Farm Club – Glasgow (Scotland) Claymores
GM: John Charles (3rd GM in team’s history)
Coach: Tom Rowe (replaced Bob Hartley before Season 9) (replaced Randy Carlyle before Season 6, who replaced Lindy Ruff)
Last season: 24th overall
Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)
Out: Mike Hoffman (free agent), Andy Sertich (free agent), Thomas Vanek (free agent)
In: Kirby Dach (draft), Roope Hintz (draft), Maxime Lajoie (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)
Jamie Benn, LW; Sidney Crosby, C; Jakub Kovar, G; Gurkan Cetinkaya, D; Sam Reinhart, RW; Nolan Patrick, C
Three Questions
1. What happened? Fans all over Scotland are having a right old blether, trying figure out exactly why their Capitals plunged to 24th place last season. The offense sputtered to its lowest goals per game (2.46) and shots per game averages (24.01) ever and the defense also put up bottom-of-the-whiskey-barrel stats. No worries, though. Edinburgh fans still love their Caps and are looking to better days. They have faith. An old Scottish saying “Mony a mickle maks a muckle,” means small amounts of money, when properly invested, eventually grow to tidy sums. Aside from star forwards Sidney Crosby and Jamie Benn, and defenseman Jason Demers, Edinburgh’s roster last season was very young. This year, they are all a year older and in theory, a year more competent. All signs point to a gradual improvement this season. Edinburgh has enough good young players that they are having a tough time sending anyone down to the farm club, which is putting them over the owner’s budget. And fans are optimistic about another wave of reinforcements that could be only a season away. That wave includes promising forwards Kirby Dach and Filip Zadina, who could both get their attributes in time for Season 12.
2. Will it be Kovar and Gracnar in goal yet again? Yes, Jakub Kovar will be the starter and Luka Gracnar will be the backup, just like they have been for the last five seasons. There might not be a team in the EURO or in the hockey world that is more loyal to its players. If you count this off season and pre-season as a season, then only one Edinburgh player has been traded in five seasons. Jamie Benn is starting his 11th season; Gurkan Cetinkaya is starting his 10th; and Casey Cizikas his ninth. None of the three has ever played for another team. That patience and loyalty has to give the young Caps a “We’re in this together” feeling. Kovar, a Czech, and Gracnar, a Slovenian, are both 27 and have become best of friends – with or without their masks on. Both goalies’ career save percentages are just under 90 so when the team in front of them improves, they are both on course to be reliable barriers back there.
3. Can we expect any break-out seasons? Yes. While the smart money is on a gradual, franchise-wide improvement, Tomas Hyka has the skating ability, skills and smarts to vastly improve on his 6 points in 56 games in Season 10. But to do that, he’d have to get better ice time. He won’t get past Jamie Benn on the depth chart, and we’re not saying Hyka is a budding superstar, but he might have what it takes to be the second-line left wing in Scotland as early as this season. Now that Mike Hoffman has left the team through free agency, Jimmy Vesey and Dominik Kubalik are Hyka’s competition for that job. Over on the other wing, Sam Reinhart has been groomed as a top line winger since he was a rookie fortunate enough to play along side Sidney Crosby and Benn. He has reliably produced 60 points a season, but the coaches would like to see his plus-minus improve. Mikko Rantanen, who is a fantastic shooter, will press both Reinhart (for the top line job) and big Kevin Hayes for the second-line spot on the right side.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 10 24 52 15.7 81.9 24.01 35.66 2.46 4.01 7.33
Season 9 22 66 17.8 77.8 26.27 34.01 3.22 3.95 8.68
Season 8 16 80 14.5 81.3 27.57 34.10 2.84 3.15 7.82
Season 7 22 66 14.8 79.9 25.82 33.50 2.59 3.44 7.68
Season 6 20 71 11.3 84.3 27.73 32.60 2.78 3.40 8.95
Season 5 14 85 19.2 83.1 29.62 31.85 3.23 3.40 8.79
Season 4 5 107 20.3 82.4 32.22 29.05 3.77 3.02 9.98
Season 3 13 83 15.7 81.3 30.16 28.44 3.44 3.51 10.66
Season 2 12 93 17.8 82.3 30.05 27.26 3.51 3.43 12.13
Season 1 12 90 15.2 80.8 29.84 29.06 3.11 3.13 9.11
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Henrik Lundqvist, G, current age 39. Games played: 606; save pct. 90.7
Season 2: Gurkan Cetinkaya, D, age 29. GP 612, Pts 175, -31
Season 3: Casey Cizikas, C, age 29. GP 416, Points 112, -13
Season 4: Sam Reinhart, C/RW, age 25. GP 369, Points 275, -163
Season 5: Alexander Kerfoot, RW, age 28. GP 327, Points 79, +9
Season 6: Mike Hoffman, LW, age 30. GP 399, Points 182, -71
Season 7: Jess Puljujarvi, RW, Age 21. GP 26, Pts 2, -1
Season 8: Nolan Patrick, C, age 21. GP 108, Pts 49, -44
Season 9: Dominik Kubalik, LW, age 21. GP 108, Pts 21, -3
Season 10: Flip Zadina, W, age 20.
