Owner: Jim Balsillie, Canadian businessman

Farm Club: Monaco Gamblers 

GM: Stephen R  (4th GM in team’s history)

Coach John Tortorella

Last season: 1st overall, (In playoffs, defeated Bratislava, then defeated Paris, then lost to Berlin in the conference finals)

Ins and Outs  (Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Tomas Vincour (free agent), Alex Goligiski (free agent), Michael Frolik (free agent), Mark Giordano (free agent), Zack Kassian (free agent), Jannik Hansen (free agent), Thomas Greiss (free agent)

In: Ville Vahalahti (free agent), Mattias Backman (waivers), Ryan Spooner (waivers), Yanni Gourde (draft), Evgeni Dadonov (draft), Derrick Pouliot (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 7)

Logan Couture, C; Anze Kopitar, C; Brandon Sutter, C; Alex Edler, D; Erik Johnson, D; Esa Lindell, D

Three Questions

1. Can we call Greece a hotbed of hockey? Well, yeah. Aside from a 20th place finish in the first year of the EURO League, Athens has placed in the Top 10 seven times and they were 12th in the only other season. Four general managers have guided the franchise and the current one has taken them the farthest – to first overall during the regular season. But Stephen R had to be stomping his feet and throwing glasses against the wall when the Gods bowed out of last year’s playoffs in the conference finals at the hands of those annoying little Smurfs. In prestige points, Athens sits in 4th place, behind only Belfast, Minsk and Berlin, and its warm climate is second to none, so free agents are keen to give a lot of consideration to slipping a Gods sweater over their heads. That means Stephen R will be able to restock the shelves easier than most of us will in the future. A perfect example is Logan Couture, one of the very best players in the league who agreed to a play for Athens for a very reasonable $6.5 million contract. This season, Stephen R didn’t have to do too much negotiating because he drafted two plug-and-play wings in Evgeny Dadonov and Yanni Gourde.

2. Do they have any superstars? Couture is one of the best all-around players in the league and the Gods have him locked up until he’s 33 years old. He’s 4th all-time in goals and 4th all-time in takeaways. Stephen R will be able to give him two above average wingers to play with as he did in Season 9 when Colin Wilson and Tomas Vincour were there, so expect Couture to have another outstanding season. Dadonov and veteran Marcel Hossa look to be on Couture’s line in training camp, making Dadonov an immediate favorite for the Rookie of the Year Trophy. And oh yeah, Anze Kopitar. The big Slovenian who once scored 101 points is back for at least two more years, giving the Gods the league’s best 1-2 punch at center. How Anze Kopitar can possibly be overshadowed on a team, we don’t know, but he is. It’s reminiscent of how Jaclyn Smith was somehow overshadowed by Farrah Fawcett on “Charlie’s Angels.” Actually, one of them might be Kate Jackson because, last season, teammate Jimmy Howard was the Farrah Fawcett. The goalie was great when he was a Berlin Smurf and he has been even better as a God. Look at these numbers: 92 save percentage two seasons ago and 91.7 last year; 2.32 goals against average two seasons ago and 2.30 last year; two Best Goalie Trophies in the last two years. But there is another Jimmy Howard number everyone is looking at: age 36. At some point soon, Howard’s back and knees are going to go on strike for short periods. But he is currently the best there is at the position. How Howard holds up will be one of the most interesting sub-plots of the story of Season 10.

3. Do the Gods have any weak links? Umm, they are the Gods. That should answer your question. They aren’t the Athens Bums. Aside from untried backup goalie Peter Thome, everyone you’ll see in an Athens sweater is a pretty good player. The lowest OV rating in the starting lineup is 72 at fourth-line center. If we have to point out something kind of almost bad, then we’ll go with the fact that the top defense pair is only good; they aren’t great like the top duos are in Minsk, Belfast, Paris or even Prague. Alexander Edler and Erik Johnson are 80 OV players, which is good, but really, most teams can put two guys in those slots who have better numbers. But Edler and E.J. offer experience not many can top, and at age 34 and 32, they still have plenty of physical attributes to keep Athens winning. There are also durability questions on defense. Edler, E.J., Roman Polak and Alec Martinez are relatively fragile and Stephen R will have to be careful if he has to make injury call-ups if he doesn’t want to have to waive someone. Rookie Derrick Pouliot is the only one on the roster currently who can go back and forth from the farm team freely. But it should be noted the GM has done a great job with the salary cap. The reigning President’s Trophy winners have an extra forward counting toward the cap and there is still $3.77 million of cap space to work with.

