Farm Club: Vitebsk Bears 
GM: Igor Kirunov (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Dave Tippett (replaced Guy Boucher, who replaced Lindy Ruff, who replaced Claude Julien)
Last season: 1st overall, (In playoffs, defeated Edinburgh, then defeated Stockholm, then defeated Belfast, then defeated Bratislava to win Cup)
Ins and Outs
(Season 8 to Season 9)
Out: Nicklas Backstrom (free agent), Carey Price (free agent), Anton Khudobin (free agent), Nick Spaling (free agent),
In: Chad Johnson (free agent), Simon Despres (waivers), Tim Bozon (draft), Alex Formenton (draft), Erik Kallgren (draft), Nicklas Jensen (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 9) not counting players with player options
Ryan McDonagh, D; Aaron Ekblad, D; Maxim Chudinov, D; Michael Del Zotto, D; Tamir Ganbold, D;
Three Questions
1. How important are defensemen to a Cup-winning team? To this Cup-winning team, defensemen are apparently worth their weight in gold. Minsk fans are thrilled that the entire defense corps has signed long-term contracts to remain in Belarus. The group that has already won two cups will be together through Seasons 9, 10 and 11 and maybe longer, unless General Manager Igor Kirunov decides to include them in trades. But the Belarusian hockey wizard has traded just one player (Colin Wilson) since he won his first of two EURO Cups. And why should Kirunov make trades? His team has finished first overall during the regular season the last three years and they were champs two of those years. Ryan McDonagh is now 30 and Kris Russell is 32, but the other four blueliners – Maxim Chudinov, Aaron Ekblad, Michael Del Zotto and Tamir Ganbold – are all under 30. The Mongolian Ganbold was not a regular on the team when it won Cup 1, Janne Niskala was, but he is getting full-time minutes now and he could be a wild card for the Hussars this season. He occasionally channels his inner Genghis Khan and takes bad penalties, but he is said to have a very good slapshot. Minsk fans are still waiting to see it, however. In 188 career games, the 29-year-old has scored just 7 times. Cherepovets, Russia product Chudinov, at just 25, is seeing top-pairing minutes this season at the expense of McDonagh, who is now on the second pair. And Chudinov is wearing the “C” on his chest this season, a clear sign that he is the team’s main building block now. Coach Dave Tippett also has 3 very capable reinforcements in Vitebsk in case they need to to fill in for injured defensemen. David Schlemko, Andrew McDonald and Simon Despres could start for most EURO League teams, but they might spend the whole season with the Bears.
2. How can they win without Price and Backstrom? In the back of everyone’s mind this season is the fact that goalie Carey Price and center Nicklas Backstrom both left the Minsk team in the off season for more lucrative deals through free agency. In the back of GM Kirunov’s mind is the possibility that star forwards Patrick Kane, Jordan Staal and Milan Lucic could pull the same stunt at the end of this season. Staal emphatically answered the question of who can replace Backstrom when he moved into the top spot during a Backstrom injury last year, and the Canadian never left. In a word or two, Staal’s a great player. But the three other centers on the team are Jacob Josefson, Bo Horvat and Michael Keranen. Backstrom will outscore all of them combined – playing one handed with a blindfold – so count the Backstrom loss as a big one. The Price loss is a killer. Chad Johnson was scooped up in free agency and the team’s hopes are resting on his shoulder pads. Johnson has no starting experience. He was Henrik Lundquist’s backup in Helsinki for four seasons, but he didn’t even play in the league last season. Minsk fans can only hope the excellent players in front of Johnson and rookie backup Erik Kallgren protect them adequately all season, or until Kirunov can come up with a better goalie.
3. What are the Hussars’ secret weapons? It’s not really a secret anymore, but we’ll name a couple. Last season, opponents had a lot on their mind when they were trying to figure out a way to defeat the Minsk machine. They worried about stopping the Jordan Staal-Patrick Kane- Milan Lucic line, and at the same time, they were also worrying about trying to navigate through the Hussars’ hard-hitting yet nimble defense jungle; and then it was a simple matter of trying to figure out the combination that would unlock the Carey Price vault door in front of the net. That was a lot of worrying and thinking they had to do each game and then all of a sudden … boom! Bo Horvat or Jacob Josefson would hit them and steal the puck … and where did that Gustav Nyquist come from? Man, he’s fast … and wasn’t someone supposed to have Thomas Powell, who is standing alone in front of our goalie? Minsk’s secondary forward depth was a big plus for them, especially in the playoffs when waiver pickup Luke Adam scored 9 times in 22 games. Powell, Nyquist and Josefson really aren’t “secret” weapons, but they are overlooked in the glare of Staal, Kane and Lucic. Nyquist scored 32 goals last season, which placed him 20th in the league in that category; and Powell has scored more than 70 points twice in his career and last season, he left with two nice trophies: Best Defensive Forward and Playoff MVP.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 8 1 119 19.3 84.4 36.04 24.96 3.94 2.49 9.37
Season 7 1 120 20.7 84.1 34.57 24.84 4.00 2.55 9.48
Season 6 1 144 20.1 84.2 35.04 25.32 3.96 2.13 9.96
Season 5 3 117 17.1 86.6 34.85 26.24 3.70 2.45 10.57
Season 4 7 106 19.0 83.4 33.55 28.05 3.24 2.67 12.18
Season 3 18 77 17.3 78.6 29.57 30.85 3.15 3.40 12.91
Season 2 19 74 15.1 81.9 26.40 31.21 2.71 3.41 10.29
Season 1 24 54 13.3 79.8 25.59 32.46 2.12 3.50 9.82
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Carey Price, G, current age 32. Games played: 561; Save Pct. 90.4
Season 2: Maxim Chudinov, D, age 25. GP 544, Pts 256, +151
Season 3: Valeri Nichushkin, RW, age 24. GP 423, Pts 129, +5
Season 4: Aaron Ekblad, D, age 22. GP 327; Pts 146; +133
Season 5: Kevin Clark, RW, age 24. GP 6, Points 0, 0
Season 6: Kevin Hayes, RW, age 25. GP 199; Pts 77, -22
Season 7: German Rubtsov, C, age 20.
