Team owner: Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, Queen of Spain. A former television journalist, she married King Felipe VI

Farm Club: HC Barcelona 

GM: Tony B (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Dan Bylsma

Last season: 7th overall. In playoffs, lost to Lisbon

Ins and Outs (Season 8 to Season 9)

Out: Erik Karlsson (trade), Gabriel Landeskog (trade), Patrik Berglund (free agent), Blake Wheeler (free agent), Marc-Andre Bourdon (free agent), Colin Miller (free agent), Chris Wideman (free agent), Craig Cunningham (free agent)

In: P.K. Subban (trade), Evander Kane (trade), Nardo Nagtzaam (trade), Filip Sveningsson (draft), Stephane Da Costa (draft)

In Place (Key players signed or restricted free agents past Season 9)

P.K. Subban, D; Jonas Brodin, D; Loic Lamperier, RW; Robin Lehner, G; Evander Kane, LW

 

 

 Three Questions

1.What does Madrid get out of that trade? Trading the two Swedes who have been the faces of the franchise all along – Gabriel Landeskog and Erik Karlsson – did nothing to endear General Manager Tony B with the fan base. But after a couple of seasons, the fans might warm to the trade. Karlsson, the six-time all-star, is on the final year of his contract and could walk away from Belfast after just a season. Maybe he’ll return to Spain. And Landeskog will command a hefty pay raise after this season as he hits his prime years. Two of the players Tony B got in return for the Swedes – P.K. Subban and Evander Kane – arne’t too far behind the Swedes, at least in offensive output. Subban takes too many penalties but he can contribute. Faceoff specialist Nardo Nagtzaam might get more of a chance to show what he can do if he gets more ice time in Madrid than he did in Northern Ireland. One thing is for certain, all three will have the spotlight shining brightly on them all season. Madrid also got what figures to be a late first round pick and two prospects in the deal.

2. Who should Madrid’s opponents fear the most? Karlsson was the scariest Royal, but he is gone, and it’s hard for opposing coaches to identify a focal point for a defensive plan against Madrid. Since Tony B has taken over the team, Coach Dan Bylsma has been using some non-tradional strategies, namely splitting up the best players and spreading them throughout the lineup. It worked very well two seasons ago and pretty well last season, but some fans are begging the coach to let Derek Stepan work with the best wings on the team. We guess that would be Evander Kane and Craig Smith now. Jonas Brodin and P.K. Subban are now the top defensemen and they will likely play together a lot this season, with Brodin playing the stay-at-home role to allow Subban to roam and try to generate offense. Robin Lehner is one of the most under-rated goalies in the league. A starter in Madrid for the last 5 seasons, Lehner had the 6th best goals against average in the league in Season 8 and he was 5th in wins.

3. Can they win it all? Madrid was a Top 7 club but they wavered a bit in Season 8 and was stung in the playoffs for the second year in a row by their Iberian Peninsula neighbors in Portugal. Still, they have the tools to challenge for the Cup. This is a crucial season for the franchise because four top players will decide after it’s done whether they will stay in Spain or leave for new teams. Facing such a decision are the team’s top two centers – Derek Stepan and Sean Couturier – and its top two right wings – Craig Smith and Gareth Roberts. Stepan has scored more than 80 points in the each of the last four years and Couturier, a top defensive center, has been plus 15 or better over the same span. Roberts was a complete mystery last season and he has to get his act together if the Royals are going to go all the way. The sturdy 28-year-old Irishman went from 30 points in his third season to just 5 through 36 games in Madrid before he was benched. If he finds his way and is teamed with the right guys, he could poke in 15 goals this season. Roberts has been inconsistent lately, but he’s not the only Royal in that category. Reto Suri had a 32-point rookie season in Season 7 and then he couldn’t get going last year, getting demoted after producing just 10 points in 41 games. Another second-year forward, Mikhail Grigorenko, saw his point total drop from 32 to 12 points in his second year. The Royals need the new guys to be at their best and the players who slumped last year to improve this year.

