Owner: Jim Balsillie, Canadian businessman
Farm Club: Monaco Gamblers
GM: Stephen R (4th GM in team’s history)
Coach: John Tortorella
Last season: 20th overall; did not make playoffs
Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)
Out: Jimmy Howard (free agent), Alexander Edler (free agent), Brandon Sutter (free agent), Alec Martinez (free agent), Brad Richardson (retired), Tomas Fleischmann (retired), Ryan Spooner (free agent),
In: Thomas Powell (free agent), Patrick Wiercioch (free agent), Justin Schultz (waivers), Gareth Roberts (free agent), Petr Mrazek (free agent), Rodrigo Abols (free agent), Erik Cernak (draft), Dominik Kahun (draft), Zach Aston-Reese (draft)
In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)
Justin Schultz, D; Esa Lindell, D; Petr Mrazek, G; Jakub Petruzalek, C; Gareth Roberts, RW
Three Questions
1. Why did the Athens fan say “Oh My Gods!” last season? It was like the team from Greece slipped on grease, falling from first overall in Season 9 to 20th in Season 10. That was an amazing drop. The phrase “didn’t make the playoffs” is one that Gods fans haven’t heard for almost a decade. The main reason for the downturn was probably old age. Starting goalie Jimmy Howard was 36 when the season began and his numbers dropped significantly. A couple other key veterans like Alec Martinez and Brandon Sutter also showed some wear. The more Athens lost, the worse it seemed to get for the team accustomed to hanging out in the penthouse. As a result, Howard, Martinez, Sutter and Alexander Edler were released in the off season and there was a lot of turnover in Greece. GM Stephen R managed to remake the team without a trade. Attrition, free agency, waivers and the draft were his tools and his team gained a lot of hockey sense and speed in the makeover. Plus, they got a bit younger. The most interesting and perhaps most critical decision Coach John Tortorella will have to make early is on the right wing, where Australian Thomas Powell and Irishman Gareth Roberts will be trying to see who can find chemistry with centers Logan Couture and Anze Kopitar. Powell reminds some of a less outrageous Brad Marchand, while the sturdy Roberts plays a lot like Niklas Danielsson, who played for Lisbon last season.
2. How are they in goal? We’re going to guess not very good, but it’s just a guess. Nobody has a clue because the job will be handed to Petr Mrazek and Peter Thome, who have played only 21 and 24 EURO games respectively. On the farm are Jake Allen (0 games played) and Garret Sparks (9). If you sort the list of all EURO goalies by their Goalie Rating, Mrazek is only 37th best, and Thome is 79th. Allen is 46th, but his salary might be too high to get him into the lienup in place of Thome. A saving grace for the Gods is that none of the 18 skaters in front of their goalie is a terrible defensive player, so team defense will help. But it might be that this team doesn’t have the goaltending to challenge for a top spot.
3. Are the Gods still amazing down the middle? For the last several seasons Athens has had the enviable trio of Logan Couture, Anze Kopitar and Brandon Sutter as centers of their top 3 lines. That right there explains why the team was able to flirt with the Presidents Trophy a few times. They are actually better at center this year. Sutter is gone now, replaced by former Dublin forward Jakub Petruzalek, and at this point in their careers, that exchange is a wash. Petruzalek is an 82 OV player and the guy just below him on the depth chart is faceoff guru Marcus Foligno, who is an 81OV player. That gives this team four centers with 81 OV ratings or higher. Overall, Athens is a very well balanced and solid team that should be in every game in which the goalies don’t give up bad goals. Waiver pickup Justin Schultz from London could end up to be the most important player on the team. He should play top pair minutes on defense and as the quarterback on the powerplay. Esa Lindell, Erik Johnson and newly signed Patrick Wiercioch, along with Schultz, will be counted on at the blueline to contribute in both ends of the ice and they are good enough to carry Athens to some extra wins.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 10 20 71 16.5 81.3 30.00 30.15 2.74 3.74 9.50
Season 9 1 120 22.5 84.2 32.40 27.49 3.71 2.59 8.24
Season 8 2 116 20.3 88.0 32.39 29.46 3.40 2.49 6.80
Season 7 6 102 23.1 83.5 32.24 28.63 3.60 3.26 7.28
Season 6 12 89 20.2 81.6 32.46 28.78 3.18 3.24 8.22
Season 5 7 102 21.8 83.2 32.76 28.89 3.74 3.15 9.74
Season 4 4 107 21.4 85.3 31.91 29.00 3.62 2.72 11.50
Season 3 6 100 20.7 85.4 33.82 27.72 3.72 3.00 13.16
Season 2 9 97 20.5 82.2 30.07 29.89 3.52 3.17 12.48
Season 1 20 63 16.4 76.7 28.20 31.60 2.54 3.61 9.77
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Ryan O’Reilly, C, current age 30. Games played: 789; points: 682; +30
Season 2: Staffan Kronwall, D, age 27. GP 723, Pts 328, +159
Season 3: Samuel Morin, D, age 26.
