhagen,  then lost to Minsk)

Ins and Outs (Season 7 to Season 8)

Out: Kevin Porter (retired), Cody Franson (free agent)

In: Jack Studnicka (draft), Filip Westerlund (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 9)

P.K. Subban, D; Claude Giroux, C; Nathan MacKinnon, RW; Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D; Matt Duchene, C    

 

Three Questions

1. Why so quiet in the off season? The franchise with more Cups than anyone has found the salary cap to be one of its most cunning foes over the years. General Manager Chris Patton would have loved nothing more than to have kept players like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Victor Hedman, Nazem Kadri, Sergei Mozyakin and Vladimir Tarasenko but the cap is always pushing talent out of Northern Ireland. Patton has more trimming to do before Game 1 of the upcoming season, with the current starters nearly $6 million over the cap. That’s why Belfast signed zero free agents this off season. The GM will be looking for two teams with cap space, a need for a very good forward, and good young assets. Belfast has only three players in reserve and only three picks in the next two 3-round drafts, although Patton has five prospects he hopes develop into starters.

2. Do they have a weakness in goal? No. Just the opposite. Only Minsk and Belfast had a gap of more than +1 between their goals per game and goals allowed per game averages last year. The Giants scored 3.52 goals per game and gave up only 2.50. Goalie Jonathan Quick was obviously important to that stat. The 33-year-old American will make $9 million this season and he has a player option for next season that he would be foolish not to exercise. He is worth the money. His save percentage has been north of 91 the last three seasons and he has never dipped below the 90 percent mark. Last season, he had the lowest goals against average in the league (2.31) and he is the all-time leader in save percentage, goals against average, wins and shutouts. He has earned 9 individual trophies and 3 EURO Cups as the Playoff MVP.  He is a sure bet to make the Hall of Fame after he reitres. Finn Nico Hovinen is 8 years younger and patiently waiting for his chances to guard the Belfast goal as Quick’s backup. In a nutshell, as long as Belfast is able to keep Quick on the team, they have a chance to win Cup number 4.

3. How do you beat the Giants? There was a time when Belfast had four stud defensemen in every game. But Victor Hedman left in a trade and now the team is down to three studs in P.K. Subban, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Justin Faulk. Those three play good defense, but what they can add to rushes up the ice and play in the opponent’s end of the rink set them apart from the average EURO defensemen. Behind them on the Belfast depth chart are the 3 Jakes (Jaccob Slavin, Jakub Krejcik and Jakob Chychrun) who are all going to be good but they are still inexperienced and prone to errors back there. All three had more giveaways than takeaways last season. They are a year wiser now, but if Patton is forced to deal away one of his big 3, then the Season 9 defense corps might be even a little more vulnerable. If a downgrade comes among the forwards, then expect the third line to be degraded from what it is now, namely an enviable trio with OV ratings between 75 and 83.

History

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

Season 8                6            105            19.7         82.4      34.59     27.65     3.52    2.50    10.16

Season 7                2            120            17.1         86.0     34.89      25.95    3.74    2.22    12.29

Season 6               4            111             20.9         84.7      31.76     28.84    3.72    2.77    11.22

Season 5                1            129            20.7         86.4     32.55     27.71     3.79    2.54   11.99

Season 4               3            108             16.7         85.1      32.99    28.99    3.60    2.74   12.63

Season 3              19             76             20.2         82.9      30.17    31.26    3.20    3.41    11.18

Season 2              20             72              15.6        79.1       29.17    33.04   3.20    3.61    12.57

Season 1              21              61             10.1        77.9        23.85    37.40   2.33    3.67    10.29

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Cory Schneider, G, current age 33. Games played: 403; Save Pct. 90.5

Season 2: Tony Martensson, C, age 33. GP 500, Pts 333, +7

Season 3: Nathan MacKinnon, RW, age 24. GP 408, Pts 329, +133

Season 4: Ondrej Palat, LW, age 27. GP 410, Pts  357, +203

Season 5: Vladislav Kamenev, W, age 22.

Season 6: Jacob Larsson, D, age 20.

Season 7: Brett Howden, C/LW, age 20.

Season 8: Cal Foote, D, 19

Season 9: Jack Studnicka, C, age 19.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 12 pick (used to draft Sami Salo) and Round 24 pick  (Douglas Murray) to Bern for Round 10 pick (Devan Dubnyk)

Traded Round 11 pick (Roman Josi) and Round 15 pick (Andrej Sekera) to Minsk for Round 10 pick (Mikael Granlund)

Season 2

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

Traded Rick Nash to Stockholm for Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Jonathan Drouin) *Not 100 percent positive about the pick or if there was another part to the trade, but pretty sure.

Season 4

Traded Tony Martensson, Olivier Roland, Ondrej Pavelec and Adam Larsson to Edinburgh for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and James Neal

Traded Filip Forsberg and Cory Schneider to Munich for Jonathan Quick

Season 5

Traded Joe Pavelski, Jonathan Drouin and 2016 Round 1 pick (Ville Vahalahti) to Copenhagen for Alexander Ovechkin  

Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Solomonov) to Bratislava for 2017 Round 3 pick  (Julius Nattinen)      

Traded Devan Dubnyk to Zurich for 2019 Round 3 pick (later traded) (Drake Caggiula)

Traded 2017 Round 1 pick (Lawson Crouse) to Bern for Cam Talbot     

Season 6   

Traded Mathieu Perreault to Copenhagen for Dennis Rasmussen

Traded Alexander Ovechkin and Cody Hodgson to Dublin for Evander Kane and Nardo Nagtzaam

After Season 6 started

Traded Rob Fabbri and 2019 Round 3 pick (formerly Zurich’s) (Drake Caggiula)  to Milan for Mikko Rantanen

Traded Sidney Crosby, Mikko Rantanen, 2018 Round 1 pick (Jake Bean) and 2018 Round 2 pick (Andreas Athanisiou) to Edinburgh for Claude Giroux

Traded Nazem Kadri, Vladislav Kamenev and 2020 Round 1 pick (Niclas Almari) to Geneva for Sergei Mozyakin

Lost Mattias Tedenby (waivers)

Season 7

Traded Matt Moulson to Lisbon for 2020 Round 3 draft pick (later traded to Prague) (Maxim Sushko)

After season started: Traded Andrey Vasilevskiy, Julius Nattinen, 2019 Round 1 pick (Michael Rasmussen), and 2020 Round 3 pick (Lisbon’s) (Maxim Sushko) to Prague for Niko Hovinen

Traded Cam Talbot to Dublin for 2019 Round 2 pick (Cal Foote)

Lost Jesper Fast (waivers)

Season 8

Traded Sergei Mozyakin and Vladimir Tarasenko to St. Petersburg for Jonathan Huberdeau, Tobias Rieder and Jakob Chychrun

Traded Gabriel Bourque to Madrid for Yasin Ehliz

Traded Victor Hedman to Copenhagen for Jaccob Slavin

Traded James Neal, Michael Dal Colle, Robert Thomas, 2021 Round 1 pick, 2022 Round 1 pick and 2021 Round 2 pick to Prague for David Pastrnak

After Season 8 started:

Lost Mikael Granlund (waivers)

Signed Kevin Porter, Nick Lappin and Sergei Plotnikov (free agents)