How far can good D and goalie take Minsk?

Farm Club: Vitebsk Bears

GM: Igor Kirunov (only GM in team’s history)

Coach: Dave Tippett (replaced Guy Boucher, who replaced Lindy Ruff, who replaced Claude Julien)

Last season: 14th overall, (In playoffs, defeated Helsinki, then lost to Belfast)

Ins and Outs

(Season 9 to Season 10)

Out: Patrick Kane (trade), Milan Lucic (trade), Jordan Staal (trade), Luke Adam (trade), Henrik Lundquist (free agent), Erik Haula (free agent), Michael Keranen (free agent), Sven Baertschi (free agent)

In: Simeon Varlamov (free agent), Kjetil Martinsen (waivers), Derick Brassard (waivers), Adam Boqvist (draft),
Lukas Dostal (draft), Philipp Kurashev (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 10)

Simeon Varlamov, G; Ryan McDonagh, D; Aaron Ekblad, D; Maxim Chudinov, D; Michael Del Zotto, D

Three Questions

1. Is Minsk’s defense going to look the same for the next 3 years? Yes it will and that includes the new goalie Simeon Varlamov. Who wouldn’t lock in Aaron Ekblad, Maxim Chudinov, Michael Del Zotto, Ryan McDonagh and Varlamov? They have OV ratings of 91, 88, 87, 87 and 86. As foundations go, that’s a massive cement block. And in a lot of ways, it’s going to seem to opposing forwards that they are try to make progress against a massive cement block. The four defensemen all excel as skaters and they have outstanding finesse and hockey sense ratings. They were a major factor in the Hussars’ last Cup victory and GM Igor Kirunov is hoping they can help them win again. Having Varlamov behind them is a major improvement from last season, when Chad Johnson and then Henrik Lundquist tried and failed to keep the team winning against the best teams, Surprisingly, rookie Erik Kallgren helped the team more when they went on an impressive late-season surge. Kallgren won 6 of the 7 games he started and had a save percentage of 91 percent.

2. But will they have enough up front to challenge? Varlamov and the big four defensemen are going to have to play really well this season if the team is going to meet the fans’ very high standards. In fact, 5th and 6th defensemen Kris Russell and Tamir Ganbold are going to have to be at their best too, because forwards don’t closely resemble the Minsk forwards we’ve grown accustomed to seeing over the years. It used to be that Nicklas Backstrom, Jordan Staal, Milan Lucic and Patrick Kane were simply dominating and Thomas Powell, Gus Nyquist and Jacob Josefson were in a support role. But today, Josefson, Powell and Nyquist have been promoted to the top line. They are good – in fact Powell was the league’s Best Defensive Forward and Playoff MVP two years ago – but they aren’t the impact forwards that show up on many top lines in this league. Kirunov made some nice waiver pickups in Kjetil Martinsen, who gets plugged into the second line with Bo Horvat and Alex Burmistrov, and third-line center Derick Brassard. But overall, we would consider this group of forwards unproven. Sergei Kostitsyn, 33, hasn’t gotten a lot of ice time the last two years and his defensive commitment is suspect, but he will play full-time to start the season, as will rookie Tim Bozon. They have two other rookies on the fourth line with an excellent, but small playmaker in Nick Schmaltz and
in April, they might insert new Websim player Colin White into the lineup to shake things up. So the success of the team seems to hinge on the play of these rookies and Kostitsyn.

3. Was losing Price and Backstrom so bad really? That’s like asking would it really be so bad to lose your liver and heart? The salary cap got Minsk big time after their Season 8 Cup win and goalie Carey Price and center Nicklas Backstrom left Belarus. It’s not a coincidence that the Hussars’ PP efficiency rating dropped from 19.3 to 15.2; its shot and goals per game averages dropped; and the goals against average went up a half a goal per game. More importantly, the point total went from 119 to 89 and the team went from first to 14th overall. This off-season, they didn’t even try to keep Patrick Kane, Milan Lucic and Jordan Staal from leaving and there was only one obvious personnel upgrade, athough it was a really good one in Varlamov. The cap-caused departure of Price and Backstrom was a killer and its effects are still being felt. Kirunov knew it was time for a rebuild and he’s stocking up on draft picks. Minsk fans aren’t going to see their team dominate again for at least a season.

