Owner: Bogdan Podarok, entrepeneur

Farm Club: Aalborg (Denmark) Pirates 

GM: Austin Dwyer  (3rd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Randy Carlyle (replaced Guy Boucher after Season 5)

Last season: 23rd overall; missed playoffs

Ins and Outs  (Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (free agent)

In: T.J. Brennan (free agent), Andrei Svechnikov (draft), Oliver Wahlstrom (draft), Rasmus Sandin (draft), Jan Drozg (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 10)

Jordan Eberle, RW; Adam Henrique, C; Dylan Sikura, C; Olli Palola, RW; Oscar Klefbom, D

Three Questions

1. Can you explain the Fraser-Pashnin thing that’s going on in Gothenburg? Pretty simple, actually. While the team is losing a lot of games, Mark Fraser and Mikhail Pashnin are putting rumps in the seats because people love to see their guys beat up the other guys. Fraser is the king of the thug game and Pashnin is his Boy Wonder, trying to learn the art. Fraser is 33 now and he’s never played top minutes, but he is third all-time in penalty minutes. Not a single player has been in as many fights as Fraser has in his career (68) or been declared the winner of a fight more times (20). The guy is simply the most feared player in the league since Micki Dupont skated around looking for trouble. Pashnin actually fought more than anyone did last season (11) and he was co-leader as a rookie with 9 fights. He’s not a big, imposing guy; he just loves to fight. And judging by the Frolunda’s average home attendance of 16,632 in a losing season, the Swedish people like it too. Fraser’s hockey skills are fading and he might not play much this year so General Manager Austin Dwyer might have to look at winning games as a possible way to get people to the arena.

2. Is there reason to believe the Frounda will be better this year? There is. We worry about the fact goalie Pekka Rinne is a little older than Ringo Starr, but there are a few reasons to anticipate an increase in points this season. For one, most of the team is players in their 20s, so as a group, they will have better attributes than they did last year at this time. Another reason is the fact GM Austin Dwyer hasn’t caused much upheaval in the organization. Between seasons, a veteran defenseman left through free agency and another veteran defenseman came in. That’s it. That’s the only change. Dwyer is letting the guys grow and work out their difficulties together. There will be more cohesion and togetherness apparent in Gothenburg than on other teams. And another reason is that defenseman switch we talked about. Marc-Edouard Vlasic was steady and a good soldier for the Frolunda, but he left and has been replaced by T.J. Brennan. Brennan put together a quiet but useful seven seasons in Milan and he has evolved into a solid all-around player with some leadership qualities. He should score at least 25 points for his new teammates and he has the skills to score more than that and make the powerplay hum.

3. What are the forwards like? If you look at the speed, skill and smarts that saturate the Gothenburg forward positions, you have to wonder how they managed to end up close to the basement last season. It appears the team’s lack of size, leadership and experience was costly last season because this roster is packed with excellent skaters with hockey sense and finesse. It’s the kind of collective skill set that should have Gothenburg excelling while on the powerplay, especially with Brennan added to the mix. The Frolunda could probably use another sniper so the pressure will be on their best shooters – Jordan Eberle and Dylan Sikura – to score when they have the chances. One constant in every Gothenburg equation ever has been Adam Henrique, a nearly perfect forward. The Canadian is only 30 years old now so he should be able to handle yet another season of 26 minutes of ice time per game with Eberle and Petr Vrana on his wings. Henrique is 8th all-time among EURO players in takeaways and assists and 11th in points. We can’t leave the forwards without mentioning that Dwyer placed two more skilled and clever forwards onto the conveyor belt when he drafted Andrei Svechnikov and Oliver Wahlstrom about a month ago.

History

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

Season 9              23          65            17.0      79.9 29.16 32.12 2.99 4.05 11.40

Season 8              22          66            17.9      77.3      28.57       31.28       2.71    3.67     12.12

Season 7               10          92            20.5      80.9       29.96      29.39      3.45     3.32      10.20

Season 6                7           96             18.2       83.8      29.55     29.02      3.12     2.91      10.63

Season 5              17            80            16.50    82.20    28.93      31.80      2.84     3.16      10.73

Season 4                8            104          18.6      79.4       29.73     29.84      3.56     2.87       8.06

Season 3              11             91            18.9      83.4       28.96     30.91     3.41      3.46     10.98

Season 2              15            86            17.4      84.6      30.12     30.93     3.44      3.50     11.02

Season 1              14             88           17.4       86.6      30.74     28.65     3.26     3.13      7.95

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Adam Henrique, C, current age 30. Games played: 725; points: 732; -45

Season 2: Petr Vrana, LW, age 29. GP 628, Pts 387; -81

Season 3: Beau Bennett, RW, age 28.  GP 505, Pts 159; -55

Season 4: none

Season 5: Linus Klasen, LW, age 26. GP 177; Pts 74; -4

Season 6: Oliver Kylington, D, 22.

Season 7: Kieffer Bellows, LW/C, age 21.

Season 8: Kailer Yamamoto, RW, age 20.

Season 9: Dylan Sikura, C, 21. GP 82, Pts 61, -12

Season 10: Andrei Svechnikov, RW, age 18.

Trade History

Season 2

Traded Sam Gagner, 2014 Round 1 pick (traded later) (used to draft Jonathan Drouin) and 2015 Round 2 pick (David Savard) to Stockholm for Eric Staal

* missing one trade, probably in this period.

Season 3

Traded Milan Lucic, 2016 Round 1 pick (Sandro Zurkirchen) and 2017 Round 1 pick (Kevin Hayes) to Minsk for Zach Parise

Traded Devante Smith-Pelly, Ales Hemsky and 2016 Round 2 pick (Alexander Toryanik)  to St. Petersburg for Martin St. Louis

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

Season 4

Traded Morgan Rielly, Eric Gelinas and 2017 Round 2 pick (Brayden McNabb) to Oslo for Ryan Suter

Traded Martin St. Louis, Antti Niemi, Erik Johnson, Scott Harrington, Zack Phillips, 2016 Round 3 pick (Andreas Englund), 2017 Round 3 pick (Ivan Trenin) and 2018 Round 1 pick (Jakob Chychrun) to St. Petersburg for Pekka Rinne, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Blake Wheeler

Traded Zach Parise to Lisbon for 2016 Round 1 pick (Linus Klasen)

Traded Ryan Suter and Blake Wheeler to Moscow for Kevin Dallman and 2016 Round 1 pick (Olli Palola)

Traded 2018 Round 3 pick (Trevor Van Riemsdyk) to Moscow for Aleksey Morozov

After Season 5 started

Signed Frazer McLaren (free agent)

Traded 2019 RD 3 pick (Anton Slepyshev) to Copenhagen for Anthony Nigro (formerly named Chris Legge)

Claimed Louis Leblanc (waivers)

Season 6

Traded Patrick Marleau to Munich for Braydon Coburn and 2017 Round 3 pick (Oliver Kylington)

Traded Eric Staal to Stockholm for Mikko Koivu

Season 7

After season started: signed Mike Cammalleri (free agent), signed Pascal Dupuis (free agent)

Season 8

Traded John Carlson and 2021 Round 3 pick (Drake Batherson) to St. Petersburg for Oscar Klefbom, Kevin Fiala and 2021 Round 1 pick (Oliver Wahlstrom)

Season 9

Season 10

Traded 2022 Round 3 pick pick to St. Petersburg for 2021 Round 3 pick (Jan Drozg)