Farm club: H.C. Bolzano-Bozen (Italy) Foxes 

GM: David Bell (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Doug Weight (replaced Bob Boughner after Season 10) (Boughner replaced Ken Hitchcock after Season 9) (Hitchcock replaced Bruce Boudreau after Season 6, who replaced Randy Carlyle after Season 3)

Last season: 14th overall. (In playoffs, defeated Bratislava; lost to Paris.)

Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)

Out: None.

In: Jack Campbell (free agent), Marcus Pettersson (draft), Nolan Foote (draft), Raphael Lavoie (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)

Andrew Hammond, G; Danny Dekeyser, D; Jaden Schwartz, C; Tyler Johnson, C; Matthew Tkachuk, RW;

Three Questions

1 Don’t Italians take this family thing kind of far? If you join the Guerriero Family, then you’re in it for life. And no one talks about family business to people outside the family. Got it? For the last five seasons, not one player has been traded from Milan by General Manager David Bell, or as he is known in the family, Don Vito Campana, which is the Italian word for bell. The only thing that can get you off the team, it seems, is death or the league salary cap. And Don Campana has ways to get around that, if you know what I mean. So these Guerriero have grown up together. They’ve had to. The result is a team full of players in their mid- to late-20s. The old men of the group are defenseman Jake Muzzin and goalie Andrew “Il Hamburgerscassinatore” Hammond, who are both 31 and key players for the squad. Muzzin has blocked more than 100 shots in each of the last two seasons, taken more than 100 shots himself in each of the last 4 seasons and last season, he scored 20 goals. Hammond, twice an all-star game starter for the Southern Conference, has been Milan’s main man for five seasons and in that time his goals against average is 2.81 and his save percentage is 90.9, which is third-best all-time in the EURO League.

2. How can they creep into the top 4 of the conference? Milan has some good clubs ahead of them in the South, but don’t count on it being like that forever. The salary cap will shuffle some lineups and time will deplete them as well. Rival stars John Tavares, Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Toews, Claude Giroux, Tuukka Rask, and Kris Letang are some of the players on those teams who are in their 30s and could be in line for declines soon. Milan doesn’t have that problem to that degree. A good way for the Guerriero to rise would be to transpose their shots for and shots against averages. Their 27.06 shots per game average last season was the team’s worst since Season 3, and the 31.62 shots against average was their worst since Season 7. New Coach Doug Weight will be the one asked to turn those numbers around. More than anything else, Milan needs more all-star caliber goaltending from Hammond.

3. What’s going to be the biggest difference? Look for Matthew Tkachuk to have a break-out year. The 7th overall pick in the Season 7 draft played 22 minutes per game last season, moving ahead of Mathis Olimb on the depth chart, but Tkachuk struggled to an 18-goal, -37 season. He might have been a little too young for such a large role. He is 23 this season and he’ll get a chance to show he can do better with Tyler Johnson at center and the team’s top scorer Par Arlbrandt on the right wing. Milan has good defensive players in the top 6 up front – and with Danny Dekeyser and Muzzin on defense – but past those 7 or 8 players, it will get dicey for Weight and Hammond. The team has speed to burn and it has beefed up in recent years with Tkachuk, Ryan Pulock and Alex Tuch. In the attributes department, the Guerriero seem to have most bases covered. Pulock will also be a key player. He has size, speed and good offensive skills and Milan will need him to play mistake-free hockey on the second blueline pairing.

History

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

Season 10              14         82       16.8        83.4       27.06      31.62     3.13    3.18      7.82

Season 9               12         94        13.2        83.9       29.95      29.99     3.09    3.04      8.38

Season 8               12         89        14.2        80.7       28.04      31.11     2.84     2.66      8.95

Season 7               11         89        15.9        83.9       29.18      32.01     2.98     3.04      7.28

Season 6              19          74        13.2        76.6       28.27      32.04     2.68     3.24               6.34

Season 5              23          58         17.7       80.1        27.56      31.96     2.45        3.52               7.80

Season 4              22         65          15.3        78.0       27.98      34.23    2.72        3.88               9.82

Season 3              22          62          13.3        81.3       26.88     31.39     2.72        3.71                11.62

Season 2              16          86         15.7        84.1       32.62     28.82     3.33        3.32                12.68

Season 1              7          101          19.8        85.6        31.23     27.30    3.74        3.15                11.41

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Gabriel Landeskog, LW, current age 29. Games played: 812; points: 795; +13

Season 2: Gerhard Unterluggauer, D, age 37. GP 489, Pts 183, +36

Season 3: Ben Bishop, G, age 34. GP 235, Save Pct. 88.4

Season 4: Tyler Johnson, C, age 30.  GP 563, Pts 378, -299

Season 5: Par Arlbrandt, RW, age 27.  GP 484, Pts 276, +28

Season 6: Andrew Hammond, G, age 31. GP 329, Save Pct 90.9

Season 7: Matthew Tkachuk, LW, age 23. GP 237; Pts 128, -25

Season 8: Owen Tippett, W, age 20.