History

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

Season 9 14 89 15.2 82.1 32.39 26.16 3.32 3.02 10.61

Season 8 1 119 19.3 84.4 36.04 24.96 3.94 2.49 9.37

Season 7 1 120 20.7 84.1 34.57 24.84 4.00 2.55 9.48

Season 6 1 144 20.1 84.2 35.04 25.32 3.96 2.13 9.96

Season 5 3 117 17.1 86.6 34.85 26.24 3.70 2.45 10.57

Season 4 7 106 19.0 83.4 33.55 28.05 3.24 2.67 12.18

Season 3 18 77 17.3 78.6 29.57 30.85 3.15 3.40 12.91

Season 2 19 74 15.1 81.9 26.40 31.21 2.71 3.41 10.29

Season 1 24 54 13.3 79.8 25.59 32.46 2.12 3.50 9.82

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Carey Price, G, current age 33. Games played: 621; Save Pct. 90.3

Season 2: Maxim Chudinov, D, age 26. GP 626, Pts 295, +165

Season 3: Valeri Nichushkin, RW, age 25. GP 499, Pts 174, +27

Season 4: Aaron Ekblad, D, age 23. GP 409; Pts 179; +147

Season 5: Kevin Clark, RW, age 25. GP 6, Points 0, 0

Season 6: Kevin Hayes, RW, age 26. GP 278; Pts 99, -40

Season 7: German Rubtsov, C, age 21.

Season 8: Nick Suzuki, C, age 19.

Season 9: Tim Bozon, LW, age 24.

Season 10: Adam Boqvist, D, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 4 pick (used to draft Brent Burns) to St. Petersburg for Round 6 pick (used to draft Patrik Berglund) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Thomas Powell)

Traded Round 8 pick (traded later) (Andrej Meszaros) to Oslo for Round 17 pick (Zac Rinaldo) and 2013 Round 1 (Alex Galchenyuk)

Traded Round 12 pick (Dan Winnick) to Bern for Round 14 pick (Matt Cllen), Round 25 pick (later traded) (Dan Paille) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Nathan Beaulieu)

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

Traded Matt Hunwick Round 25 pick (Dan Paille) and Round 25 pick (Alexei Emelin) to Edinburgh for Nick Bjugstad

Traded Vernon Fiddler and $1 million to Geneva for Alex Chiasson

Traded Round 21 pick (Raffi Torres) to Geneva for Brian Dumoulin

Traded Round 10 pick (Mikael Granlund) to Belfast for Round 11 pick (Romas Josi) and Round 15 pick (Andrej Sekera)

Season 2

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

Traded Brayden Schenn and Kyle Clifford to Helsinki for Alexander Burmistrov

Traded Tobias Stephan to London for 2016 Round 3 pick (later traded)

Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (from London – Erik Forssell)) to London for Tobias Stephan

Traded Jonas Holos to Frankfurt for 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Viktor Fasth)

Traded Patric Hornqvist and Mathis Olimb to Berlin for 2015 Round 1 that was later traded in Aaron Ekblad deal and used to pick (Sami Vatanen).

Season 3

Traded 2014 Rd 2 pick (Hunter Shinkaruk) to Helsinki for Sven Baertschi

Traded Roman Josi and Alexander Galchenyuk to Prague for Zach Parise

Traded Andres De La Garma to Copenhagen for 2015 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Julius Honka)

Traded Zach Parise to Gothenburg for Milan Lucic, 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Zurich in Patrick Kane deal – Sandro Zurkirchen) and 2017 Round 1 pick (Kevin Hayes)

Traded 2015 Round 3 pick (Brandon Montour) to Helsinki for Nick Spaling

Season 4

Traded Nick Bjugstad, Magnus Paajarvi and 2015 Round 1 pick (Sami Vatanen) to Frankfurt for 2015 Round 1 pick (Aaron Ekblad)

Traded Valeri Nichushkin, Sergei Kostitsyn and Ilya Nikulin to Geneva for Michael Del Zotto

Traded 2015 Round 2 pick (Julius Honka) to Stockholm for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Munich in Mark Giordano trade and used to pick Calle Jarnkrok)

Traded Jon Merrill to Bern for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Munich and used to pick Travis Dermott)

Traded Jakub Voracek, Nathan Beaulieu and 2016 Round 1 pick (Sandro Zurkirchen) to Zurich for Patrick Kane

Traded Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy to Madrid for Jordan Staal

Traded Renat Mamashev to Dublin for 2017 Round 2 pick (Pavel Zacha)

Traded two 2017 Round 3 draft picks (used to pick Calle Jarnkrok and Oliver Kylington (by Gothenburg)) to Munich for Mark Giordano

Season 5

Season 6

Traded 2017 Round 2 pick (Mathew Barzal) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Svechnikov) to Lisbon for 2017 Round 2 pick (Colin White)

After Season 6 started:

Traded Dmitrij Jaskin to Zurich for Janne Niskala

Traded Kevin Hayes, 2018 Round 2 pick (Brandon Davidson) and 2019 Round 2 pick (Jimmy Vesey) to Edinburgh for Olivier Roland and 2018 Round 3 pick (Yegor Korshkov)

Claimed Jimmy Hayes off waivers

Lost Mark Giordano and Matt Martin off waivers

Season 7

Season 8

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

After Season 8 started:

Signed Tyler Kennedy, Sergei Kostitsyn and Colin Greening (free agents)

Claimed Michael Keranen (waivers)

Claimed Luke Adam (waivers)

Season 9

Traded 2021 Round 2 pick (Michael DiPietro) and 2023 Round 3 pick to Copenhagen for Henrik Lundquist

Season 10