Farm Club: MAC Budapest (Hungary)
GM: Peter Ott (5th GM in team’s history)
Coach: Bruce Cassidy (replaced Patrick Roy after Season 10) (Roy replaced Guy Boucher after Season 9, Boucher replaced Paul MacLean after Season 8, who replaced Patrick Roy after Season 7; Roy replaced Dave Tippett)
Last season: 22nd overall (out of the playoffs)
Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)
In: Bowen Byram (draft), Arthur Kaliyev (draft), Jan Jenik (draft), Vladislav Firtsov (draft)
Out: None
In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)
Andrey Vasilevskiy, G; Alex Galchenyuk, LW; Torey Krug, D; Roman Josi, D; Miro Heiskanen, D; Mikhail Sergachev, D
Three Questions
1. The only real change was head coach. Is that enough? Yes. Replacing Patrick Roy with Bruce Cassidy was a subtle but astute move by General Manager Peter Ott. In Season 10, Prague ranked dead last in goals against per game, and was 4th from the bottom in shots allowed per game and penalty killing. Roy was just not a strong defensive coach. Cassidy is. If you go by Websim ratings, then Prague just got 40 rating points better in both defense and penalty killing. If Cassidy can help the team reduce time spent in the defensive zone, then goalie stats will improve and the offense will have more time to do their thing. Cassidy is poor at motivating players on a regular basis and not great at even strength play, but it seems like a good idea to address the team’s weakest points right now.
2. What is the team’s strength? The Sparta are an exciting team with high-flying forwards like Mark Scheifele, Alexander Galychenyuk and Nail Yakupov, but the defense corps has suddenly emerged as the team’s most solid unit. Miro Heiskanen is a big reason for that. It just so happened that the Season 8 draft pick from Finland got his Websim attributes before last season and they were great. At about the same time, Mikhail Sergachev emerged as a solid contributor. Those two have completely solidified the third pairing in Prague and they will move up to the top pairing in short order. Right now, Torey Krug and Roman Josi are the top blueliners, with Vladimir Roth and Damon Severson on the second pairing. All six of those guys are excellent skaters with good finesse/puck-handling skills. The youngsters Heiskanen and Sergachev aren’t as strong defensively as Cassidy would like, but they are good everywhere else on the ice. Ben Chiarot will fill in when injuries occur and he will improve the team’s play in front of goalies Andrey Vasilevskiy and Anton Forsberg.
2. What are their weaknesses? The Sparta are young compared to most teams, so they will make mistakes and poor decisions whenever and whereever. But Ott has shown peerless patience and you can expect the team to move up the standings this season. It has long been known that Ott was stockpiling young players and draft picks and that strategy is paying off. Many of his young players have really done well in their first seasons in the league; players like Heiskanen, Miro Aaltonen and Brady Tkachuk all hit the ground running and are established players already. When Robert Thomas and J.T. Miller have trouble breaking into the lineup, you know the forward depth is good. Ott will have six forwards with 80 or higher OV ratings skating on Day 1. In pre-season games, the team has had the luxury of having 80OV and 78OV wingers (Matt Nieto and Viktor Arvidsson) on the fourth line. Mark Scheiffele was 12th in the EURO League in assists last season and he is the team’s top scorer. Unfortunately, he also one of the best defensive forwards on the team, so he will have to penalty kill too. The team does not have strong defensive forwards at all and that could hold Prague back, even with Cassidy now devising the defensive structure.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 10 22 67 17.5 79.8 28.22 32.00 3.20 4.17 8.59
Season 9 22 66 19.3 76.4 25.87 32.76 3.32 4.16 9.11
Season 8 18 72 17.8 76.6 28.62 31.34 3.22 3.88 8.09
Season 7 21 66 20.8 79.8 25.87 33.18 3.11 4.10 8.67
Season 6 16 78 17.3 77.2 27.04 31.60 3.18 3.54 9.28
Season 5 16 81 21.6 72.9 31.37 30.41 3.40 3.68 5.52
Season 4 19 72 18.5 77.3 29.63 30.82 3.22 4.01 9.16
Season 3 23 61 13.4 79.6 26.28 32.96 2.89 4.18 11.18
Season 2 22 70 19.4 79.6 28.60 31.20 3.33 3.77 10.49
Season 1 6 103 19.9 78.4 31.63 29.35 3.89 3.21 8.24
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Zach Parise, LW, current age 37. Games played: 800; points: 781; -288
Season 2: Nail Yakupov, LW, age 28. GP 714; Pts. 437; +48
Season 3: Justin Schultz, D, age 30. GP 648; Pts 321, -140
Season 4: Torey Krug, D, age 29. GP 566; Pts 248, -116
Season 5: Vladimir Roth, D, 26. GP 386; Pts 110; -77
Season 6: Calvin Pickard, G, age 27. GP 311, Save Pct 89.8
Season 7: Mikhail Sergachev, D, age 21. GP 162, Pts 51; -32
Season 8: Miro Heiskanen, D, age 20. GP 62; Pts 23; +10
Season 9: Miro Aaltonen, C, age 24. GP 164, Pts 133, +6
Season 10: Brady Tkachuk, LW, age 20. GP 64; Pts 22; -6
Season 11: Bowen Byram, D, age 18.
Trade History
Season 2
Traded Nicklas Kronwall to Athens for Michal Rozsival and 2014 Round 1 pick (used to pick Justin Schultz)
Traded Nicklas Grossman and 2015 Round 3 pick (Jon Merrill) to Minsk for Andrej Sekera
Traded P-A Parenteau to Oslo for Thomas Vanek
Traded Thomas Vanek and Mike Weaver to Geneva for Justin Williams, Ryan Malone and Jeff Woywitka
Traded Jared Spurgeon to Frankfurt for Josh Gorges
Traded Michal Rozsival and Kyle Palmeiri to Athens for Jared Spurgeon and Nick Johnson
Traded Michael Ryder to Athens for Marcel Hossa
Traded Chad Larose and 2015 Round 2 pick (Alex Stalock) to Milan for Saku Koivu
Traded Joel Armia to Athens for Mark Scheifele
Season 3
Traded Zach Parise to Minsk for Alexander Galchenyuk and Romas Josi
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
After Season 6 started: Traded Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Berlin for David Pastrnak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Dennis Cholowski)
Traded Bryan Little to Stockholm for Marcus Johansson
Traded Tomas Jurco to Stockholm for J.T. Miller and Connor Bleackley
Signed Tomas Plekanec (free agent)
Season 7
Traded Calvin Pickard to Berlin for Aleksander Barkov
Traded Andrey Bykov to Berlin for 2020 Round 1 (Stockholm’s) pick (Ryan Poehling) and 2021 Round 3 pick (Alexander Romanov)
Traded Niko Hovinen to Belfast for Andrey Vasilevskiy, Julius Nattinen, 2019 Round 1 pick (Michael Rasmussen) and 2020 Round 3 (Lisbon’s) pick (Maxim Sushko)
After season started: claimed Trevor Daley (waivers)
Season 8
Traded Aleksander Barkov to Berlin for Evgeny Kuznetsov and Klim Kostin
Traded David Pastrnak to Belfast for James Neal, Michael Dal Colle, Robert Thomas, 2021 Round 1 pick (Grigori Denisenko), 2022 Round 1 pick and 2021 Round 2 pick (Alec Regula)
Season 9
Traded Justin Schultz and Martin Ruzicka to London for Damon Severson, Jimmie Ericsson and 2021 Round 2 pick (Jared McIsaac)
Season 10
Season 11
