Team owner: Neil Patrick Harris, American actor and Smurf fanatic
Farm Club: Kolner Haie
GM: Guybrush Threepwood (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Adam Oates
Last season: 3rd overall (In the playoffs, defeated Milan, defeated Geneva, defeated Athens, lost to Belfast in Finals )
Ins and Outs
(Season 9 to Season 10)
Out: Ossi Vaanenen (free agent), Niklas Svedberg (free agent), Anthony Nigro (free agent),
In: Radko Gudas (waivers), Gabriel Dumont (free agent), Niklas Svedberg (free agent), Malcolm Subban (free agent), Richard Sabol (free agent), Matus Holenda (free agent), Scott Mayfield (free agent), Akil Thomas (draft), Mac Hollowell (draft), Jack Drury (draft)
In Place
(Key players signed past Season 10)
Calvin Pickard, G; Andrey Bykov, LW; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C; Vadim Shipachyov, RW; Staffan Kronwall, D
Three Questions
1. What’s most surprising about the Smurfs? To most, it’s that The Smurfs were first published in 1959 by Belgium artist Pierre Culliford aka Peyo. To others it’s that Berlin is one of the league’s younger teams. How is it possible that star Smurf defenseman Staffan Kronwall is only 26 years old? Did he play for Athens when he was 15? And how is it possible that the team that finished 3rd overall and came within one goal of winning the Cup last year had only three players 30 or older on it? The answer is pure, unadulterated talent. Berlin is loaded with all-around ability and that should scare every other team in the league because if General Manager Guybrush Threepwood can keep the gang together, they are going to be even better a year or two from now. But Guybrush better go for it this season because Aleksander Barkov is playing for the bargain price of only $1.44 million this year and he will want much more a year from now when he and his agent get to go to Guybrush’s home, admire the Paul Klee paintings on every wall, sip some of his homeade Smurfberry juice and talk Deutsche Marks and cents. Five other Type 2 contracts will also have to be negotiated, meaning more money will have to be shelled out, although Erik Forssell already announced he would gladly stay in Berlin for much less than the $776,041 he’s earning today.
2. Can they win the Cup with Pickard in goal? Obviously, they can since they came within a goal of doing it last season, but chances to win are fleeting and Berlin fans would feel a little better if Calvin Pickard plays a little better. After Paris won the Season 2 EURO Cup, it looked like they would win the next several. But then along came Belfast. And Minsk and Bratislava had high hopes of Cup wins after their Season 8 Finals that lasted 7 games. But then along came Belfast. When Berlin put Pickard in charge of the goalkeeping ahead of Jimmy Howard in Season 7, and then let Howard go, it was surprising to say the least. But Pickard played beatifully throughout the season and three rounds of the playoffs. But then along came Belfast. Pickard is in place through Season 12 if he accepts a player option, and his lifetime save percentage of 89.8 will do if the Smurfs continue to play good team defense in front of him. And they will. The top two forward lines and top two defense pairs are made up of 10 players with 80 defense ratings of higher.
3. Is Barkov a slowpoke? The 25-year-old Finn has a speed rating of 75. Compared to the other forwards in Berlin, he is going backwards. Jan Kovar and Andrey Bykov are the fastest on the team and are among eight Berlin starters with speed ratings in the 90s. If the Smurfs were a country, they would be medal contenders in the next Winter Olympics in speed skating. When the Smurfs are on their game, it’s really no fun to play them. They go fast all the time. Every line. And their motors rarely idle. They led the league in shots on goal last season and with almost no turnover, they are favored to repeat that feat this season. But Berlin is much more than blazing fast. They are formidable in all areas. Bykov, Vadim Shipachyov and leading scorer Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all were 30-goal scorers in Season 9; Staffan Kronwall was 12th in the league in hits; and perhaps most impressive of all was Shea Weber, the 35-year-old defenseman who finished second in the league last year in plus-minus (+45) and was 4th among all defensemen in takeaways. Weber is on his 6th team and has scored 10 or more goals in all but one season so far. He has really mellowed over the years. In Season 2, Weber sat in the penalty box 76 minutes. Last year, he had only 8 penalty minutes. That’s good because it gives him more time to kill the frequent penalties his partner Kronwall takes.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 9 3 110 18.6 81.0 33.96 27.21 3.79 3.01 9.51
Season 8 11 90 21.2 83.9 30.55 30.90 3.28 3.16 11.66
Season 7 7 101 19.0 84.8 28.04 28.43 3.13 2.88 11.99
Season 6 3 112 20.6 85.9 34.41 26.46 3.62 2.60 8.72
Season 5 2 128 19.6 89.1 34.96 26.10 3.73 2.50 7.80
Season 4 6 106 19.7 83.8 33.17 26.79 3.62 2.74 8.46
Season 3 3 107 20.7 83.8 34.32 27.62 3.74 2.95 9.82
Season 2 18 83 16.1 81.1 30.05 30.62 3.27 3.59 9.80
Season 1 16 87 18.3 81.1 30.56 28.84 3.17 3.24 6.37
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Logan Couture, C, current age 31. Games played 693; Points 830, +62
Season 2: Mikko Lehtonen, RW, age 27. GP 642, Pts 313, +165
Season 3: Aleksander Barkov, C, age 25. GP 447, Pts 195, +2
Season 4: Leon Draisaitl, C, age 24. GP 11; Pts 2, -1
Season 5: Christian Dvorak, C/LW, age 23. GP 166; Pts 38, -4
Season 6: Timo Meier, RW, age 23. GP 159, Pts 33, 0 plus/minus rating
Season 7: Adam Mascherin, C/LW, age 20.
