Owner: Sophia Rousseau, CEO, ELITE Models (Top Model agency in Paris)

Farm Club: Paris Francais Volants 

GM: Tim Norelco (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Michel Therrien (replaced Randy Cunneyworth after Season 2)

Last season: 10th overall  (In playoffs, defeated Madrid, lost to Athens)

Ins and Outs (Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Corey Perry (free agent), Joffrey Lupul (free agent), Jack Callow (free agent), Mattias Backman (free agent), Jamie McGinn (free agent), Mark Arcobello (free agent), Kevan Miller (free agent), Boyd Gordon (retired)

In: T.J. Oshie (free agent), Marius Holtet (free agent), Mathieu Perreault (free agent), Karel Rachunek (free agent), Steve Oleksy (free agent), Rickard Wallin (free agent), Stephen Weiss (free agent), Yushi Nakayashiki (free agent), Samuel Girard (draft), Jesse Ylonen (draft), Dominik Bokk (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 9)

Alex Pietrangelo, D; Travis Hamonic, D; Ken Kuusk, D; Ivan Provorov, D;  Bryan Little, RW

Three Questions

• Is the Paris defense corps still really, really good? Yes. Alex Pietrangelo, 30, has won the league Top Defenseman trophy three times and was league MVP once. He’s the all-time leader among defensemen in many categories and he seems a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame someday. He is, frankly, one of the best players to play in the EURO so far in its history. His longtime partner back there, Kris Letang, 33, was an unrestricted free agent this off season and decided to stay for three more seasons at $6.5 million annually. Those two along with Ken Kuusk and Travis Hamonic are locked into contracts that should see them wearing bleu sweaters for the next three seasons. They are all excellent skaters and passers who can handle the puck. And those aren’t even their very best qualities. They all have very high defense ratings (93, 98, 98 and 100) so count on the Eiffels to have some amazing quality on the blueline. Ivan Provorov is a sure bet to be a regular on the Paris blueline from now on. As for the last defense spot, rookie Girard got a full-time gig with Wednesday’s waiving of veteran Chris Tanev, who never played a game for Paris, but Thursday’s signing of Karel Rachunek and Steve Oleksy either sends Girard back to the farm or gives Paris some reserve help. Girard could struggle this season, but he is predicted to be a key contributor to the offense and powerplay for years.

• Where did the forwards from Paris’ glory days go? For years, EURO League fans were used to seeing certain names on the backs of Rouge Eiffels jerseys: Malkin, Perry, Lupul, Perron, Koivu, Turris, Vasicek and Semin were fixtures up front for Paris. But there’s an old saying that goes something like “Change is inevitable except for Paris’ defensemen and goalie.” Today, only Evgeny Malkin, Kyle Turris and Josef Vasicek are the remaining links to Paris’ past. But that by no means indicates the replacements for Perry and crew are weak. Bryan Little scored 68 points last season in his first year with the Rouge Eiffels and T.J. Oshie, 34, will be a good defensive winger in his first season in France. And Marius Holtet, a Norwegian who was basically buried in Minsk for the last 7 years, could be a great free agent find by GM Tim Norelco. Look for Holtet to team with Turris and Oshie on the second line while Malkin, Vasicek and Little get the most minutes. The team scooped up veterans Giulio Scandella, Mathieu Perreault and Rickard Wallin Thursday, but fitting them all under the cap is impo going to require a magic trick. GM Norelco might have to sign cheaper players to fill the holes.

• Have they really drafted 5 goalies first in the last 8 drafts? Yes they have, but not one of them has been able to knock Tuukka Rask off the top of the hill. Viktor Fasth, Philipp Grubauer, Brandon Halverson, Aaron Dell and most recently Tanner Jaillet have all failed to make any real inroads to the starting job. Rask’s play continues to impress, convincing management that the other goalies aren’t fit to attach Rask’s skate blades to his skates. Like Letang, Rask was willing to re-sign in Paris (2 seasons for $5.5 million per year), and Paris fans are thrilled to have him. True, he was terrible in the playoffs last year, but can you guess when Rask’s best save percentage season was? This last one; his 9th season. His workload was reduced more than usual and that could have helped, but if you judge a player’s worth by his statistics, then he’s still a top goalie in the league at age 33.

