Owner: Sara Sampaio, Portuguese super model
Farm Club – HC Porto (Portugal) 
GM: Bryan Camara (4th GM in team’s history)
Coach: Willie Desjardins (Replaced Peter Laviolette after Season 4; Laviollette replaced Todd McLellan after Season 3)
Last season: 5th overall (In playoffs, defeated Madrid, then Athens, then lost to Bratislava)
Ins and Outs (Season 8 to Season 9)
Out: Ryan Kesler (trade), Matt Moulson (free agent), Dion Phaneuf (trade), Seth Jones (trade), Josh Bailey (free agent), Tyler Bozak (free agent), Marian Hossa (free agent)
In: Talgat Zhailauov (trade), Andre Burakowsky (trade), Jonathan Drouin (trade), Daniel Fernholm (waivers), Mike Richards (free agent), Thomas Spelling (draft), Alexis Vanier (draft), Ian Mitchell (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 9)
John Tavares, C; Steven Stamkos, RW; Drew Doughty, D; Max Domi, LW; Talgat Zhailauov, C
Three Questions
1. Which new faces will Lisbon fans like the most? General Manager Bryan Camara made a lot of changes in the off season, importing more speed up front and the guys he acquired are pretty flashy and flamboyant, as players go. That style should get more seats filled each game and build fan equity quickly. Some of the new players have the same personality off the ice as they have on it. Talgat Zhailauov, Jonathan Drouin and veteran Mike Richards have been known to be outspoken in the past and Lisbon Coach Willie Desjardins can plan to have the “watch your image” talk a few times this season. A lot of fans are going to love the new defenseman Daniel Fernholm. He kind of takes Dion Phaneuf’s place in the lineup and the two men are quite different. Here is a combination of statistics that describe the Swede Fernholm to a T: A) He and Phaneuf both had 225 hits last season, tying them for 15th in the EURO. B) Phaneuf piled up 154 minutes in penalties, while Fernholm had a grand total of 2. That’s 225 clean hits and just one penalty! How Websim didn’t just hand him the Sportsmanship Trophy is the biggest mystery since the kidnapping of Anze Kopitar’s dog Gustl. Fernholm is not a vocal leader and he’s not too good with the puck – so Phaneuf will be missed in those areas – but if you’re looking for Fernholm, you can find him in the defensive zone pasting people to the boards or clearing the net for goalie Kari Ramo.
3. What are Stamkos and Tavares going to do now? Offensive-minded Matt Moulson is no longer on the top line in Lisbon with Steven Stamkos and John Tavares, who are the number 1 and number 3 all-time leading scorers in the EURO, respectively. To open the season, Desjardins gave Moulson’s old job to Niklas Danielsson, who was the league’s Rookie of the Year in Season 3. That year, with Milan, Danielsson had his best stats to date with 25 goals and 61 points. Look for improvements this season. Heck, Camara himself could ring up totals like that playing with Stamkos and Tavares. The forward lines in Portugal this year are a good mix of youth and experience, but the style theme isn’t so balanced. Speed, passing and shooting will be the dominant style. Other playing styles, like the dump and chase philosophy, should be about as popular on the team this year as a Lisbon player in Madrid. Lisbon could use more secondary scoring and the new centers – Zhailauov, Richards and Mat Barzal were all given their jobs for that reason. Max Domi will like playing with all of them. Keep an eye on the kid taking faceoffs on the fourth line. Barzal can pass like few players can and his future is one of the brightest in the league.
3. How far are they going this year? Fans in Lisbon have seen their team turn it up a notch the last two playoffs. They, more than any other team, seem to know that it’s what you do in the playoffs ends up mattering most. In Season 6, they came in to the post-season as the 6th seed and ended up in the Cup Finals. Last season, they were the 4th seed and came “this close” to another Cup Finals. In Game 7 of their series with Bratislava, Lisbon was ahead 3-0 but yielded three goals and the conference champ had to be decided in overtime. That’s when Bratislava’s Milan Gulas ended it on the second shot of OT, just 31 seconds in. The recent close calls mean Camara and Desjardins can practically taste the Cup. They and all Lisbon fans will be looking to the team’s best two weapons – Stamkos and Tavares – to take them all the way. But every championship team needs 19 solid players and Lisbon has very few wink links. Drew Doughty is the best defenseman on the team. His early season partner Sami Vatanen will be under the microscope all year as the guy that either boosts Doughty’s stats or drags him down a bit, but with Ramo and five solid veteran defensemen, Lisbon should be in most games, just waiting for the Tavares Line to win it. In short, they have just as much chance to win it all this year as any team does.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 8 5 108 21.7 85.7 32.34 27.56 3.73 2.91 10.32
Season 7 8 99 18.5 83.5 30.83 28.18 3.74 2.99 8.18
Season 6 15 86 16.1 81.6 29.99 27.80 3.11 3.16 9.76
Season 5 5 108 23.0 82.9 31.28 27.27 3.91 3.20 8.23
Season 4 14 82 18.5 77.9 30.63 31.39 3.38 3.73 9.70
Season 3 16 83 20.2 80.9 28.39 31.09 3.41 3.46 11.80
Season 2 21 70 13.0 80.3 27.78 30.67 2.83 3.73 11.83
Season 1 23 57 18.8 76.4 26.76 32.20 3.04 4.38 9.78
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Steven Stamkos, C, current age 29. Games played: 656; points: 859; plus-minus +34
Season 2: Karri Ramo, G, age 27. GP: 439; Save Pct. 89.1
Season 3: Seth Jones, D, age 25. GP: 406; points: 107; +3
Season 4: Sami Vatanen, D, age 27. GP: 390; points: 124; -2
Season 5: Nicolas Aube-Kubel, RW, age 22.