Season 4: Artturi Lehkonen, LW, age 25. GP 206, Pts 58, -3
Season 5: Miks Indrasis, LW, age 25. GP 261, Pts 79, -18
Season 6: Tanner Pearson, LW, age 27. GP 66, Pts 15, plus/minus +3
Season 7: Noah Juulsen, D, age 23.
Season 8: Esa Lindell, D, age 25. GP 233, Pts 59, plus/minus 0
Season 9: Peter Thome, G, age 23. GP 24, Save Pct. 86.4
Season 10: Yanni Gourde, RW, age 27. GP 82, Pts 30, -13
Season 11: Erik Cernak, D, age 21.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 9 pick (used to draft Nick Foligno) to Geneva for Round 13 pick (Marcus Kruger) and Round 14 pick (Mark Scheifele)
Traded Round 15 pick (Stefan Elliott) to Minsk for Matt Cullen
Traded Evander Kane and Alexander Sulzer to Dublin for Scott Hartnell, Tim Gleason, 2013 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Nail Yakupov), Round 2015 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Matt Nieto) and $5 million
Traded Tomas Vokoun to Madrid for Michal Neuvirth, Nick Johnson and 2013 Round 1 pick (traded later) (Martin Ruzicka)
Traded 2013 Round 3 pick (Magnus Johansson) to Milan for Brad Boyes
Season 2
Traded Michal Rozsival and 2014 Round 1 pick (Justin Schultz) to Prague for Nick Kronwall
Traded Nazem Kadri and Round 2 pick (lost track of this one; might have been Brendan Pirlini in 2014) to Belfast for 2013 Round 1 pick (Vadim Shipachyov)
Traded Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 pick (Brian Flynn) to Berlin for Miikka Kiprusoff
Traded Miikka Kiprusoff and Michal Neuvirth to Stockholm for Cam Ward
Traded Marcel Hossa to Prague for Michael Ryder
Traded Jared Spurgeon and Nick Johnson to Prague for Michal Rozsival and Kyle Palmieri
* seem to missing 3 trades that occurred in this general period.
Season 3
Traded Mark Scheifele to Prague for Joel Armia
Traded Johnny Boychuk to Milan for Dimitrios Kalyvas
Season 4
Traded Brooks Orpik, Bryan Bickell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Ivan Provorov) to Copenhagen for Alex Goligoski
Season 5
Season 6
Traded David Backes, Kyle Palmieri and a 2018 Round 1 pick (Olli Juolevi) to Moscow for Andrew Ladd, Jaroslav Halak, Brandon Sutter and a 2018 Round 2 pick (Noah Juulsen)
After Season 6 started:
Traded Ryan O’Reilly to Moscow for Anze Kopitar
Signed Christian Folin (free agent), Jack Hillen (free agent)
Lost Mike Indrasis (waivers)
Season 7
Traded Vadim Shipachyov, Staffan Kronwall and Tomas Vincour to Berlin for Logan Couture, Alexander Edler, Loui Eriksson and 2021 Round 2 pick (Evgeny Dadonov)
Lost Trevor Daley (waivers)
Season 8
Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (Denis Malgin) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Erik Kallgren) to Minsk for Colin Wilson
Season 9
Traded 2021 Round 3 pick (Jack Drury) to Berlin for Tomas Vincour
Season 10
