Farm Club – Glasgow (Scotland) Claymores
GM: John Charles (3rd GM in team’s history)
Coach: Tom Rowe (replaced Bob Hartley before Season 9) (replaced Randy Carlyle before Season 6, who replaced Lindy Ruff)
Last season: 22nd overall, out of the playoffs
Ins and Outs (Season 9 to Season 10)
Out: Matthieu Perreault (free agent), Drew Stafford (free agent), Joe Morrow (free agent),
In: Filip Zadina (draft), Joel Farabee (draft), Mattias Samuelsson (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 10)
Jamie Benn, LW; Sidney Crosby, C; Jakub Kovar, G; Gurkan Cetinkaya, D; Sam Reinhart, RW; Nolan Patrick, C
Three Questions
(Sorry about the text justification below; I can’t get it to behave)
- What’s the problem with the Caps? It’s not veterans Jamie Benn or Sidney Crosby who both pumped in more than 30 goals. But last season, Edinburgh – as a group did not seem to care what was happening when the other team had the puck. It’s as if they were all thinking what they would do with the puck the next time they got it instead of concentrating on how to help out their goalie. The Capitals were fourth worst in the league in terms of goals against, second worst in terms of shots against and third worst in penalty killing. As the team’s younger forwards – and there are a lot of them – mature, they will get better defensively, but their lack of experience is making the defense’s job much more difficult right now. Benn and Crosby are the two main leaders of the team and their best defensive forwards, as well. Casey Cizikas and Mike Hoffman are also good at that part of the game and the younger forwards should really keep an eye on how those four vets play the game. Crosby, by the way, re-upped with Edinburgh this season at age 33 for two seasons at $9 million plus a team option.
2. Do you have any really weird stats for us? Of course. Prague plays in a tough division, don’t they? I mean the other five teams in the Demitra Division had 91 points or more last year. But do you know which team earned the fewest points against divisional opponents last year? The Edinburgh Capitals of the Ahearne Division, that’s who. Belfast, London and Copenhagen were all Top 10 teams in the league, so we can understand losing points to them, but Dublin and Oslo did some Cap butt kickin’ too last year. Coach Tom Rowe needs to emphasize those “four-point” games to his players. Edinburgh dropped 6 places in the standings in Season 10 and it finished 3 points behind Oslo and 7 points behind the Irish. The divisional points were a big factor.
3. What are the brightest spots on the Scottish horizon?
Capitals General Manager John Charles has proven to be one of the most patient GMs in the league, choosing to build with the draft. The last trade he made was in Season 7, when Brandon Dubinsky went to Copenhagen for a draft pick that turned out to be defenseman Brett Pesce. Edinburgh has Filip Zadina coming up through Detroit’s NHL farm system and Charles will be keeping an eye on his development because Zadina is the kind of kid who could really boost a franchise. It really wouldn’t be a stretch to see Zadina pull an Elias Pettersson, maybe even a Patrik Laine in his rookie season. Before Zadina happens though, there are a lot of players in Edinburgh to watch develop into bonafide stars. The right wing position seems especially strong with Sam Reinhart. Mikko Ratanen, Kevin Hayes and Jesse Puljujarvi. At center, fans are waiting for Englishman Scott Conway to break out as a scorer, and he should, and 20-year Nolan Patrick should be a key Capital soon and for a long time. On the blue line, there isn’t a lot of really young talent, but Scot fans would love to see their GM lock up longtime Caps Adam Larsson and Gurkan Cetinkaya – both 28 – to long contracts. And the Capitals should be set in goal for a while, with Jakub Kovar between the pipes. The 26-year-old Czech has five seasons and a career save percentage over 90 on his resume. So if you are looking past Season 10, Edinburgh has a solid foundation on which to build.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 9 22 66 17.8 77.8 26.27 34.01 3.22 3.95 8.68
Season 8 16 80 14.5 81.3 27.57 34.10 2.84 3.15 7.82
Season 7 22 66 14.8 79.9 25.82 33.50 2.59 3.44 7.68
Season 6 20 71 11.3 84.3 27.73 32.60 2.78 3.40 8.95
Season 5 14 85 19.2 83.1 29.62 31.85 3.23 3.40 8.79
Season 4 5 107 20.3 82.4 32.22 29.05 3.77 3.02 9.98
Season 3 13 83 15.7 81.3 30.16 28.44 3.44 3.51 10.66
Season 2 12 93 17.8 82.3 30.05 27.26 3.51 3.43 12.13
Season 1 12 90 15.2 80.8 29.84 29.06 3.11 3.13 9.11
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Henrik Lundqvist, G, current age 38. Games played: 590; save pct. 90.7
Season 2: Gurkan Cetinkaya, D, age 28. GP 536, Pts 163, -1
Season 3: Casey Cizikas, C, age 28. GP 336, Points 95, -3
Season 4: Sam Reinhart, C/RW, age 24. GP 287, Points 218, -110
Season 5: Alexander Kerfoot, RW, age 27. GP 327, Points 79, +9
Season 6: Mike Hoffman, LW, age 29. GP 323, Points 150, -23
Season 7: Jess Puljujarvi, RW, Age 20.
