Farm Club: MAC Budapest (Hungary) 

GM: Peter Ott (5th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Patrick Roy (replaced Guy Boucher after Season 9, Boucher replaced Paul MacLean after Season 8, who replaced Patrick Roy after Season 7; Roy replaced Dave Tippett)

Last season: 22nd overall (out of the playoffs)

Ins and Outs (Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Dmitry Kulikov (waivers), Ondrej Pavelec (free agent)

In:  Anton Forsberg (free agent), Frank Corrado (free agent), Brady Tkachuk (draft), Grigori Denisenko (draft), Alexander Alexyev (draft), Jared McIsaac (draft), Alec Regula (draft), Filip Johansson (draft), Alexander Romanov (draft)

 In Place  (Key players signed past Season 10)

Mark Scheiffele, C; Alex Galchenyuk, LW; Nail Yakupov, LW; Torey Krug, D; Roman Josi, D 

Three Questions

1. What are some things to look for in Prague this season? Goalie Andrey Vasilevskiy shared the position the last three seasons, but it looks like his workload is going to go way up this season. At 25, he should be able to handle the extra minutes. Prague has a wonderfully balanced lineup and their top four scorers last year had between 60 and 73 points, with veteran Marcus Johansson leading the team and recording his best-ever season at age 30. Look for Alex Galchenyuk to do what Johansson did and have a breakout season. He has what it takes to hit 90 points but he has to cut down on his habit of taking bad penalties. And keep an eye on center Miro Aaltonen to see if he can avoid the dreaded sophomore slump after a fantastic rookie season that saw him score 55 points as a third-liner. Also, be aware that this team is still young and gaining experiernce. Every skater in the lineup has a PO rating of 80 or higher. No other team in the EURO League can make that claim, although Zurich comes a PO point away.

2. What are the team’s most pressing problems? Prague needs to shrink the gap between its shots taken vs. shots allowed averages. In Season 10, the Sparta were second worst at getting shots on goal at 25.87 per game and they were fourth worst at limiting opponent shots at 32.76 per game. You just aren’t going to win often with those averages. To fix that, they need to get and keep possession of the puck more often. Last season, only five skaters on the team had positive turnover ratios and one of them, Dmitry Kulikov, was waived and is now in Bern. The team also needs to play better team defense: get into passing and shootign lanes and experience will help that. Vladimir Roth and Torey Krug are excellent shot blockers and Roman Josi knows how to play defense. It would help the team if offense-minded Mikhail Sergachev and Damon Severson concentrated a little more on their defensive responsibilities.

3. Do the Sparta have any good young players coming up? There is a massive wave of youth heading for the shores of Prague, if big waves can actually form on the Vtlava River that runs through the city.General Manager Peter Ott went to the podium 7 times in 3 rounds last draft and he now has a very deep prospect pool that includes 8 defensemen, 7 centers, 3 left wings and a right wing for a total of 19 skaters. These next few months will be tense ones for the GM if he’s following the NHL season because once a skater gets in the neighborhood of 35 games played in that league, he gets his lifetime attributes for the EURO League. Ott has to be feeling thrilled with Brady Tkachuk, 19, who is on pace for 42 points with Ottawa and could join the lineup in late April. That was a winning pick by Ott for sure. So was Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars with his 23 minutes per game and 10 goals in 60 games. Ott will also soon get two solid forwards and a defenseman for the long-term in St. Louis Blue Robert Thomas, 19; Detroit Red Wing Michael Rasmussen, also 19; and defenseman Dennis Cholowski, 21, who is also a Red Wing. Both forwards should end up averaging 12 minutes and 20 to 30 points ain April as NHL rookies, while Cholowski is averaging 18 minutes with 7 goals and 9 assists in 52 games. Michael Dal Colle of the Islanders, however, will be a bust if he plays 15 more games. The 22-year-old has 4 points in 20 games. Ott should hope the Isles sit him from now one so he gets a fresh EURO attributes start next year.