Season 6: Adam Lowry, LW, age 24. GP 92, Points 27, +6
Season 7: Frank Vatrano, RW, age 23. GP 82, Points 9, plus-minus -5
Season 8: Lias Andersson, C/LW, age 19.
Season 9: Thomas Spelling, RW, age 23.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Brent Seabrook) and Round 4 pick (Jason Spezza ) to Bern for Claude Giroux
Traded Round 7 pick (Slava Voynov), Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and 2013 Rd 2 pick (Erik Ersberg) to Madrid for Max Pacioretty
Season 2
Traded Josh Gorges to Prague for Jared Spurgeon
Season 3
Traded 2014 Rd 2 pick (traded later) (Hunter Shinkaruk) to Minsk for Jonas Holos
Season 4
Traded Travis Zajac to Helsinki for Kyle Clifford and Gareth Roberts.
Season 5
Traded Max Pacioretty to Moscow for Darnell Nurse, 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Copenhagen – Marten Madsen) and 2017 Round 1 pick (Adam Lowry)
Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Linus Klasen) to Gothenburg for Zach Parise
Traded Dougie Hamilton, Gareth Roberts and 2016 Round 1 pick (Moscow’s, later traded to Bratislava – Marten Madsen) to Copenhagen for Shea Weber
Traded Claude Giroux to Edinburgh for John Tavares
Transactions after the start of Season 5:
Claimed Mike Ribeiro (waivers)
Signed Hayden Hawkey (free agent)
Claimed Jordan Caron (waivers)
Traded Joe Thornton to Bern for Evgeny Kuznetsov and Mats Rosselli Olsen
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Melker Karlsson) to Moscow for Aleksey Kalyuzhny
Traded Jacob De La Rose to Copenhagen for Clarke MacArthur
Season 6
Traded Kyle Brodziak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Jaccob Slavin) to Copenhagen for Joe Pavelski and 2018 Round 3 pick (Bern’s originally – Max Jones)
Traded 2017 Round 2 pick (Colin White) to Minsk for 2017 Round 2 pick (Mathew Barzal) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Svechnikov)
Traded Adam Lowry to Stockholm for Marcus Foligno
After Season 6 started:
Traded Clarke MacArthur to Dublin for 2018 Round 2 pick (Frank Vatrano)
Claimed Matt Martin on waivers
Season 7
Traded Nick Bjugstad to Milan for Niklas Danielsson
Traded 2020 Round 3 pick to Belfast for Matt Moulson
Traded Marcus Foligno, Darnell Nurse and 2019 Round 3 pick (Tyler Parsons) to St. Petersburg for Wayne Simmonds and 2019 Round 2 pick (Berlin’s) (later traded and used to pick Filip Hronek)
Traded Emerson Etem and Magnus Paajarvi to Dublin for Ryan Kesler
Traded Matt Martin (later reacquired off waivers) to Dublin for Brendan Perlini
Traded Evgeny Kuznetzov and 2019 Round 2 (Berlin’s) pick (Filip Hronek) to Berlin for 2019 Round 1 pick (Lias Andersson)
Season 8
Traded Damon Severson and 2021 Round 3 pick to London for Dion Phaneuf and Michael Grabner
Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (Nikita Zaitsev) to Munich for 2020 Round 2 pick (Isaac Ratcliffe)
Traded Yannik Weber to Dublin for 2021 Round 3 pick
Season 9
Traded Dion Phaneuf and 2021 Round 3 pick to Dublin for 2020 Round 2 pick (Alexis Vanier)
Traded 2021 Round 2 pick to Berlin for Talgat Zhailauov
Traded Ryan Kesler to Helsinki for 2022 Round 3 pick
Traded Seth Jones and 2022 Round 2 pick to Copenhagen for Jonathan Drouin and Andre Burakowsky