Season 8: Nolan Patrick, C, age 20. GP 26, Pts 11, -4
Season 9: Dominik Kubalik, LW, age 20. GP 54, Pts 7, -1
Season 10: Flip Zadina, W, age 19.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Daniel Sedin) and Round 5 pick (Ray Whitney) to Bern for Round 2 pick (Derek Stepan)
Traded Round 15 pick (Evgeny Kuznetsov) to Bern for Dan Winnick
Traded Nick Bjugstad to Minsk for Matt Hunwick, for Round 25 pick (Daniel Paille) and another Round 25 pick (Alexei Emelin)
Traded Round 21 pick (David Moss) to Bratislava for David Steckel
Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer) to Milan for Andrew Cogliano
Traded Artem Anisimov, Blake Wheeler and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic to St. Petersburg for James Neal, Andrei Kostitsyn and Karl Alzner
Traded Henrik Lundqvist to Helsinki for John Tavares, Ilya Bryzgalov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jakub Kovar) and $5 million
Traded David Steckel and 2013 Round 3 pick (Jamie Oleksiak) to St. Petersburg for Kyle Wellwood
Season 2 – None
Season 3 – None
Traded James Neal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Belfast for Tony Martensson, Olivier Roland, Ondrej Pavelec and Adam Larsson
Traded Ondrej Pavelec, 2016 Round 1 pick (Simon Hjalmarsson), 2017 Round 2 pick to Geneva for Kari Lehtonen
Traded Derek Stepan, Dan Winnick, Chris Stewart and Francois Beauchemin to Madrid for Rick Nash, Braydon Coburn, Fedor Tyutin and Patrick O’Sullivan
Season 4
Traded John Tavares to Lisbon for Claude Giroux
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Niklas Svedberg) to Berlin for 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou (named changed to Alexander Kerfoot))
Traded Tony Martensson to Berlin for Matt Read
Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (Radek Faksa) to Copenhagen for Martin Thornberg
Moves After Season 5 started
- Claimed Bryan Bickell (waivers)
- Signed Alexander Sulzer (free agent)
- Signed Mike Cammalleri (free agent)
- Claimed Nino Niedereitter (waivers)
- Signed Grant Clitsome (free agent)
- Signed Andy Sertich (free agent)
Season 6
After Season 6 started: Traded Claude Giroux to Belfast for Sidney Crosby, Mikko Rantanen, 2018 Round 1 pick (Jake Bean) and 2018 Round 2 pick (Andreas Athanasiou)
Traded Olivier Roland and 2018 Round 3 pick (Yegor Korshkov) to Minsk for Kevin Hayes, 2018 Round 2 pick
(Brandon Davidson) and 2019 Round 2 pick (Jimmy Vesey)
Season 7
Traded Brandon Dubinsky to Copenhagen for Josh Holden and 2018 Round 2 pick (Brett Pesce)
Claimed David Savard (waivers)
After season started: Signed Thomas Vanek (free agent)
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
