Season 11: Munich EHC Red Bull

Owner: Ralph Schwarz, from the Schwarz-Lidl discount store family, hockey and Alpine skiing fan extraordinaire.

Farm Club: Hamburg (Germany) Freezers

GM: Jared Smith (10th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Mike Babcock (replaced Paul Maurice during Season 11); Maurice replaced Mike Sulllivan after Season 9; Sullivan replaced Craig Berube after Season 6)

Last season: 18th overall, (did not make playoffs)

Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)

Out: Ilya Kovalchuk (free agent), Dustin Brown (free agent), Felix Bruckmann (free agent), Calle Jarnkrok (free agent), Denis Gribko (free agent),

In: Shea Weber (free agent), David Perron (free agent), Joonas Korpisalo (free agent), Loic Lamperier (waiver), Ryan Gunderson (free agent), Alexander Wennberg (free agent), Lucas Wallmark (free agent), Mats Rosseli Olsen (trade), Haydn Fleury (waiver), Dominik Pas (waiver), Moritz Seider (draft), Jack Roslovic (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)

Filip Forsberg, LW; Sean Monahan, C; Fyodor Malykhin, C; Clayton Keller, RW; Joonas Korpisalo, G

Three Questions

1. How do they fit in all the players they signed? New general manager Jared Smith burst into Bavaria between seasons and he has really shaken up the franchise. Three starters from last season were sent packing, along with part-timer Dustin Brown and 10 new players were signed onto the Red Bulls roster, plus a pair of draft picks. The three most notable additions are defenseman Shea Weber, forward David Perron and goalie Joonas Korpisalo. So how is he planning to use all those new players? How will they even fit into the lineup? Smith made a simple but tough decision: If you don’t fit into his plan, you don’t play, no matter how much money the club is paying you. Cory Schneider ($9.7 million), Kevin Dallman ($6 million), Andrej Meszaros ($5.5 million) and Chris Stewart ($3.96 million) are all playing on the farm club at the start of the season. The Hamburg Freezers look good this season.

2. Where are they strongest? No franchise has had more turnover at the top than Munich, but collectively, the previous general managers built a pretty good core for this team and fortunately for Jared Smith, his predecessors didn’t trade much of it away. In fact, thanks to them, Smith can look forward to having Cale Makar and Alexander Nylander join the club in late April. Add them and this team has a core of 20-something players that is solid and good. It features Sean Monahan and Fyodor Malykhin at center; Filip Forsberg and Clayton Keller on the wings; Makar on defense and two promising goalies in Joonas Korpisalo and Attila Adorjan. Not to mention a good collection of quality support players like Oliver Bjorkstrand and Alexis Vanier, who has really progressed well since being picked 32nd overall by Lisbon in Season 8. In town, the Red Bulls have always taken a back seat to soccer power Bayern Munich, but thanks to this exciting group of young players, visitors to Munich will start seeing more hockey jerseys and fewer Bayern jerseys in the near future.

3. OK, the future looks set, but what about this year? The Red Bulls’ competition will be good, but it looks like Munich has the horses to make the playoffs for the first time in a long time. The one thing they could really use is a top puck-moving defenseman and they will get that when Makar joins the lineup. Shea Weber still has his powerful slapshot and the experience he has gained from playing on eight different EURO League teams is unmatched. Coach Paul Maurice stuck the C on his sweater right away. Munich is particularly strong at center, where Fyodor Malykhin and Sean Monahan will see top minutes and last year’s top scorer David Krejci and inexperienced Alexander Wennberg will center the lower two lines. On the wings, look for Clayton Keller and Frenchman Loic Lamperier to flourish on the second line with Monahan between them. One thing that might hold down this group of forwards is their lack of size. Aside from Latvian Miks Indrasis, the Red Bulls are more like Red Calves and they will get pushed off the puck relatively easily. The goalie position is also a question mark, for this year at least. Korpisalo and Adorjan both have plenty of potential, but it remains to be seen if either is ready to carry this team to wins on a regular basis.

