Team owner: Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, Queen of Spain. A former television journalist, she married King Felipe VI
Farm Club: HC Barcelona
GM: Tony B (2nd GM in team’s history)
Coach: Dan Bylsma
Last season: 7th overall. In playoffs, lost to Paris
Ins and Outs (Season 9 to Season 10)
Out: Derek Stepan (free agent), Mikhail Grigorenko (free agent), Justin Bailey (bought out), Dylan Demelo (bought out), Tage Thompson (bought out)
In: Tomas Vincour (free agent), Milan Gulas (free agent), Olivier Roland (free agent), Marcus Kruger (free agent), Cam Atkinson (free agent), Jamie McGinn (free agent), Sakari Salminen (waivers), Sandro Zurkirchen (trade), Ondrej Roman (waivers), Alexander Chmelevski (draft)
In Place (Key players signed or restricted free agents past Season 10)
Robin Lehner, G; P.K. Subban, D; Jonas Brodin, D; Sean Couturier, C; Nardo Nagtzaam, C
Three Questions
1.How did that big trade work out for Madrid? We know the decision to trade Erik Karlsson and Gabriel Landeskog to Belfast last year helped the Giants win the EURO Cup in Season 9, so Belfast GM Chris Patton looks like an immediate genius. But in Spain, the final results won’t be known for years because two prospects and a 2023 first-round pick were involved in the deal. The trade cost Madrid two offensive mega-weapons, so one would think their goals per game, shots per game and powerplay numbers would suffer. But while the PP units did in fact do worse, the team scored and shot more than they did with the super Swedes in the lineup. Former Giant P.K. Subban dulled the pain of losing Karlsson with 24 goals and 49 points while playing some talented and tough defense in front of goalie Robin Lehner; and former Giant Evander Kane (career high 38 goals and 77 points) nearly made up for the loss of Landeskog’s Season 8 production. Another player who came from Belfast in the trade really blossomed. Nardo Nagtzaam (career high 32 goals and 59 points) made Madrid fans feel much better about the player exchange. So this was a trade that seemed to help both teams. Tony B, general manager of the Royals, is hoping the prospects and pick that came along in the trade will someday tip the scales in Madrid’s favor on the big deal, although that Season 9 Cup will be tough to out-weigh.
2. Why all the turnover in Madrid? Coach Dan Bylsma – who has been at the helm of the club for 10 seasons – has moved players up and down in the lineup with success in the past and there’s no reason to believe that philosophy will stop working. GM Tony B had several wrestling matches at the negotiating table this off season, and he lost some. He seemed to have trouble finding salaries that both sides could live with and five negotiations were sent to league arbiter Lady Arden, costing Madrid a minor fortune in cap space. Wingers Craig Smith and Gabriel Bourque were re-signed – but only to one-year deals – and Tony struck out on his first tries with top centers Sean Couturier and Derek Stepan as well as a half-dozen other unrestricted free agents. Couturier returned to the fold but Stepan is gone. Tony B has three very good young players signed to long-term contracts, but an awful lot of the others could walk away from Spain a year from now and most of the best players on the team are around 30 years of age, which is generally peak age in the EURO League, so this season has a bit of a now or never sense to it. But Madrid lists many young players who are fighting for ice time, so the depth is there, and depth has been a strength of the Royals for a couple years now.
3. Who makes the Royals go? Fans like the way the flamboyant Subban gets things revved up and so do a lot of his teammates. But Evander Kane and Robin Lehner are the two players who the team relies on most for wins. Kane got better when he left Ireland. Maybe it’s because he is more mature at age 29 now, or maybe Stepan was his kind of center, but Kane was definitely better in Spain than he was in Belfast and before that, Dublin. And he was good in both those cities! If Coach Dan Bylsma can find the right line chemistry for Kane, and if he finds the right number of minutes to play him, Kane could have a monster season. This league has seen five 50-goal scorers in the last five seasons – one per year – and Kane has the physical tools to join that club. Lehner has been the Madrid starting goalie for six seasons now and he has signed a long-term contract. The big guy is reliable and gives the team a chance to win every time out. He can also steal some wins for Madrid. Lehner ranks 14th all-time in minutes played, but he is 11th all-time in wins and 10th all-time in shutouts.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 9 7 100 17.3 81.4 31.41 28.21 3.34 2.91 9.83
Season 8 7 102 21.0 82.6 31.35 27.38 3.24 2.82 9.59
Season 7 4 111 19.8 79.7 32.07 27.33 3.82 2.99 8.09
Season 6 6 105 18.8 86.6 32.23 27.91 3.21 2.82 9.13
Season 5 11 92 19.7 82.10 31.13 28.98 3.17 3.09 9.27
Season 4 17 81 19.5 83.6 30.77 32.00 2.99 3.40 10.79
Season 3 8 94 18.7 78.0 33.35 28.30 3.51 3.28 9.45
Season 2 17 83 17.4 83.9 31.72 28.74 3.15 3.33 9.76
Season 1 9 95 22.6 80.3 30.85 29.05 3.68 3.29 9.01
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Erik Karlsson, D, current age 30. Games played: 724; points: 482; +20
Season 2: Erik Ersberg, G, age 32. GP 80, Save Pct. 88.4
Season 3: Marko Dano, C, age 25. GP 364, Pts 192, -75
Season 4: Haydn Fleury, D, age 22
Season 5: Loic Lamperier, LW, age 25. GP 237, Pts 57, +28
Season 6: MacKenzie Blackwood, G, age 22.