History

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

Season 9              10                95        22.5 81.9 31.87 29.12 3.57 3.09 12.27

Season 8               8                98          21.5        82.1        31.00       30.76      3.76     3.21     13.32

Season 7               5                 108         18.5       85.9        32.55       28.16      3.93     2.89     12.39

Season 6              2                  123         21.4       81.3       33.12        27.17      4.15     2.67       11.24

Season 5              4                  111           21.3       85.6      34.59     27.26    4.10    2.88             10.93

Season 4              2                  113         21.3       81.1       34.10      29.32    4.16     3.07             12.23

Season 3              1                   116          18.0       84.5       33.88     27.52    4.09     2.93               13.85

Season 2              3 (Cup)       104         20.6       81.5      31.40     31.22     3.67        3.34                12.57

Season 1              19                  72         22.8        79.8        27.65     33.06    3.07        3.68                9.09

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Alex Pietrangelo, D, current age 30. Games played: 720; points: 536; +257

Season 2: Ken Kuusk, D, age 26. GP 599, Pts 255, +140

Season 3: Viktor Fasth, G, age 37. GP 89, Save Pct. 88.8

Season 4: Philipp Grubauer, G, age 28.  GP 104,  Save Pct. 88.7

Season 5: Brandon Halverson, G, age 23.

Season 6: Ivan Provorov, D, age 22. GP 164, Points 31, +14

Season 7: Radek Faksa, LW, age 24. GP 242, Points 48, -10

Season 8: Aaron Dell, G, age 29.

Season 9: Tanner Jaillet, G, age 20.

Season 10: Samuel Girard, D, age 19.

Trade History

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

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

Traded Round 7 pick (Dennis Wideman) to Geneva for Round 15 pick (Ryan Ellis),  Round 25 pick (Ben Lovejoy) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Jason Krog)

Traded Adrian Aucoin to Bern for Round 13 pick (Dmitri Orlov), Round 19 pick (Carlo Colaiacovo) and 2014 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Jake Muzzin)

Season 2

Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Thomas Hickey) to Stockholm for Ryan Clowe

Traded Dmitri Orlov and 2014 Round 1 pick (Jake Muzzin) to Stockholm for Travis Hamonic

Traded Derek Brassard, T.J. Brodie and Ryan Ellis to Stockholm for Josef Vasicek

Traded Jaden Schwartz and 2014 Round 1 pick (Peter Mueller) to Stockholm for Miko Koivu

Traded Philip Larsen to Bratislava for Lee Stempniak and 2014 Round 3 pick (Steve Oleksy)

Season 3

Traded Mike Green to Stockholm for Jordan Caron

Season 4

Traded Viktor Fasth to Stockholm for 2018 Round 3 pick (Nick Merkley)

Season 5  

After start of Season 5

Claimed Mike Ribeiro (waivers)

Claimed Nick Palmieri (waivers)

Claimed Jordan Caron (waivers)

Traded Andre Burakovsky to Copenhagen for Nathan Gerbe and 2017 Round 2 pick (Madrid’s) (Ilya Samsonov)

Season 6

Traded Jared McCann to Copenhagen for 2017 Round 1 pick (Athens’) (Ivan Provorov)

Traded Mikko Koivu, 2017 Round 2 pick (Mirco Mueller) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Vladislav Namestnikov) to Stockholm for Mike Richards

Traded 2018 Round 1 pick (Jake McCabe), Craig Paquette, Jordan Caron and Colton Gillies to Copenhagen for Dave Bolland, Benoit Pouliot, Martin Erat and 2018 Round 2 pick (Radek Faksa)

After Season 6 started:

Signed Sergei Zinovjev (free agent), Lauri Korpikoski (free agent), Ryan Clowe (free agent), Michael Ryder (free agent), Alex Tanguay (free agent); claimed Steve Olesky (waivers); claimed Colton Gillies (waivers) then lost Gillies (waivers); lost Nathan Gerbe (waivers)

Season 7

After season started: Signed Tom Wandell (free agent), signed Matt Frattin (free agent), claimed Damien Brunner (waivers); lost Radek Faksa (waivers)

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10: