Farm club: H.C. Bolzano-Bozen (Italy) Foxes 

GM: David Bell (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Bob Boughner (replaced Ken Hitchcock after Season 9) (Hitchcock replaced Bruce Boudreau after Season 6, who replaced Randy Carlyle after Season 3)

Last season: 12th overall. In playoffs, lost to Berlin.

Ins and Outs (Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Marcus Kruger (free agent), Kyle Okposo (free agent), TJ Brennan (free agent), Peter Mueller (free agent)

In: Jordan Oesterle (free agent), Justin Bailey (free agent), Evan Bouchard (draft), Isac Lundesrom (draft), Nils Lundkvist (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 8)

Andrew Hammond, G; Kyle Okposo, RW; Jaden Schwartz, C; Tyler Johnson, C; Matthew Tkachuk, RW;

Three Questions

1 The Guerriero have some good forwards, eh? Yes, but be careful about how you judge them. Everyone knows Jaden Schwartz as a crafty playmaker like he was in his St. Louis Blues days, but he’s not. In the EURO League, he has evovled into a speedy checker and a very good defensive center who wins more faceoffs than most (6th best in the league in Season 9). Likewise, linemate Tyler Johnson’s defensive game has outpaced his offensive game over the years. In fact, the team has five forwards with defensive ratings of 85 or higher. Goalie Andrew Hammond loves seeing those numbers. Milan had the 9th best goals against average in the league last season. They play good team defense for sure. A little more offense is what the Italian fans would like to see. Twenty-two-year-olds Aapeli Rasanen and left winger Matthew Tkachuk are probably the best passers on the team and they will be relied on to get the team some secondary scoring. As a group, Milan’s forwards are very speedy and good defensively. They just need more experience. The team may miss Marcus Kruger and Kyle Okposo, who both left as free agents this summer.

2. Can Hammond win games by himself? Andrew Hammond got off to a relatively late start in the league. He has only played four seasons, but somehow he’s already 30 years old. Must have something to do with the calendar or the earth revolving around the sun. We don’t know; we’re not biologists. But if Hammond ever gets near 100 in experience points, teams playing Milan are in major trouble. They are already in pretty big trouble against him. His save percentages have averaged 91 percent in his four years and his goals against in that stretch is 2.78. Like Hammond, the defense corps is young. Danny Dekeyser and Jake Muzzin lead the group and they have jelled into one of the league’s best D pairings. In fact, they were 1 and 2 in the league in blocked shots and Dekeyser was tied for 8th among D-men in takeaways. Reports out of Milan’s camp is that Lorenzo Maas, from Belgium, could start the season on the big club and play in the EURO League for the first time. Maas has good puck skills and is capable of connecting the defense to the offense, but he won’t be a physical presence. If he is paired with Anthony DeAngelo, Milan will be good when they have the puck but when they don’t, the forwards are going to have to come back and help.

3. How is the Milan powerplay? If Milan’s powerplay was a soup, you woud sip a little off your spoon, scrunch your face and spit it out. Plechhh! Aweful. The Guerriero’s 13.2 efficiency rating was worst in the EURO last season. The team still has a lot of young guys working; guys who are talented and quick, but young and prone to making imprudent passes. They have to learn that just because a saucer pass between the legs of two defenders works on their EA Sports game, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work against Jonas Brodin and P.K. Subban, or any other EURO-caliber penalty killers. New coach Bob Boughner is considered by most to be a better PP tactician than Ken Hitchcock was in Italy last season, so look for things to get better for that reason alone. “The Boogie Man” will ask Jaden Schwartz, Tyler Johnson and Jake Muzzin to lead the first PP unit but he will make changes if things don’t start out well for the Guerriero.

History

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

Season 9               12         94        13.2        83.9       29.95      29.99     3.09    3.04      8.38

Season 8               12         89        14.2        80.7       28.04      31.11     2.84     2.66      8.95

Season 7               11         89        15.9        83.9       29.18      32.01     2.98     3.04      7.28

Season 6              19          74        13.2        76.6       28.27      32.04     2.68     3.24               6.34

Season 5              23          58         17.7       80.1        27.56      31.96     2.45        3.52               7.80

Season 4              22         65          15.3        78.0       27.98      34.23    2.72        3.88               9.82

Season 3              22          62          13.3        81.3       26.88     31.39     2.72        3.71                11.62

Season 2              16          86         15.7        84.1       32.62     28.82     3.33        3.32                12.68

