Owner: Sophia Rousseau, CEO, ELITE Models (Top Model agency in Paris)

Farm Club: Paris Francais Volants 

GM: Tim Norelco (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Michel Therrien (replaced Randy Cunneyworth after Season 2)

Last season: 8th overall  (In playoffs, lost to Bratislava)

Ins and Outs (Season 8 to Season 9)

Out: Alexander Semin (free agent), Mike Richards (free agent), Steve Olesky (free agent), Tom Wandell (free agent), Jason Krog (free agent), Erik Gustafsson (free agent)

In: Josej Vasicek (free agent), Bryan Little (free agent), Jamie McGinn (free agent), Kevan Miller (free agent), Boyd Gordon (free agent), Kyle Brodziak (free agent), Tanner Jaillet (draft), Marcus Davidsson (draft), Mario Ferraro (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 9)

Alex Pietrangelo, D; Kris Letang, D; Travis Hamonic, D; Ken Kuusk, D; Ivan Provorov, D;  Bryan Little, RW

 

Three Questions

1. What is Paris’ identity nowadays? It’s Bryan Little and the Defensemen. No, not the 50s rock ‘n roll band, but the small group of players who are under long-term contracts with the Rouge Eiffels. New General Manager Tim Norelco went shopping in the Free Agent Store and was able to sign three forwards to very reasonable contracts. Little is one of them at $4 million for three years and a player’s option. If Norelco is satisifed with the defense corps – all sane men would be – then Little could be longtime teammates of these four 85OV or higher defensemen: Alex Pietrangelo, Kris Letang, Ken Kuusk and Travis Hamonic, as well as young star Ivan Provorov. Pietrangelo is the undisputed leader of the group, having won two Best Defenseman trophies and one League Best player trophy. He is also the league’s all-time point scorer among defensemen. Letang, who is 4th all-time, has a trophy of his own, the Playoff MVP award he won the year Paris won the Cup. The top four defensemen all have impeccable hockey sense to go with good speed, great puck skills and plenty of stamina. With this group, being Paris’ defenseman coach woud have to be the easiest job in hockey.

 

2. How are the forwards? Paris’ glory years are fading and to find out why, check the driver’s licenses of the forwards. All are getting up their in age. The downfall kind of started three seasons ago when Paris began having trouble fitting everyone under the cap. Josef Vasicek was released and that seemed to be a key support in the house of cards that was Paris’ team. Norelco has brought the popular Vasicek back to the Rouge Eiffels, but longtime stars Mike Richards and Alexander Semin are gone now. It’s not the Paris team we used to know. The quality of the lines? At first glance, one would think all four would struggle against the better teams in the EURO, but having the great defensemen behind them dishing out pucks in the opponent’s zone will help a great deal. Still, this could be the last hurrah for many Paris forwards.  Eleven of the 15 forwards are 30 or older and this team should fade a little as the season wears on. Paris is set for this season, but it’s conceivable that a season from now, Norelco will have to fill 9 foward holes because are all on the final year of their contracts, pending option decisions.

3. How are they in goal? Paris is set for the time being in goal and they should be better positoned for the future there than any other team in the EURO league. Tuukka Rask has been a fixture in net for the Eiffels since Day 1 and he’s only 32 years old. His numbers dipped last season, but that was probably a reflection of the downgraded team play in front of him. His save percentage was 89.6, good enough for 17th best in the league last season. Rask’s backup for the last five years, German Philipp Grubauer will be anxious to get more than his customary 15 starts per year if Rask decides to leave France next year, and if that happens, Grubauer looks like he could be a decent starter. Looking past Grubauer, Paris is loaded with potential replacements with four of the league’s 12 prospect goalies and Tanner Jaillet, the team’s first pick in this year’s draft. Jaillet is small but he led the University of Denver to an NCAA title in 2017.