History

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

Season 8                 7          102         21.0       82.6      31.35        27.38        3.24        2.82        9.59

Season 7                4           111        19.8        79.7      32.07        27.33        3.82        2.99        8.09

Season 6                6           105        18.8        86.6      32.23          27.91       3.21         2.82       9.13

Season 5              11              92        19.7         82.10     31.13         28.98       3.17         3.09       9.27

Season 4              17             81         19.5         83.6       30.77      32.00        2.99         3.40       10.79

Season 3              8               94          18.7        78.0        33.35     28.30        3.51         3.28       9.45

Season 2              17            83         17.4         83.9        31.72      28.74        3.15          3.33       9.76

Season 1              9              95          22.6        80.3        30.85       29.05        3.68        3.29        9.01

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Erik Karlsson, D, current age 29. Games played: 647; points: 429; -20

Season 2: Erik Ersberg, G, age 31. GP 80, Save Pct. 88.4

Season 3: Marko Dano, C, age 24. GP 288, Pts 137, -45

Season 4: Haydn Fleury, D, age 23

Season 5: Loic Lamperier, LW, age 24. GP 158, Pts 43, +19

Season 6: MacKenzie Blackwood, G, age 21.

Season 7: Josh Manson, D, age 26. GP 162, Points 38, +26

Season 8: Eeli Tolvanen, LW, age 19.

Season 9: Filip Sveningsson, LW, age 21.

Trade History

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

Traded Max Pacioretty to Frankfurt for Round 7 pick (used to draft Slava Voynov),   Round 10 pick (later traded) (Trevor Daley) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Erik Ersberg)

Traded Dustin Brown, Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and Round 11 pick (Chris Kreider) to Milan for Gabriel Landeskog

Traded Sammi Pahlsson to Bern for Round 20 pick (Brandon Prust) and Round 22 pick (Mark Visentin)

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

Traded Henrik Sedin to Milan for Jordan Stall, Chris Kreider and 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Milan for Brian Rolston

Season 2

Traded Slava Voynov, 2014 Round 2 pick (traded later) (Robert Hagg), Round 1 pick (traded later) (Sean Monhan) to Berlin for R. J. Umberger, Brayden Coburn, Mikhail Grigorenko and a second-round pick(traded later) (Josh Morrissey?)

Traded Erik Ersberg to Berlin for Brian Campbell and 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano)

Traded Saku Koivu to Prague for Chad Larose and 2015 Round 2 pick (Jake Virtanen)

* seem to be missing one trade that probably occurred in here somewhere

Season 3

Traded Jeff Carter, Ryan Johansen and 2015 Round 1 pick (Nikita Kucherov) to Stockholm for Rick Nash and 2015 Round 2 pick (Haydn Fleury)

Season 4

Traded Tomas Vokoun and 2015 Round 2 pick (Nikita Scherbak) to Stockholm for Jonas Hiller

Traded Rick Nash, Fedor Tyutin, Braydon Coburn and Patrick O’Sullivan to Edinburgh for Derek Stepan, Chris Stewart, Dan Winnick and Francois Beauchemin

Season 5

Traded Marko Dano and 2017 Round 2 pick to Copenhagen for Andrej Meszaros

Traded Jordan Staal to Minsk for Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Copenhagen for 2016 Round 2 pick (Reto Suri)

Traded Brian Campbell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Jean Gabriel Pageau) to Copenhagen for Brooks Laich, Andrew Cogliano and Nick Holden.

Season 6

Traded Nick Holden to Helsinki for Derek Roy and Carlo Colaiacovo

After Season 6 started:

Traded Lee Stempniak, Dan Winnik, Jonas Hiller and 2018 Round 1 pick (Michael McLeod) to Copenhagen for Nathan Gerbe and Colin Greening

Traded Nick Leddy and Chris Stewart to Moscow for Blake Wheeler, Marc-Andre Bourdon and 2018 Round 3 pick (Tage Thompson)

Lost Jonas Hiller (waivers)

Season 7

After season started: lost Roman Polak (waivers); signed Josh Jooris (free agent); signed Colin Miller (free agent)

Season 8

Traded Colin Greening, a 2020 Round 2 pick (Linus Hogberg) and a 2021 Round 2 pick to Munich for Craig Smith and Josh Bailey; lost Bailey on waivers

Traded Yasin Ehliz to Belfast for Gabriel Bourque

After Season 8 started

Lost Luke Adam (waivers)

Season 9

Traded Erik Karlsson and Gabriel Landeskog to Belfast for P.K. Subban, Evander Kane, Nardo Nagtzaam, Jacon Larsson, Filip Westerlund and 2023 Round 1 pick