Season 9: Aapeli Rasanen, C, age 23. GP 164, 59 Pts, +12

Season 10: Evan Bouchard , D, age 20.

Season 11: Marcus Pettersson, D, age 22.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 6 pick (used to draft David Perron), Round 21 pick (Mike Green) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Ossi Vaananen) to Paris for Round 3 pick (used to draft Dustin Byfuglien), Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 26 pick (Jeff Woywitka)

Traded Gabriel Landeskog to Madrid for Dustin Brown, Round 10 pick (Trevor Daley) and Round 11 pick (Chris Kreider)

Traded Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 22 pick (Jakub Kindl) to St. Petersburg for Round 18 pick (Brandon Gormley)

Traded Round 20 pick (David Steckel) to Bratislava for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Olexander Podbyedonostsev)

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Edinburgh for 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer)

Traded Zbynek Michalek and Jaroslav Spacek to Dublin for 2013 Round 2 pick (Niklas Danielsson) and $1.35 million

Traded Jordan Staal, Chris Kreider, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin) and $250,000 to Madrid for Henrik Sedin

Traded Brad Boyes to Athens for 2013 Round 3 pick (Magnus Johansson)

Traded Nik Antropov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Olexander Podbyedonostsev) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Matthew Dumba) to Helsinki for Jamie McGinn

Traded Viktor Stalberg, 2014 Round 1 pick (Cam Atkinson) and $1 million to St. Petersburg for Daniel Alfredsson

Traded Brian Rolston to Madrid for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Eliezer Sherbatov)

Traded Dustin Penner to Oslo for 2014 Round 3 (later traded) (Samuel Morin)

Season 2

Traded Antoine Vermette to Prague for Jay McClement and 2013 Round 2 pick (Dimitrios Kalyvas)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Helsinki for Mikkel Boedker

Traded Jason Garrison to Moscow for Vaclav Prospal and 2014 Round 2 pick (T.J. Brennan)

Season 3

Traded Dustin Brown and 2014 Round 2 pick (Marcus Foligno) to Stockholm for Kyle Okposo and 2014 Round 1 pick (Brendan Gallagher)

Traded Dustin Byfuglien to Athens for Marcus Kruger, Joel Armia, 2014 Round 1 pick (Ben Bishop) and 2015 Round 2 pick (Alex Stalock)

Traded Mike Richards and 2015 Round 2 pick (later traded to Madrid – Jake Virtanen) to Stockholm for Jaden Schwartz

Traded Ryan Callahan to Berlin for Matt Read and 2014 Round 2 pick (Josh Morrisey)

Traded Matt Moulson to Copenhagen for Tomas Zaborsky

Traded Dimitrios Kalyvas to Athens for Johnny Boychuk

Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Valentin Zykov) to Athens for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Bratislava – Brendan Guhle)

Traded Gerhard Unterluggauer and Matt Read to Berlin for Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb

Traded Magnus Johansson to Stockholm for Thomas Hickey

Traded Antti Niemi to Gothenburg for 2015 Round 1 (Dan Dekeyser) and 2015 Round 3 pick (Alex Tuch)

Season 4

Season 5

After the start of Season 5:

Signed Sean Bergenheim (free agent)

Traded Jonathan Blum to Copenhagen for Brian Campbell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Phil Di Giuseppe)

Season 6

Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Brendan Guhle) to Bratislava for 2018 Round 3 pick (Andrew Copp)

After Season 6 started: Traded Mikko Rantanen to Belfast for Robby Fabbri and 2019 Round 3 pick (Zurich’s) (Drake Caggiula)

Claimed Alex Killorn on waivers and then lost him on waivers

Signed Patrick Thoresen (free agent)

Season 7

Traded Niklas Danielsson to Lisbon for Nick Bjugstad

After season started: lost Chris Tanev (waivers)

Season 8

Traded 2019 Round 3 pick (Carter Hart) to Stockholm for 2020 Round 3 pick (Dylan Samberg)

Season 11