Season 11: Dublin Fighting Irish

Farm Club: Cool Mokum Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Owner: Ivan Menezes, CEO of Diageo, a London-based company that owns Dublin’s Guinness Brewery.

GM: Jack Eichel (Fifth GM in team’s history)

Coach: Mike Johnston (replaced Bruce Cassidy after Season 10) (Cassidy replaced Paul MacLean after Season 7; MacLean replaced Dave Tippett after Season 4; Tippett replaced Alain Vigneault after Season 3)

Last season: 23rd overall, (Missed the playoffs)

Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)

Out: Brent Burns (free agent), Marian Gaborik (retired), Milan Michalek (free agent), Tobias Enstrom (free agent), Braydon Coburn (free agent), Cam Talbot (free agent), Renat Mamashev (free agent), Matt Bartkowski (free agent), Dylan Strome (trade), Vince Dunn (trade), Julien Gauthier (trade)

In: Rasmus Ristolainen (trade), Mikko Rantanen (trade), Mike Hoffman (free agent), Mike Groenhof (free agent), Laurent Brossoit (free agent), Kaapo Kakko (draft), Mathieu Joseph (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)

Hampus Lindholm, D; Rasmus Ristolainen, D; Jakub Silfverburg, RW; Elias Pettersson, C; Mike Hoffman, LW

Three Questions

1. What needs to change the most? Dublin fans are not happy. Their 10th season was their worst ever, with the Irish finishing one spot from last in the league. One of the main factors was an offense that never got going last year. The Fighting Irish posted their lowest-ever shots-per-game and goal-per-game averages. Jordan Staal and Milan Lucic came to the team together as free agents from Minsk, where they grew accustomed to each other as linemates, but in Dublin they looked like strangers to each other and their production dipped. A lot was expected of Jakob Silfverberg when he was promoted to the top line, but he had trouble finding the right chemistry with his linemates. More goals will please the fans and contribute to more wins. But where will the goals come from? From former Edinburgh Capital Mike Hoffman? Dublin is banking on it. He has a 95 shooting rating and the Irish signed Hoffman to a long-term $6.9 million contract during free agency.

2. What other roster changes can we expect to see? Previous Dublin GMs didn’t place much value on youth and as a result, GM Jack Eichel inherited a team roster loaded with 30-something aged players. When the draft started, Dublin had 3 goalies and 12 defenseman 30 or older to just two defensemen younger than 30. A 23rd-place team usually needs a remake, but it is pretty much impossible for this team to get younger sooner rather than later. Attrition over the next couple seasons is likely to change the roster more than trades will. This off season, Eichel let seven veterans leave after their contracts expired. But then, the team’s average age went up a tiny bit when Eichel made two trades that moved out more youth. Twenty-two-year-olds Vince Dunn and Dylan Strome hit the road and were replaced by slightly older Rasmus Ristolainen (26) and Mikko Rantanen (24), who are a little more established and who should gel better with their many teammates at or past their prime years. Dublin is loaded with talented wingers and it has big, fast defense corps. In the short-term, goaltending will be an issue unless Erik Ersberg can repeat what he did last season (89 percent save percentage) as a 32-year-old playing half the team’s schedule. Even then, they will need some big production up front.

3. How will this Kaapo Kakko kid do? The Finnish winger taken third overall in the draft is on pace for a 28-point, 124-shot season as an 18-year-old with the New York Rangers of the NHL. One of the hazards of a virtual league in Websim is the fact that the attributes a player gets after his first NHL season stick with him forever. Kakko is going to be a great player, but unless he is able to pick it up with the Rangers, his EURO League self will only be good to very good. When Kakko joins the team in Season 12, he will meet three centers who are good examples of the Websim attributes dynamic. Leon Draisaitl is on pace for a 125-point season in the NHL, but because he was rushed into action as an Edmonton Oiler rookie, he may never be a starter in the EURO League. Dublin lucked out with a couple of other centers however. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Elias Pettersson were both taken 9th overall by Dublin in Seasons 7 and 8, respectively, and both flourished early in the NHL As a result, they have attributes more like top 3 picks.

But we won’t see him until Season 12.