History

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

Season 9              22         66      19.3    76.4    25.87   32.76   3.32   4.16    9.11

Season 8               18         72      17.8    76.6    28.62   31.34   3.22   3.88    8.09

Season 7               21         66      20.8    79.8   25.87   33.18   3.11   4.10    8.67

Season 6              16          78      17.3    77.2   27.04   31.60   3.18    3.54   9.28

Season 5              16           81     21.6    72.9   31.37    30.41    3.40   3.68   5.52

Season 4              19          72    18.5    77.3   29.63    30.82   3.22    4.01     9.16

Season 3              23          61    13.4    79.6   26.28    32.96   2.89    4.18    11.18

Season 2              22         70  19.4    79.6    28.60    31.20    3.33    3.77    10.49

Season 1              6          103   19.9    78.4    31.63    29.35    3.89    3.21    8.24

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Zach Parise, LW, current age 36. Games played: 721; points: 721; -293

Season 2: Nail Yakupov, LW, age 27. GP 632, Pts. 380, +50

Season 3: Justin Schultz, D, age 29. GP 566, Pts 279, -147

Season 4: Torey Krug, D, age 28. GP 484, Pts 206, -88

Season 5: Vladimir Roth, D, 25. GP 308, Pts  88, -40

Season 6: Calvin Pickard, G, age 26. GP 241, Save Pct 89.8

Season 7: Mikhail Sergachev, D, age 20. GP 82, Pts 26, -16

Season 8: Miro Heiskanen, D, age 20.

Season 9: Miro Aaltonen, C, age 23. GP 82, Pts 60, +6

Season 10: Brady Tkachuk, LW, age 19.

Trade History

Season 2

Traded Nicklas Kronwall to Athens for Michal Rozsival and 2014 Round 1 pick (used to pick Justin Schultz)

Traded Nicklas Grossman and 2015 Round 3 pick (Jon Merrill) to Minsk for Andrej Sekera

Traded P-A Parenteau to Oslo for Thomas Vanek

Traded Thomas Vanek and Mike Weaver to Geneva for Justin Williams, Ryan Malone and Jeff Woywitka

Traded Jared Spurgeon to Frankfurt for Josh Gorges

Traded Michal Rozsival and Kyle Palmeiri to Athens for Jared Spurgeon and Nick Johnson

Traded Michael Ryder to Athens for Marcel Hossa

Traded Chad Larose and 2015 Round 2 pick (Alex Stalock) to Milan for Saku Koivu

Traded Joel Armia to Athens for Mark Scheifele

Season 3

Traded Zach Parise to Minsk for Alexander Galchenyuk and Romas Josi

Season 4 

Season 5

Season 6

After Season 6 started: Traded Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Berlin for David Pastrnak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Dennis Cholowski)

Traded Bryan Little to Stockholm for Marcus Johansson

Traded Tomas Jurco to Stockholm for J.T. Miller and Connor Bleackley

Signed Tomas Plekanec (free agent)

Season 7

Traded Calvin Pickard to Berlin for Aleksander Barkov

Traded Andrey Bykov to Berlin for 2020 Round 1 (Stockholm’s) pick (Ryan Poehling) and 2021 Round 3 pick (Alexander Romanov)

Traded Niko Hovinen to Belfast for Andrey Vasilevskiy, Julius Nattinen, 2019 Round 1 pick (Michael Rasmussen) and 2020 Round 3 (Lisbon’s) pick (Maxim Sushko)

After season started: claimed Trevor Daley (waivers)

Season 8 

Traded Aleksander Barkov to Berlin for Evgeny Kuznetsov and Klim Kostin

Traded David Pastrnak to Belfast for James Neal, Michael Dal Colle, Robert Thomas, 2021 Round 1 pick (Grigori Denisenko), 2022 Round 1 pick and 2021 Round 2 pick (Alec Regula)

Season 9

Traded Justin Schultz and Martin Ruzicka to London for Damon Severson, Jimmie Ericsson and 2021 Round 2 pick (Jared McIsaac)

Season 10