Season 8: Nick Suzuki, C, age 18.
Season 9: Tim Bozon, LW, age 23.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 4 pick (used to draft Brent Burns) to St. Petersburg for Round 6 pick (used to draft Patrik Berglund) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Thomas Powell)
Traded Round 8 pick (traded later) (Andrej Meszaros) to Oslo for Round 17 pick (Zac Rinaldo) and 2013 Round 1 (Alex Galchenyuk)
Traded Round 12 pick (Dan Winnick) to Bern for Round 14 pick (Matt Cllen), Round 25 pick (later traded) (Dan Paille) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Nathan Beaulieu)
Traded Matt Cullen to Athens for Round 15 pick (Stefan Elliott)
Traded Matt Hunwick Round 25 pick (Dan Paille) and Round 25 pick (Alexei Emelin) to Edinburgh for Nick Bjugstad
Traded Vernon Fiddler and $1 million to Geneva for Alex Chiasson
Traded Round 21 pick (Raffi Torres) to Geneva for Brian Dumoulin
Traded Round 10 pick (Mikael Granlund) to Belfast for Round 11 pick (Romas Josi) and Round 15 pick (Andrej Sekera)
Season 2
Traded Andrej Sekera to Prague for Nicklas Grossman and 2015 Round 3 pick (Jon Merrill)
Traded Brayden Schenn and Kyle Clifford to Helsinki for Alexander Burmistrov
Traded Tobias Stephan to London for 2016 Round 3 pick (later traded)
Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (from London – Erik Forssell)) to London for Tobias Stephan
Traded Jonas Holos to Frankfurt for 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Viktor Fasth)
Traded Patric Hornqvist and Mathis Olimb to Berlin for 2015 Round 1 that was later traded in Aaron Ekblad deal and used to pick (Sami Vatanen).
Season 3
Traded 2014 Rd 2 pick (Hunter Shinkaruk) to Helsinki for Sven Baertschi
Traded Roman Josi and Alexander Galchenyuk to Prague for Zach Parise
Traded Andres De La Garma to Copenhagen for 2015 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Julius Honka)
Traded Zach Parise to Gothenburg for Milan Lucic, 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Zurich in Patrick Kane deal – Sandro Zurkirchen) and 2017 Round 1 pick (Kevin Hayes)
Traded 2015 Round 3 pick (Brandon Montour) to Helsinki for Nick Spaling
Season 4
Traded Nick Bjugstad, Magnus Paajarvi and 2015 Round 1 pick (Sami Vatanen) to Frankfurt for 2015 Round 1 pick (Aaron Ekblad)
Traded Valeri Nichushkin, Sergei Kostitsyn and Ilya Nikulin to Geneva for Michael Del Zotto
Traded 2015 Round 2 pick (Julius Honka) to Stockholm for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Munich in Mark Giordano trade and used to pick Calle Jarnkrok)
Traded Jon Merrill to Bern for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Munich and used to pick Travis Dermott)
Traded Jakub Voracek, Nathan Beaulieu and 2016 Round 1 pick (Sandro Zurkirchen) to Zurich for Patrick Kane
Traded Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy to Madrid for Jordan Staal
Traded Renat Mamashev to Dublin for 2017 Round 2 pick (Pavel Zacha)
Traded two 2017 Round 3 draft picks (used to pick Calle Jarnkrok and Oliver Kylington (by Gothenburg)) to Munich for Mark Giordano
Season 5
Season 6
Traded 2017 Round 2 pick (Mathew Barzal) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Svechnikov) to Lisbon for 2017 Round 2 pick (Colin White)
After Season 6 started:
Traded Dmitrij Jaskin to Zurich for Janne Niskala
Traded Kevin Hayes, 2018 Round 2 pick (Brandon Davidson) and 2019 Round 2 pick (Jimmy Vesey) to Edinburgh for Olivier Roland and 2018 Round 3 pick (Yegor Korshkov)
Claimed Jimmy Hayes off waivers
Lost Mark Giordano and Matt Martin off waivers
Season 7
Season 8
Traded Colin Wilson to Athens for 2019 Round 2 pick (Denis Malgin) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Erik Kallgren)
After Season 8 started:
Signed Tyler Kennedy, Sergei Kostitsyn and Colin Greening (free agents)
Claimed Michael Keranen (waivers)
Claimed Luke Adam (waivers)
Season 9