History

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

Season 10 23 63 16.2 81.5 25.63 31.30 2.61 3.71 10.15

Season 9 17 73 19.8 80.5 28.74 29.78 3.00 3.71 10.61

Season 8 17 77 22.1 81.3 29.73 29.99 3.13 3.37 8.37

Season 7 16 75 19.7 81.3 28.77 31.87 2.96 3.46 7.52

Season 6 18 77 17.0 79.6 29.94 30.21 3.11 3.59 8.06

Season 5 13 85 16.8 84.9 28.37 32.17 3.07 3.12 8.13

Season 4 20 71 20.9 81.3 29.43 33.35 2.88 3.73 10.15

Season 3 7 99 17.4 84.6 29.83 31.34 3.66 3.18 9.35

Season 2 7 98 19.5 84.9 31.22 30.45 3.56 3.11 9.98

Season 1 13 90 17.9 81.3 31.07 30.33 3.39 3.30 8.95

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Alexander Ovechkin, LW, current age 36. Games played: 800; Points 753; -51

Season 2: Olexander Pobyedonostsev, D, age 35; GP 466; Pts 142; -97

Season 3: Jake Allen, G, age 30.

Season 4: Brendan Perlini, LW, age 24. GP 2; Pts 0; 0 plus/minus rating

Season 5: Nardo Nagtzaam, C, age 27. GP 408; Points 149; +28

Season 6: Jori Lehtera, C, age 32. GP 201; Points 76; 0 plus/minus rating

Season 7: Pierre-Luc Dubois, C/W, age 21. GP 82; Pts 26; -10

Season 8: Elias Pettersson, C/LW, age 21.

Season 9: Calvin Thurkauf, LW, age 22.

Season 10: Vince Dunn, D, age 22.

Season 11: Kaapo Kakko, RW, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 7 pick (used to draft Chris Kunitz) , Round 22 pick (Bryan Allen) and $250,000 to Geneva for Round 8 pick (Olli Jokinen), Round 10 pick (Petr Sykora) and 2013 Round 2 (Ryan Murray)

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

Traded Alexander Ovechkin and 2014 Round 1 pick (Darrell Nurse) to Moscow for Phil Kessel and Bobby Ryan

Traded Scott Hartnell, Tim Gleason, 2013 Round 1 pick (later traded) (Nail Yakupov), 2015 Round 1 pick (later traded) (Matt Nieto) and $5 million to Athens for Evander Kane and Alexander Sulzer

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

Traded Boone Jenner to Helsinki for Jakub Silfverberg and 2013 Round 2 pick (Olexander Podbyedonostsev)

Season 2

Traded Tomas Fleischmann to Copenhagen for 2014 Round 1 pick (Jake Allen)

Season 4

Traded Bobby Ryan to Stockholm for Jakub Petruzalek and James Van Riemsdyk

Season 5

Traded 2017 Round 2 pick (Pavel Zacha) to Minsk for Renat Mamashev

Traded Tim Thomas and 2017 Round 1 pick (Noah Hanifin) to Copenhagen for Brian Elliott

Season 6

Traded Evander Kane and Nardo Nagtzaam to Belfast for Alexander Ovechkin and Cody Hodgson

After Season 6 started: Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (Frank Vatrano) to Lisbon for Clarke MacArthur;

Claimed Colton Gillies (waivers), Mattias Tedenby (waivers)

Lost Jori Lehtera (waivers)

Claimed Brian Campbell on waiver and then lost him on waivers

Season 7

Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (Cal Foote) to Belfast for Cam Talbot

Traded Brendan Perlini to Lisbon for Matt Martin

Traded Alexander Ovechkin and a 2020 Round 3 pick (Charles Williams) to Bratislava for Dylan Strome, Teuvo Teravainen, Leon Draisaitl and a 2020 Round 1 pick (Troy Loggins)

Traded Ryan Kesler to Lisbon for Magnus Paajarvi and Emerson Etem

After season started: Signed Troy Brouwer (free agent) but lost Brouwer (waivers), signed Carlo Colaiacovo (free agent)

Season 8

Traded 2021 Round 3 pick (later regained in a trade with Lisbon, but traded to Minsk who used it to pick Lukas Dostal) to Lisbon for Yannik Weber

Traded Ryan Murray to Berlin for Christian Dvorak

Traded 2020 Round 2 pick (Alexis Vanier) to Lisbon for Dion Phaneuf and 2021 Round 3 pick (later traded to Minsk (Lukas Dostal))

Season 9

Traded 2021 Round 2 pick (Joe Veleno) to Helsinki for Cody Eakin

Traded 2022 Round 2 pick (Alex Newhook) to Copenhagen for Brent Burns

Season 10

Traded Jake Allen, Steve Oleksy and 2021 Round 3 pick (Lukas Dostal) to Minsk for Milan Lucic* and Jordan Staal*

Traded Troy Loggins, Mattias Tedenby* and Colton Gillies* to Bratislava for Alexander Ovechkin*, Ryan Suter* and Joakim Nygard