Season 8: Klim Kostin, C/W, age 19.
Season 9: Filip Chytil, C, age 19.
Season 10: Akil Thomas, C, age 19.
Trade History
Season 2
Traded Mikhail Grigorenko, R.J. Umberger, Brayden Colburn and Round 2 pick later traded (Josh Morrissey?) to Madrid for Slava Voynov, Round 1 pick later traded to Stockholm in the Loui Eriksson deal and 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Robert Hagg)
Traded Brian Campbell, 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano) to Madrid for Erik Ersberg
Traded Colton Gillies to Helsinki for Jarkko Immonen
Traded Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Madrid’s) (Sean Monahan) to Stockholm for Loui Eriksson
Traded Mikka Kiprusoff to Athens for Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 (Brian Flynn)
Traded Tim Erixon, Andrey Bykov and 2014 Round 2 pick (Robert Hagg) to London for Semyon Varlamov *Apparently missing some trades here, although that first trade with Madrid might actually be several.
Season 3
Traded Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb to Milan for Matt Read and Gerhard Unterluggauer
Traded Semyon Varlamov and Jarkko Immonen to Oslo for Jimmy Howard
Traded Ryan Wilson to Munich for 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak)
Traded Kris Versteeg to Moscow for 2015 Round 1 pick (Leon Draisaitl)
Season 4
Traded Matt Read to Edinburgh for Tony Martensson
Traded Slava Voynov, Martin Erat and 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Stockholm – Linden Vey) to Copenhagen for Dion Phaneuf
Traded 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou (name changed to Alexander Kerfoot)) to Edinburgh for 2017 Round 3 pick (Niklas Svedberg)
Season 5
Season 6
Traded Erik Ersberg to Stockholm for 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to London – Martin Necas)
Traded Brian Flynn and 2018 Round 2 pick (Tyler Benson) to Bern for 2018 Round 2 pick (later traded – Joonas Donskoi)
After Season 6 started:
Signed Tim Gleason (free agent); claimed Martin Havlat (waivers)
Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to Lisbon and then traded to Berlin (Filip Hronek)) to St. Petersburg for Stefan Ulmer
Traded David Pastrnak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Dennis Cholowski) to Prague for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (formerly Bern’s – Joonas Donskoi) and 2019 Round 2 pick (formerly Stockholm’s – Martin Necas) to London for Erik Forssell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Adam Mascherin)
Season 7
Traded Leon Draisaitl to Bratislava for Siim Liivik
Traded Aleksander Barkov to Prague for Calvin Pickard
Traded David Krejci and 2020 Round 2 pick (Joni Ikonen) to Stockholm for Jeff Carter and 2020 Round 1 pick (later traded to Prague)
Traded 2020 Round 1 (Stockholm’s) pick (Ryan Poehling) and 2021 Round 3 pick to Prague for Andrey Bykov
After season started: Traded 2019 Round 1 pick (Casey Mittelstadt) to Lisbon for Evgeny Kuznetsov and 2019 Round 2 pick (Filip Hronek)
Traded Logan Couture, Loui Eriksson, Alexander Edler and 2021 Round 2 pick (Evgeny Dadonov) to Athens for Vadim Shipachyov, Staffan Kronwall and Tomas Vincour
Traded Josh Gorges and 2019 Round 3 pick (Kole Lind) to Bratislava for Simon Despres and Dante Fabbro
Traded Dion Phaneuf to London for 2019 Round 2 pick (Klim Kostin)
Signed Matt Donovan (free agent), claimed Roman Polak (waivers)
Season 8
Traded Jeff Carter to Copenhagen for Kyle Brodziak and 2020 Round 3 pick (later traded to Bern for Shea Weber) (Eemeli Rasanen)
Traded Evgeny Kuznetsov and Klim Kostin to Prague for Aleksander Barkov
Traded Roman Polak to St. Petersburg for 2021 Round 3 pick (traded back to St. Petersburg later, then to Gothenburg (Jan Drozg))
Season 9
Traded Christian Dvorak to Dublin for Ryan Murray
Traded 2020 Round 3 (Copenhagen’s) pick (Eemeli Rasanen) to Bern for Shea Weber
Traded Tomas Vincour to Athens for 2021 Round 3 pick (Jack Drury)
Traded Alex Debrincat to Helsinki for Eliezer Sherbatov
Traded 2020 Round 3 pick (Eduard Zakharchenko) to London for 2021 Round 3 pick (Mac Hollowell)
Traded Talgat Zhailauov to Lisbon for 2021 Round 2 pick (Akil Thomas)
Traded 2021 Round 1 pick (Rasmus Kupari) and 2021 Round 3 (St. Petersburg’s)(traded later to Gothenburg and used to pick Jan Drozg) to St. Petersburg for Jan Kovar
Season 10
