Team owner: Neil Patrick Harris, American actor and Smurf fanatic
Farm Club: Kolner Haie
GM: Guybrush Threepwood (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Adam Oates
Last season: 3rd overall (In the playoffs, defeated Bern, defeated Madrid, defeated Paris, lost to Copenhagen in Finals )
Ins and Outs
(Season 10 to Season 11)
Out: Andrey Bykov (trade), Tyler Ennis (free agent), Shea Weber (free agent), Brenden Dillon (free agent), Radko Gudas (free agent), Ryan Kesler (free agent), Matt Donovan (free agent), Tim Erixon (free agent), Matus Holenda (free agent), Scott Mayfield (free agent), Gabriel Dumont (free agent),
In: Alexander Edler (free agent), Roger Karrer (trade), Ryan Callahan (free agent), Jiri Tlusty (free agent) Ossi Vaananen (free agent), Tyler Motte (free agent), Carl Dahlstrom (free agent), Connor McMichael (draft), Jamieson Rees (draft), Declan Chisholm (draft)
In Place
(Key players signed past Season 11)
Calvin Pickard, G; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C; Vadim Shipachyov, RW; Staffan Kronwall, D; Aleksander Barkov, C
Three Questions
1. Why are the Smurfs always close to winning? That question makes everyone – no matter if they hate or love the team – a little angry. Thanks for asking it. If you’re not a Berlin fan, then there are those damn Smurfs, year after year, knocking the teams you like out of the playoff race. If you are a Smurf fan, then that question makes you turn blue in the face. No pun intended. Three times, Berlin has made it to the Cup Finals and three times the Smurfs have come up short. No pun intended. The Smurfs have finished in the Top 10 seven of the last eight seasons. Before the Forssell Era ends, all of Berlin wants the Cup raised over its collective head. They always seem to put together a talented team and we can’t tell if they are lucky to get as far as they do every year, or unlucky to get stopped every year. This off-season, there was a lot of turnover with 3 full-timers and a few good subs leaving town and several veterans coming in via free agency. Almost all of them will start the season with the Kolner Haie farm club, but Alexander Edler will draw the most scrutiny from fans. He was a Smurf for 6 seasons, then he played in Athens for 4, and now he’s back as a 35-year-old making $4.3 million. He’s not the player he once was, but he still has a cannon of a shot. Berlin is hoping his vast experience and good shot will take them to the top step. Finally.
2. Why in the Smurf did they trade Bykov? You know why. The salary cap. You think they WANTED to give hated Bern a 32-goal guy to plug in on their top line? No. But Andrey Bykov’s $7.8 million salary was bringing down the ship. He had to go. So how do they make up for the absence of Bykov, who plays like a buzzsaw terrorizing defensemen and goalies alike? Welcome to the glaring spotlight, Eli Sherbatov. It will be your job to make the fans forget about little number 89. Step one is getting used to playing 10 more minutes per game than you are used to. Actually, Sherbatov will do a nice job for Berlin and he’ll make General Manager Guybrush Threepwood look less dopey this year. He’s a great skater and he’s a fantastic shooter. Sherbatov, that is, not Guybrush. He’s very muscular and strong. Guybrush that is, not Sherbatov. The Israeli winger Sherbatov will be pretty well known shortly. There is a chance big American Anders Lee will bump Sherbatov down a line, but Sherbatov has much better passing ability and speed.
3. How is Berlin defensively? Very good, but not elite. Last year, only two teams allowed fewer shots on goal and Berlin’s penalty killing was Smurfin’ great. Goalie Calvin Pickard’s save percentage was in the middle of the pack. That collection of numbers points to good overall team defense and goaltending that has room for improvement. The best way to protect your goalie is to keep the puck in the other end and score goals. That puts pressure on your offensive defensemen and forwards and fortunately for this team, they will have two very strong forward lines with OV ratings of 82-90 and ages between 26 and 29. The Smurfs blueline corps has four proven defenders. The top two, Staffan Kronwall and Ryan Murray, are potential all-stars who will simply dominate some games. Alexander Edler and Austrian Stefan Ulmer give Berlin four defensemen who scored 11 or more goals last season. The weak link could be the inexperienced third pair: Filip Hronek and young Roger Karrer, who came over in the Bykov trade.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 10 3 114 22.4 86.2 33.68 26.26 3.77 2.73 10.99
Season 9 3 110 18.6 81.0 33.96 27.21 3.79 3.01 9.51
Season 8 11 90 21.2 83.9 30.55 30.90 3.28 3.16 11.66
Season 7 7 101 19.0 84.8 28.04 28.43 3.13 2.88 11.99
Season 6 3 112 20.6 85.9 34.41 26.46 3.62 2.60 8.72
Season 5 2 128 19.6 89.1 34.96 26.10 3.73 2.50 7.80
Season 4 6 106 19.7 83.8 33.17 26.79 3.62 2.74 8.46
Season 3 3 107 20.7 83.8 34.32 27.62 3.74 2.95 9.82
Season 2 18 83 16.1 81.1 30.05 30.62 3.27 3.59 9.80
Season 1 16 87 18.3 81.1 30.56 28.84 3.17 3.24 6.37
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Logan Couture, C, current age 32. Games played 775; Points 896, +4
Season 2: Mikko Lehtonen, RW, age 28. GP 724, Pts 392, +192
Season 3: Aleksander Barkov, C, age 26. GP 524, Pts 244, +16
Season 4: Leon Draisaitl, C, age 25. GP 11; Pts 2, -1
Season 5: Christian Dvorak, C/LW, age 24. GP 248; Pts 46, -5
Season 6: Timo Meier, RW, age 24. GP 241, Pts 41, -8
Season 7: Adam Mascherin, C/LW, age 21.
