Andersen a welcome addition

Team owner: Juraj Dluhy, CEO, Cestné a Stavebné Mechanizmy Tisovec (a military equipment manufacturer in Detva, Slovakia.)

Farm club: Vienna (Austria) Capitals

GM: Chuck Massaro (only GM in team’s history)

Coach: Lindy Ruff (replaced Brent Sutter after Season 6, who replaced Bruce Boudreau after Season 3)

Last season: 13th overall (In playoffs, lost to Athens)

Ins and Outs (Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Alexander Ovechkin (trade), Milan Gulas (free agent), Marc-Andre Fleury (free agent), Ryan Suter (trade), Joakim Nygard (trade), Alexander Kerfoot (free agent), Matt Irwin (free agent), Antione Roussel (free agent), Brett Connolly (free agent)

In: Frederik Andersen (free agent) Troy Loggins (trade), Nathan Gerbe (free agent), Jusso Ikonen (free agent), Nic Beadin (draft), Benoit-Olivier Groulx (draft)

In Place

(Key players signed past Season 10)

Frederik Andersen, G; Tyler Myers, D; Zemgus Girgensons, LW; Tyler Toffoli, RW; Connor Hellebuyck, G

Three Questions

(sorry about this type that won’t cooperate)

1. That was quite a drop, wasn’t it? In Season 8, Bratislava came inches/seconds – whatever small increment you choose – from winning the Cup. They were up 3 games to 1 against Minsk in the Finals, but then the Hussars won 3 straight. Ouch! One year later, the Eagles were floundering in 13th place, a spot ahead of where Minsk was floundering. Four playoff games later and Season 9 was done for the depressed Slovakian fans. Management didn’t blame Coach Lindy Ruff, who won a Cup with Minsk the year before he came to Slovakia. In fact, they asked him to come back to the team and Ruff signed a new contract in the off-season. Team officials and fans are hoping Lindy studied up on penalty killing because that was one of the areas where the Eagles really struggled last season. They ranked 20th in the league in penalty killing. Fortunately, Bratislava was the least penalized team in the league. But Ruff thought the team was a little soft last season and he has promoted a young Canadian bruiser named Rhett Gardner to mix it up occasionally.

2. Aren’t they paying a lot for Andersen? Most fans and media cite the dramatic dropoff in play by Marc-Andre Fleury for Bratislava’s drop in the standings. “Flower” was really good when he was 33 and 34 years old. Those two seasons saw him win 40 games per season with a save percentage over 90. But when he turned 35, Flower wilted. Connor Hellebuyck, 25 now, is seen as the goalie of the future, but he wasn’t any better than Fleury last year, which really worried Eagle fans. Bratislava’s team defense has been very good the last few years. In fact, last year the team ranked second in shots allowed per game. But it was 14th in goals against. That gap was like a flashing neon “Goalies Needed” sign. General Manager Chuck Massaro made all the worries disappear one sunny day over the summer when he announced Frederik Andersen was signed to a multi-year $10.2 million deal. That decision meant they couldn’t afford any more free agents for the starting lineup, but team officials think they are all set in goal for years with Andersen and Hellebuyck in the plan. Andersen, 30, played for six seasons in Geneva and his career save percentage is 91.0. His goals against average peeked over the 3.00 mark once, but was under 3 the other five seasons.

3.Will this be a rebuilding year? The Eagles are the only team in the EURO League that has made the playoffs every year, but now 8 years of mid to low draft positions and trades for Cup pushes is starting to show. The team has little in the way of young assets. The off-season brought a major directional question for Massaro. Try to keep the aging core together for another run at the Cup or cut bait and rebuild? Tyler Myers, Alexander Ovechkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Suter, Milan Gulas and the face of the franchise Jonathan Toews were all unrestricted free agents and the team couldn’t afford many of them. In the end Toews and Myers re-resigned and the others weren’t even offered deals. Letting Gulas go was a tough decision for the GM. The Czech was never able to get ahead of Toews on the depth chart, but he was always an excellent second-line center for the team. The Andersen deal meant young players who don’t make a ton of money get to fill in the lineup holes. Coach Ruff admits he has a handful of forwards and a defenseman playing above their pay grade. Evgeny Solomov and Kristian Kuusela will start the season with Toews on the top line. That’s a casting stretch for sure. And young Troy Loggins centering the third line also gets filed in the Experiments folder. The team is showing a lot of faith in towering rookie Juraj Valach as a starter on defense, and if the Eagles get off to a bad start, those three decisions will be scrutinized greatly.

History

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

Season 9 13 91 22.8 79.8 32.13 26.46 3.59 3.39 6.63

Season 8 3 115 20.7 82.8 32.37 26.71 3.67 2.74 7.12

Season 7 3 114 23.7 84.8 34.71 24.73 3.66 2.63 8.32

Season 6 13 88 17.9 81.5 30.70 27.52 3.20 3.13 9.20

Season 5 9 95 16.7 83.2 31.48 27.62 3.33 3.11 8.54

Season 4 11 93 17.3 77.1 33.94 27.01 3.71 3.50 11.93

Season 3 11 91 15.4 83.8 30.82 26.94 3.51 3.35 11.12

Season 2 6 101 18.3 82.7 31.43 26.76 3.57 3.28 11.67

Season 1 8 95 16.4 81.0 30.17 29.01 3.45 3.22 9.22

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Jonathan Toews, C, current age 32. Games played: 703; points: 840; +102

Season 2: Milan Gulas, C, age 31. GP 542, Pts 347, +92

Season 3: Michael Stone, D, age 29. GP 413, Pts 135, +86

Season 4: Zemgus Girgensens, C, age 25. GP 334, Pts 134, +43

Season 5: Morten Madsen, C, age 27. GP 94, Pts 50, +13

Season 6: Dylan Strome, C, age 21.

Season 7: Connor Hellebuyck, G, age 25. GP 59, save pct. 88.1

Season 8: Mike Matheson, D, age 24. GP 158, Pts 52, -3

Season 9: Michal Kristof, C, age 23.

Season 10: Nicolas Beaudin, D, age 19.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 5 pick (used to draft Kimo Timonen) to Bern for Round 8 pick (Martin Erat) 2013 Round 1 (Weiyang Zhang) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Leonardo Genoni)

Traded Round 8 pick (David Desharnais) and Round 19 pick (Greg Zanon) to Geneva for Round 17 pick (Tomas Kopecky) and 2014 Round 1 pick (Michael Stone)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Oleg Podyedonostsev) to Milan for Round 20 pick (David Steckel)

Traded David Steckel to Edinburgh for Round 21 pick (David Moss)

Season 2

Traded Lee Stempniak and 2014 Rd 3 (Steve Olesky) to Paris for Philip Larsen

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Bud Holloway) to Geneva for Chris Kunitz and 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Copenhagen – Simon Hjalmarsson)

Traded 2016 Round 1 pick (Geneva’s) (Simon Hjalmarsson) to Copenhagen for Matt Frattin and 2016 Round 1 pick (Morten Madsen)

Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Julius Nattinen) to Belfast for 2016 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Solomonov)

Traded 2017 Round 2 (Daniel Sprong) pick to Copenhagen for Troy Brouwer

After Season 5 started