History

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

Season 8               8                98          21.5        82.1        31.00       30.76      3.76     3.21     13.32

Season 7               5                 108         18.5       85.9        32.55       28.16      3.93     2.89     12.39

Season 6              2                  123         21.4       81.3       33.12        27.17      4.15     2.67       11.24

Season 5              4                  111           21.3       85.6      34.59     27.26    4.10    2.88             10.93

Season 4              2                  113         21.3       81.1       34.10      29.32    4.16     3.07             12.23

Season 3              1                   116          18.0       84.5       33.88     27.52    4.09     2.93               13.85

Season 2              3 (Cup)       104         20.6       81.5      31.40     31.22     3.67        3.34                12.57

Season 1              19                  72         22.8        79.8        27.65     33.06    3.07        3.68                9.09

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Alex Pietrangelo, D, current age 29. Games played: 638; points: 476; +230

Season 2: Ken Kuusk, D, age 25. GP 519, Pts 217, +119

Season 3: Viktor Fasth, G, age 36. GP 89, Save Pct. 88.8

Season 4: Philipp Grubauer, G, age 27.  GP 73,  Save Pct. 89.0

Season 5: Brandon Halverson, G, age 22.

Season 6: Ivan Provorov, D, age 21. GP 82, Points 11, +8

Season 7: Radek Faksa, LW, age 23. GP 160, Points 32, -3

Season 8: Aaron Dell, G, age 28.

Season 9: Tanner Jaillet, G, age 19.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Dustin Byfuglien), Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier), and Round 26 pick (Jeff Woywitka)to Milan for Round 6 pick (used to draft David Perron), Round 21 pick (Mike Green) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Ossi Vaananen)

Traded Round 7 pick (Dennis Wideman) to Geneva for Round 15 pick (Ryan Ellis),  Round 25 pick (Ben Lovejoy) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Jason Krog)

Traded Adrian Aucoin to Bern for Round 13 pick (Dmitri Orlov), Round 19 pick (Carlo Colaiacovo) and 2014 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Jake Muzzin)

Season 2

Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Thomas Hickey) to Stockholm for Ryan Clowe

Traded Dmitri Orlov and 2014 Round 1 pick (Jake Muzzin) to Stockholm for Travis Hamonic

Traded Derek Brassard, T.J. Brodie and Ryan Ellis to Stockholm for Josef Vasicek

Traded Jaden Schwartz and 2014 Round 1 pick (Peter Mueller) to Stockholm for Miko Koivu

Traded Philip Larsen to Bratislava for Lee Stempniak and 2014 Round 3 pick (Steve Oleksy)

Season 3

Traded Mike Green to Stockholm for Jordan Caron

Season 4

Traded Viktor Fasth to Stockholm for 2018 Round 3 pick (Nick Merkley)

Season 5   

After start of Season 5

Claimed Mike Ribeiro (waivers)

Claimed Nick Palmieri (waivers)

Claimed Jordan Caron (waivers)

Traded Andre Burakovsky to Copenhagen for Nathan Gerbe and 2017 Round 2 pick (Madrid’s) (Ilya Samsonov)

Season 6

Traded Jared McCann to Copenhagen for 2017 Round 1 pick (Athens’) (Ivan Provorov)

Traded Mikko Koivu, 2017 Round 2 pick (Mirco Mueller) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Vladislav Namestnikov) to Stockholm for Mike Richards

Traded 2018 Round 1 pick (Jake McCabe), Craig Paquette, Jordan Caron and Colton Gillies to Copenhagen for Dave Bolland, Benoit Pouliot, Martin Erat and 2018 Round 2 pick (Radek Faksa)

After Season 6 started:

Signed Sergei Zinovjev (free agent), Lauri Korpikoski (free agent), Ryan Clowe (free agent), Michael Ryder (free agent), Alex Tanguay (free agent); claimed Steve Olesky (waivers); claimed Colton Gillies (waivers) then lost Gillies (waivers); lost Nathan Gerbe (waivers)

Season 7

After season started: Signed Tom Wandell (free agent), signed Matt Frattin (free agent), claimed Damien Brunner (waivers); lost Radek Faksa (waivers)

Season 8

Season 9