Season 11: Kirby Dach, C, age 18.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Daniel Sedin) and Round 5 pick (Ray Whitney) to Bern for Round 2 pick (Derek Stepan)
Traded Round 15 pick (Evgeny Kuznetsov) to Bern for Dan Winnick
Traded Nick Bjugstad to Minsk for Matt Hunwick, for Round 25 pick (Daniel Paille) and another Round 25 pick (Alexei Emelin)
Traded Round 21 pick (David Moss) to Bratislava for David Steckel
Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer) to Milan for Andrew Cogliano
Traded Artem Anisimov, Blake Wheeler and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic to St. Petersburg for James Neal, Andrei Kostitsyn and Karl Alzner
Traded Henrik Lundqvist to Helsinki for John Tavares, Ilya Bryzgalov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jakub Kovar) and $5 million
Traded David Steckel and 2013 Round 3 pick (Jamie Oleksiak) to St. Petersburg for Kyle Wellwood
Season 2 – None
Season 3 – None
Traded James Neal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Belfast for Tony Martensson, Olivier Roland, Ondrej Pavelec and Adam Larsson
Traded Ondrej Pavelec, 2016 Round 1 pick (Simon Hjalmarsson), 2017 Round 2 pick to Geneva for Kari Lehtonen
Traded Derek Stepan, Dan Winnick, Chris Stewart and Francois Beauchemin to Madrid for Rick Nash, Braydon Coburn, Fedor Tyutin and Patrick O’Sullivan
Season 4
Traded John Tavares to Lisbon for Claude Giroux
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Niklas Svedberg) to Berlin for 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou (named changed to Alexander Kerfoot))
Traded Tony Martensson to Berlin for Matt Read
Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (Radek Faksa) to Copenhagen for Martin Thornberg
Moves After Season 5 started
- Claimed Bryan Bickell (waivers)
- Signed Alexander Sulzer (free agent)
- Signed Mike Cammalleri (free agent)
- Claimed Nino Niedereitter (waivers)
- Signed Grant Clitsome (free agent)
- Signed Andy Sertich (free agent)
Season 6
After Season 6 started: Traded Claude Giroux to Belfast for Sidney Crosby, Mikko Rantanen, 2018 Round 1 pick (Jake Bean) and 2018 Round 2 pick (Andreas Athanasiou)
Traded Olivier Roland and 2018 Round 3 pick (Yegor Korshkov) to Minsk for Kevin Hayes, 2018 Round 2 pick
(Brandon Davidson) and 2019 Round 2 pick (Jimmy Vesey)
Season 7
Traded Brandon Dubinsky to Copenhagen for Josh Holden and 2018 Round 2 pick (Brett Pesce)
Claimed David Savard (waivers)
After season started: Signed Thomas Vanek (free agent)
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Traded Mikko Rantanen to Dublin for Dylan Strome