History

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

Season 9              1            120 22.5 84.2 32.40 27.49 3.71 2.59 8.24

Season 8              2            116         20.3        88.0         32.39     29.46    3.40     2.49     6.80

Season 7              6             102        23.1        83.5         32.24     28.63    3.60     3.26     7.28

Season 6             12            89          20.2        81.6         32.46     28.78    3.18    3.24      8.22

Season 5              7              102         21.8         83.2       32.76   28.89     3.74       3.15      9.74

Season 4              4             107          21.4         85.3       31.91    29.00     3.62      2.72     11.50

Season 3              6             100          20.7         85.4       33.82    27.72     3.72      3.00     13.16

Season 2              9              97           20.5          82.2       30.07    29.89     3.52      3.17       12.48

Season 1              20             63          16.4          76.7      28.20    31.60     2.54     3.61     9.77

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Ryan O’Reilly, C, current age 29. Games played: 707; points: 609; +35

Season 2: Staffan Kronwall, D, age 26. GP 642, Pts 284, +126

Season 3: Samuel Morin, D, age 25.

Season 4: Artturi Lehkonen, LW, age 24. GP 124, Pts 40, +12

Season 5: Miks Indrasis, LW, age 24. GP 179, Pts 49, -14

Season 6: Tanner Pearson, LW, age 26. GP 66, Pts 15, plus/minus +3

Season 7: Noah Juulsen, D, age 22.

Season 8: Esa Lindell, D, age 24. GP 154, Pts 34, +24

Season 9: Peter Thome, G, age 22.

Season 10: Yanni Gourde, RW, age 26.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 9 pick (used to draft Nick Foligno) to Geneva for Round 13 pick (Marcus Kruger) and Round 14 pick (Mark Scheifele)

Traded Round 15 pick (Stefan Elliott) to Minsk for Matt Cullen

Traded Evander Kane and Alexander Sulzer to Dublin for Scott Hartnell, Tim Gleason, 2013 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Nail Yakupov), Round 2015 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Matt Nieto) and $5 million

Traded Tomas Vokoun to Madrid for Michal Neuvirth, Nick Johnson and 2013 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Martin Ruzicka)

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

Season 2

Traded Michal Rozsival and 2014 Round 1 pick (Justin Schultz) to Prague for Nick Kronwall

Traded Nazem Kadri and Round 2 pick (lost track of this one; might have been Brendan Pirlini in 2014) to Belfast for 2013 Round 1 pick (Vadim Shipachyov)

Traded Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 pick (Brian Flynn) to Berlin for Miikka Kiprusoff

Traded Miikka Kiprusoff and Michal Neuvirth to Stockholm for Cam Ward

Traded Marcel Hossa to Prague for Michael Ryder

Traded Jared Spurgeon and Nick Johnson to Prague for Michal Rozsival and Kyle Palmieri

* seem to missing 3 trades that occurred in this general period.

Season 3

Traded Mark Scheifele to Prague for Joel Armia

Traded Johnny Boychuk to Milan for Dimitrios Kalyvas

Season 4 

Traded Brooks Orpik, Bryan Bickell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Ivan Provorov) to Copenhagen for Alex Goligoski

Season 5

Season 6

Traded David Backes, Kyle Palmieri and a 2018 Round 1 pick (Olli Juolevi) to Moscow for Andrew Ladd, Jaroslav Halak, Brandon Sutter and a 2018 Round 2 pick (Noah Juulsen)

After Season 6 started:

Traded Ryan O’Reilly to Moscow for Anze Kopitar

Signed Christian Folin (free agent), Jack Hillen (free agent)

Lost Mike Indrasis (waivers)

Season 7

Traded Vadim Shipachyov, Staffan Kronwall and Tomas Vincour to Berlin for Logan Couture, Alexander Edler, Loui Eriksson and 2021 Round 2 pick (Evgeny Dadonov)

Lost Trevor Daley (waivers)

Season 8 

Traded 2019 Round 2 pick  (Denis Malgin) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Erik Kallgren) to Minsk for Colin Wilson

Season 9

Traded 2021 Round 3 pick (Jack Drury) to Berlin for Tomas Vincour

Season 10