History

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

Season 10 18 76 17.70 80.80 27.83 31.21 3.12 3.62 7.59

Season 9 19 71 18.10 78.90 28.79 31.59 2.94 3.65 7.67

Season 8 20 67 18.70 79.40 28.70 31.66 2.80 3.35 8.23

Season 7 15 82 13.1 77.5 28.35 32.17 2.95 3.56 8.70

Season 6 10 90 18.3 84.2 28.74 31.72 3.13 3.09 9.54

Season 5 21 60 12.50 78.2 26.55 33.70 2.48 3.57 9.67

Season 4 21 70 17.0 83.0 26.46 34.98 2.96 3.51 12.99

Season 3 5 103 18.4 85.6 30.66 31.72 3.40 2.74 12.24

Season 2 4 104 21.4 82.9 29.95 30.85 3.22 2.63 11.82

Season 1 5 104 19.0 84.0 32.62 28.73 3.50 2.88 9.41

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Jonathan Quick, G, current age 35. Games played: 601; Save Pct 91.3

Season 2: Talgat Zhailauov, C, age 31. GP 709, Pts 478, -7

Season 3: Andrew Shaw, RW, age 29. GP 530, Pts 158, -10

Season 4: Radko Gudas, G, age 30. GP 462, Pts 128, -58

Season 5: Fyodor Malykhin, LW, age 27. GP 455; Pts 302; -5

Season 6: Jack Eichel, C, 24. GP 371; Pts 272; +6

Season 7: Clayton Keller, C, age 21. GP 164, Pts 78, -43

Season 8: Cale Makar, D, age 21.

Season 9: Attila Adorjan, G, age 24. GP 107; Sv Pct. 89.7

Season 10: Jesper Bratt, LW, age 20. GP 1, Pts 0, -1

Season 11: Moritz Seider, D, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 8 pick (used to draft Tomas Fleischmann), Round 10 pick (James Wisniewski), and Round 16 pick (Nikita Nikitin) to Dublin for Round 9 pick (used to draft Joe Corvo), Round 11 pick (Milan Hejduk) Round 13 pick (Josh Bailey) and $10,000

Season 2

Traded Tomas Zaborsky and Brooks Laich to Copenhagen for Dany Heatley and David Bolland

Traded Anton Babchuk to Stockholm for Magnus Johansson

Season 4

Traded 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak) to Berlin for Ryan Wilson

Traded Dion Phaneuf to Copenhagen for Mark Giordano, Nikita Zadorov and Charlie Coyle

Season 5

Traded Jonathan Quick to Belfast for Cory Schneider and Filip Forsberg

Traded Mark Giordano to Minsk for two 2017 Round 3 picks (Calle Jarnkrok and (later traded – Oliver Kylington))

Transactions after the start of Season 5:

Lost Steve Downey (waivers)

Signed Francois Beauchemin (free agent)

Signed Denis Gribko (free agent)

Traded David Bolland and 2017 Round 2 pick (Petr Mrazek) to Copenhagen for T.J. Brodie and Gareth Roberts

Season 6

Traded Braydon Coburn and 2017 Round 3 pick (Oliver Kylington) to Gothenburg for Patrick Marleau

Traded Jack Eichel, Charlie Coyle and 2018 Round 2 (Sam Steel) pick to Stockholm for Sean Monahan, Craig Smith, Jindrich Barak, Cody Ceci and 2018 Round 1 pick (Alexander Nylander)

After Season 6 started: Claimed Miks Indrasis on waivers.

Season 7

Season 8

Traded 2020 Round 2 pick (Isaac Ratcliffe) to Lisbon for 2019 Round 2 pick (Nikita Zaitsev)

Traded Craig Smith and Josh Bailey to Madrid for Colin Greening, 2020 Round 2 pick (Linus Hogberg) and 2021 Round 2 pick (Cale Fleury)

After Season 8 started:

Signed Matt Irwin (free agent), Thomas Hickey (free agent)

Lost Jordan Caron (waivers)

Season 9

Season 10

Traded 2022 Round 2 pick (Peyton Krebs) to Lisbon for Alexis Vanier

Season 11