Season 7: Josh Manson, D, age 27. GP 244, Points 60, +34
Season 8: Eeli Tolvanen, LW, age 20.
Season 9: Filip Sveningsson, LW, age 22. GP 2, Pts 0, 0 plus/minus rating
Season 10: Danton Heinen, RW, age 22.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Max Pacioretty to Frankfurt for Round 7 pick (used to draft Slava Voynov), Round 10 pick (later traded) (Trevor Daley) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Erik Ersberg)
Traded Dustin Brown, Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and Round 11 pick (Chris Kreider) to Milan for Gabriel Landeskog
Traded Sammi Pahlsson to Bern for Round 20 pick (Brandon Prust) and Round 22 pick (Mark Visentin)
Traded Michal Neuvirth, Nick Johnson and 2013 Round 1 pick (Martin Ruzicka) to Athens for Tomas Vokoun
Traded Henrik Sedin to Milan for Jordan Stall, Chris Kreider and 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin)
Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Milan for Brian Rolston
Season 2
Traded Slava Voynov, 2014 Round 2 pick (traded later) (Robert Hagg), Round 1 pick (traded later) (Sean Monhan) to Berlin for R. J. Umberger, Brayden Coburn, Mikhail Grigorenko and a second-round pick(traded later) (Josh Morrissey?)
Traded Erik Ersberg to Berlin for Brian Campbell and 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano)
Traded Saku Koivu to Prague for Chad Larose and 2015 Round 2 pick (Jake Virtanen)
* seem to be missing one trade that probably occurred in here somewhere
Season 3
Traded Jeff Carter, Ryan Johansen and 2015 Round 1 pick (Nikita Kucherov) to Stockholm for Rick Nash and 2015 Round 2 pick (Haydn Fleury)
Season 4
Traded Tomas Vokoun and 2015 Round 2 pick (Nikita Scherbak) to Stockholm for Jonas Hiller
Traded Rick Nash, Fedor Tyutin, Braydon Coburn and Patrick O’Sullivan to Edinburgh for Derek Stepan, Chris Stewart, Dan Winnick and Francois Beauchemin
Season 5
Traded Marko Dano and 2017 Round 2 pick (Ilya Samsonov) to Copenhagen for Andrej Meszaros
Traded Jordan Staal to Minsk for Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy
Traded Andrew Cogliano to Copenhagen for 2016 Round 2 pick (Reto Suri)
Traded Brian Campbell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Jean Gabriel Pageau) to Copenhagen for Brooks Laich, Andrew Cogliano and Nick Holden.
Season 6
Traded Nick Holden to Helsinki for Derek Roy and Carlo Colaiacovo
After Season 6 started:
Traded Lee Stempniak, Dan Winnik, Jonas Hiller and 2018 Round 1 pick (Michael McLeod) to Copenhagen for Nathan Gerbe and Colin Greening
Traded Nick Leddy and Chris Stewart to Moscow for Blake Wheeler, Marc-Andre Bourdon and 2018 Round 3 pick (Tage Thompson)
Lost Jonas Hiller (waivers)
Season 7
After season started: lost Roman Polak (waivers); signed Josh Jooris (free agent); signed Colin Miller (free agent)
Season 8
Traded Colin Greening, a 2020 Round 2 pick (Linus Hogberg) and a 2021 Round 2 pick to Munich for Craig Smith and Josh Bailey; lost Bailey on waivers
Traded Yasin Ehliz to Belfast for Gabriel Bourque
After Season 8 started
Lost Luke Adam (waivers)
Season 9
Traded Erik Karlsson and Gabriel Landeskog to Belfast for P.K. Subban, Evander Kane, Nardo Nagtzaam, Jacon Larsson, Filip Westerlund and 2023 Round 1 pick
Season 10
Traded Danton Heinen to Zurich for Sandro Zurkirchen