Season 1              7          101          19.8        85.6        31.23     27.30    3.74        3.15                11.41

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Gabriel Landeskog, LW, current age 28. Games played: 733; points: 703; -48

Season 2: Gerhard Unterluggauer, D, age 36. GP 489, Pts 183, +36

Season 3: Ben Bishop, G, age 33. GP 167, Save Pct. 88.3

Season 4: Tyler Johnson, C, age 29.  GP 481, Pts 307, -262

Season 5: Par Arlbrandt, RW, age 26.  GP 402, Pts 202, +39

Season 6: Andrew Hammond, G, age 30. GP 262, Save Pct 91.0

Season 7: Matthew Tkachuk, LW, age 22. GP 155; Pts 70, +12

Season 8: Owen Tippett, W, age 18.

Season 9: Aapeli Rasanen, C, age 22. GP 82, 18 Pts, +7

Season 10: Evan Bouchard , D, age 19.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 6 pick (used to draft David Perron), Round 21 pick (Mike Green) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Ossi Vaananen) to Paris for Round 3 pick (used to draft Dustin Byfuglien), Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 26 pick (Jeff Woywitka)

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

Traded Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 22 pick (Jakub Kindl) to St. Petersburg for Round 18 pick (Brandon Gormley)

Traded Round 20 pick (David Steckel) to Bratislava for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Olexander Podbyedonostsev)

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Edinburgh for 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer)

Traded Zbynek Michalek and Jaroslav Spacek to Dublin for 2013 Round 2 pick (Niklas Danielsson) and $1.35 million

Traded Jordan Staal, Chris Kreider, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin) and $250,000 to Madrid for Henrik Sedin

Traded Brad Boyes to Athens for 2013 Round 3 pick (Magnus Johansson)

Traded Nik Antropov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Olexander Podbyedonostsev) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Matthew Dumba) to Helsinki for Jamie McGinn

Traded Viktor Stalberg, 2014 Round 1 pick (Cam Atkinson) and $1 million to St. Petersburg for Daniel Alfredsson

Traded Brian Rolston to Madrid for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Eliezer Sherbatov)

Traded Dustin Penner to Oslo for 2014 Round 3 (later traded) (Samuel Morin)

Season 2

Traded Antoine Vermette to Prague for Jay McClement and 2013 Round 2 pick (Dimitrios Kalyvas)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Helsinki for Mikkel Boedker

Traded Jason Garrison to Moscow for Vaclav Prospal and 2014 Round 2 pick (T.J. Brennan)

Season 3

Traded Dustin Brown and 2014 Round 2 pick (Marcus Foligno) to Stockholm for Kyle Okposo and 2014 Round 1 pick (Brendan Gallagher)

Traded Dustin Byfuglien to Athens for Marcus Kruger, Joel Armia, 2014 Round 1 pick (Ben Bishop) and 2015 Round 2 pick (Alex Stalock)

Traded Mike Richards and 2015 Round 2 pick (later traded to Madrid – Jake Virtanen) to Stockholm for Jaden Schwartz

Traded Ryan Callahan to Berlin for Matt Read and 2014 Round 2 pick (Josh Morrisey)

Traded Matt Moulson to Copenhagen for Tomas Zaborsky

Traded Dimitrios Kalyvas to Athens for Johnny Boychuk

Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Valentin Zykov) to Athens for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Bratislava – Brendan Guhle)

Traded Gerhard Unterluggauer and Matt Read to Berlin for Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb

Traded Magnus Johansson to Stockholm for Thomas Hickey

Traded Antti Niemi to Gothenburg for 2015 Round 1 (Dan Dekeyser) and 2015 Round 3 pick (Alex Tuch)

Season 4

Season 5

After the start of Season 5:

Signed Sean Bergenheim (free agent)

Traded Jonathan Blum to Copenhagen for Brian Campbell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Phil Di Giuseppe)

Season 6

Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Brendan Guhle) to Bratislava for 2018 Round 3 pick (Andrew Copp)

After Season 6 started: Traded Mikko Rantanen to Belfast for Robby Fabbri and 2019 Round 3 pick (Zurich’s) (Drake Caggiula)

Claimed Alex Killorn on waivers and then lost him on waivers

Signed Patrick Thoresen (free agent)

Season 7

Traded Niklas Danielsson to Lisbon for Nick Bjugstad

After season started: lost Chris Tanev (waivers)

Season 8

Traded 2019 Round 3 pick (Carter Hart) to Stockholm for 2020 Round 3 pick (Dylan Samberg)