Season 8: Klim Kostin, C/W, age 20.
Season 9: Filip Chytil, C, age 20.
Season 10: Akil Thomas, C, age 20.
Season 11: Connor McMichael, C, age 19.
Trade History
Season 2
Traded Mikhail Grigorenko, R.J. Umberger, Brayden Colburn and Round 2 pick later traded (Josh Morrissey?) to Madrid for Slava Voynov, Round 1 pick later traded to Stockholm in the Loui Eriksson deal and 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Robert Hagg)
Traded Brian Campbell, 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano) to Madrid for Erik Ersberg
Traded Colton Gillies to Helsinki for Jarkko Immonen
Traded Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Madrid’s) (Sean Monahan) to Stockholm for Loui Eriksson
Traded Mikka Kiprusoff to Athens for Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 (Brian Flynn)
Traded Tim Erixon, Andrey Bykov and 2014 Round 2 pick (Robert Hagg) to London for Semyon Varlamov *Apparently missing some trades here, although that first trade with Madrid might actually be several.
Season 3
Traded Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb to Milan for Matt Read and Gerhard Unterluggauer
Traded Semyon Varlamov and Jarkko Immonen to Oslo for Jimmy Howard
Traded Ryan Wilson to Munich for 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak)
Traded Kris Versteeg to Moscow for 2015 Round 1 pick (Leon Draisaitl)
Season 4
Traded Matt Read to Edinburgh for Tony Martensson
Traded Slava Voynov, Martin Erat and 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Stockholm – Linden Vey) to Copenhagen for Dion Phaneuf
Traded 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou (name changed to Alexander Kerfoot)) to Edinburgh for 2017 Round 3 pick (Niklas Svedberg)
Season 5
Season 6
Traded Erik Ersberg to Stockholm for 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to London – Martin Necas)
Traded Brian Flynn and 2018 Round 2 pick (Tyler Benson) to Bern for 2018 Round 2 pick (later traded – Joonas Donskoi)
After Season 6 started:
Signed Tim Gleason (free agent); claimed Martin Havlat (waivers)
Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to Lisbon and then traded to Berlin (Filip Hronek)) to St. Petersburg for Stefan Ulmer
Traded David Pastrnak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Dennis Cholowski) to Prague for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (formerly Bern’s – Joonas Donskoi) and 2019 Round 2 pick (formerly Stockholm’s – Martin Necas) to London for Erik Forssell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Adam Mascherin)
Season 7
Traded Leon Draisaitl to Bratislava for Siim Liivik
Traded Aleksander Barkov to Prague for Calvin Pickard
Traded David Krejci and 2020 Round 2 pick (Joni Ikonen) to Stockholm for Jeff Carter and 2020 Round 1 pick (later traded to Prague)
Traded 2020 Round 1 (Stockholm’s) pick (Ryan Poehling) and 2021 Round 3 pick to Prague for Andrey Bykov
After season started: Traded 2019 Round 1 pick (Casey Mittelstadt) to Lisbon for Evgeny Kuznetsov and 2019 Round 2 pick (Filip Hronek)
Traded Logan Couture, Loui Eriksson, Alexander Edler and 2021 Round 2 pick (Evgeny Dadonov) to Athens for Vadim Shipachyov, Staffan Kronwall and Tomas Vincour
Traded Josh Gorges and 2019 Round 3 pick (Kole Lind) to Bratislava for Simon Despres and Dante Fabbro
Traded Dion Phaneuf to London for 2019 Round 2 pick (Klim Kostin)
Signed Matt Donovan (free agent), claimed Roman Polak (waivers)
Season 8
Traded Jeff Carter to Copenhagen for Kyle Brodziak and 2020 Round 3 pick (later traded to Bern for Shea Weber) (Eemeli Rasanen)
Traded Evgeny Kuznetsov and Klim Kostin to Prague for Aleksander Barkov
Traded Roman Polak to St. Petersburg for 2021 Round 3 pick (traded back to St. Petersburg later, then to Gothenburg (Jan Drozg))
Season 9
Traded Christian Dvorak to Dublin for Ryan Murray
Traded 2020 Round 3 (Copenhagen’s) pick (Eemeli Rasanen) to Bern for Shea Weber
Traded Tomas Vincour to Athens for 2021 Round 3 pick (Jack Drury)
Traded Alex Debrincat to Helsinki for Eliezer Sherbatov
Traded 2020 Round 3 pick (Eduard Zakharchenko) to London for 2021 Round 3 pick (Mac Hollowell)
Traded Talgat Zhailauov to Lisbon for 2021 Round 2 pick (Akil Thomas)
Traded 2021 Round 1 pick (Rasmus Kupari) and 2021 Round 3 (St. Petersburg’s)(traded later to Gothenburg and used to pick Jan Drozg) to St. Petersburg for Jan Kovar
Season 10
Traded Filip Chytil to Helsinki for Ryan Hartman
Season 11
Traded Andrey Bykov to Bern for Roger Karrer
