Farm Club: Hamburg (Germany) Freezers 

GM: Grant Sayle  (9th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Mike Sulllivan (replaced Craig Berube after Season 6)

Last season: 20th overall, (did not make playoffs)

Ins and Outs (Season 8 to Season 9)

Out: Chris Campoli (free agent)

In: Attila Adorjan (draft), Linus Higberg (draft), Marian Studenic (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 9)

David Krejci, C; Filip Forsberg, LW; Sean Monahan, C; Fyodor Malykhin, C; Kevin Dallman, D

 

 

 

Three Questions

1. What does Munich need most? EHC Red Bull needs a little in several areas, but a good first step would be to establish stability. Grant Sayle, the ninth general manager in the team’s nine years, looks like he could offer that. Sayle isn’t immediately causing upheaval and shuffling players, like so many GMs before him have. He has chosen to work with the Season 8 crew that is a mix of young and old players. Two of the few moves Sayle has made were very significant ones. Cory Schneider, 33, the team’s starting goalie for the last five seasons, and Duncan Keith, 36, were waived to clear more than $15 million in cap space. The 33-year-old Schneider was earlier signed to a mega contract and he has three seasons (one being a player option) on a $9.7 million deal. It is possible a buyout is in his near future. Schneider is good, but he was overworked at times in the past and seems to have developed a durability problem. Munich Coach Mike Sullivan might want to guard against repeating that mistake with Attila Adorjan, the 22-year-old Hungarian/Romanian who Sayle drafted 6th overall this year to be the franchise’s goalie of the future.

2. Can Munich make the playoffs soon? Fans in Bavaria aren’t going to like this, but Munich shouldn’t be able to make the playoffs for another season or two. The team should improve, but the competition is good in the Southern Conference and Red Bull would have to make up the difficult 20 points it missed by last season. Defensively, the entire roster needs to get much better, and if Schneider’s salary keeps him from minding the Munich net, then Munich would be asking unproven Adorjan, Felix Bruckmann or Robert Kristan to be their playoff goalie. Likewise, young defensemen Cody Ceci, Jindrich Barak and Nikita Zadorov would have to mature fast and play better – as would a lot of young forwards – before the team can reach the playoffs. Coach Sullivan was given a group of forwards that finds defensive hockey gross to even look at, let alone embrace. Center Calle Jarnkrok comes back to help the Dmen, but he’s the only forward who does with out being threatened by Coach Sullivan.

3. What is their strength? Munich now has two exceptional young forwards and a very promising young goalie in the system. A year ago, they had left wing Filip Forsberg (90 PO) but they did not have goalie Adorjan and right wing Clayton Keller adding their high numbers (86 and 91) to the team’s PO Rating column. Forsberg has scored 58 or more points in each of the last three seasons, and at age 24, he seems to be on the verge of an explosion. With Forsberg and Keller on the wings and either Sean Monahan or Fyodor Malykhin between them, that’s the making of a very dynamic line that just needs some maturation time. They will have some good role models to emulate this season because Munich still has the likes of Dustin Brown, Ilya Kovalchuk and David Krejci playing up front. As a team, they are very discplined and they don’t take many penalties, which is another strength. Big winger Chris Stewart is the only Red Bull to get into a fight last season. He fought 5 times.

History

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

Season 8             20          67        18.70   79.40       28.70    31.66      2.80     3.35        8.23

Season 7             15          82        13.1      77.5        28.35     32.17     2.95      3.56        8.70

Season 6              10         90        18.3       84.2        28.74    31.72     3.13      3.09          9.54

Season 5             21         60         12.50     78.2        26.55    33.70      2.48     3.57         9.67

Season 4             21        70           17.0       83.0       26.46    34.98     2.96     3.51             12.99

Season 3              5         103          18.4       85.6       30.66    31.72    3.40     2.74              12.24

Season 2              4         104          21.4       82.9      29.95     30.85     3.22        2.63                11.82

Season 1              5         104         19.0        84.0        32.62     28.73    3.50        2.88               9.41

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Jonathan Quick, G, current age 33. Games played: 535; Save Pct 91.5

Season 2: Talgat Zhailauov, C, age 29. GP 546, Pts 358, -2

Season 3: Andrew Shaw, RW, age 27. GP 372, Pts 98, -9

Season 4: Radko Gudas, G, age 28. GP 359, Pts 95, -48

Season 5: Fyodor Malykhin, LW, age 25. GP 292; Pts 175; +15

Season 6: Jack Eichel, C, 22. GP 207; Pts 121; +1

Season 7: Clayton Keller, C, age 20.

Season 8: Cale Makar, D, age 19.

Season 9: Attila Adorjan, G, age 22.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 8 pick (used to draft Tomas Fleischmann), Round 10 pick (James Wisniewski), and Round 16 pick (Nikita Nikitin) to Dublin for Round 9 pick (used to draft Joe Corvo), Round 11 pick (Milan Hejduk) Round 13 pick (Josh Bailey) and $10,000

Season 2

Traded Tomas Zaborsky and Brooks Laich to Copenhagen for Dany Heatley and David Bolland

Traded Anton Babchuk to Stockholm for Magnus Johansson

Season 4

Traded 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak) to Berlin for Ryan Wilson

Traded Dion Phaneuf to Copenhagen for Mark Giordano, Nikita Zadorov and Charlie Coyle

Season 5

Traded Jonathan Quick to Belfast for Cory Schneider and Filip Forsberg

Traded Mark Giordano to Minsk for two 2017 Round 3 picks (Calle Jarnkrok and (later traded – Oliver Kylington))

Transactions after the start of Season 5:

Lost Steve Downey (waivers)

Signed Francois Beauchemin (free agent)

Signed Denis Gribko (free agent)

Traded David Bolland and 2017 Round 2 pick (Petr Mrazek) to Copenhagen for T.J. Brodie and Gareth Roberts

Season 6

Traded Braydon Coburn and 2017 Round 3 pick (Oliver Kylington) to Gothenburg for Patrick Marleau

Traded Jack Eichel, Charlie Coyle and 2018 Round 2 (Sam Steel) pick to Stockholm for Sean Monahan,  Craig Smith, Jindrich Barak, Cody Ceci and 2018 Round 1 pick (Alexander Nylander)

After Season 6 started: Claimed Miks Indrasis on waivers.

Season 7

Season 8

Traded 2020 Round 2 pick (Isaac Ratcliffe) to Lisbon for 2019 Round 2 pick (Nikita Zaitsev)

Traded Craig Smith and Josh Bailey to Madrid for Colin Greening, 2020 Round 2 pick (Linus Hogberg) and 2021 Round 2 pick

After Season 8 started:

Signed Matt Irwin (free agent), Thomas Hickey (free agent)

Lost Jordan Caron (waivers)

Season 9