Team Owner: Elizabeth II, Queen of England (Purchased after Season 10 from C. Montgomery Burns, owner, Springfield Nuclear Power Plant)
Farm Club: Tottenham Templars
GM: Trevor Grimm (6th GM in team’s history)
Coach: Paul Maurice (replaced Rod Brind’Amour in Season 11) (Brind’Amour replaced Barry Trotz after Season 10) (Trotz replaced Darryl Sutter after Season 7, who replaced Ken Hitchcock after Season 6)
Last season: 8th overall; In playoffs, defeated Helsinki, lost to Belfast.
Ins and Outs
(Season 10 to Season 11)
Out: John Carlson (trade), Phil Kessel (free agent), Rasmus Ristolainen (trade), Justin Schultz (waiver), Luca Sbisa (bought out), Jon Merrill (free agent), Andre Benoit (retired), Casey Nelson (free agent)
In: Vince Dunn (trade), Radek Faksa (trade) Luke Schenn (free agent), Ilya Nikulin (free agent), Olli Malmivaara (free agent), Mark Borowiecki (free agent), Keaton Ellerby (free agent), Julien Gauthier (trade), Jonathan Dugan (draft), Alexander Khovanov (draft), Tyler Madden (draft)
In Place
(Key players signed past Season 11)
Dominik Lakatos, C; Taylor Hall, RW; Jeff Skinner, C; Brandon Saad, LW; Martin Jones, G;
Three Questions
- Is GM Trevor Grimm going to bring his penchant for hitting to London? It actually happened before you finished the question. Let us put it this way: He named the team the Fightiing Royals, signed Rod Brind’Amour as his coach, and has already brought in Mark Borowiecki, Olli Malmivaara and Luke Schenn to patrol the blue line, looking for things to punch. Grimm inherited a team with a lot of speedy, skilled and creative forwards; the kind of players Grimm might call fancy boys. Backing them up with a bunch of bruisers sounds like a good idea. When the Fighting Royals aren’t killing penalties, maybe Taylor Hall, Jeff Skinner, William Nylander and their buddies will have more courage to push the envelope and take the puck in deeper. In the standings, London’s chief rivals will be Ahearne Division powers Copenhagen and Belfast, but we expect games against Gothenburg will sell out faster. The prospect of Malmivaara vs. Fraser and an under card of Borowiecki vs. Pashnin should draw big crowds in both cities.
- Can you tell us more about the forwards? Picture a speed skating team with sticks. Your team won’t be able to skate with the Fighting Royals and your defensemen will always be wondering when they get a break from the top line – even when the top line is sitting on the bench. This group is bursting with talent and they are all very well-rounded players who hustle. Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov and Jason Zucker are their third line. Third line! Who is the best of this talented bunch? Taylor Hall? Jeff Skinner? Brandon Saad? We’ve known 20-year-old Czech star Dominik Lakatos would be the best forward in London some day; we just didn’t think that some day would occur in his sophomore season. Last year, Lakatos finished 6th in the league in scoring with 98 points, and the guys ahead of him all played between 3 and 7 minutes per game more than Lakatos did. On his own talented team, he had 15 more points than the second-leading scorer, Saad, had. London has become Lakatos’ team. One concern last season was Hall. He seemed to be in a 3-year-long slump coming into Season 10 and then he was hurt for a total of 16 games, although his production and plus/minus finally started trending in the right directions. But there is clearly something wrong with Hall lately and perhaps Brind’Amour can fix him. London fans, including Her Majesty the Queen, would love to see that happen.
- Was it wise to sign Martin Jones to a long-term contract? The London goalie turned 30 this off season and he will earn $7 million this season and the same amount next year. London also has a team option after that. It’s looking like a good investment. Jones finished fifth in the league last year in save percentage (90.7) and in his six seasons and four playoffs, his save percentage has stayed well above 90 percent. He is 11th all-time in that stat category. Against two strong teams in the playoffs last year – Helsinki and Belfast – Jones was good in the clutch and nearly got his team into the Conference Finals after two 7-game series. This year, the boys will have to hold some sleep-overs or something so they can get to know each other faster. Six of Jones’ 7 defensemen from last year – including talented John Carlson and Rasmus Ristolainen – are gone. Only Will Butcher returns. The salary cap will do that to a team. In any event, now that Grimm has figured out the combination to the salary cap, Jones and his brand new defense corps will have to figure out their game strategy quickly.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 10 8 99 19.1 88.1 30.90 29.80 3.52 3.00 7.83
Season 9 8 97 18.6 83.1 31.23 29.89 3.68 3.18 7.18
Season 8 21 67 16.2 81.7 26.34 31.51 2.89 3.59 6.06
Season 7 23 62 13.5 81.0 27.48 32.38 2.60 3.66 7.59
Season 6 11 89 20.2 81.0 28.93 31.40 3.33 3.33 8.35
Season 5 10 93 16.6 79.4 28.82 30.26 3.26 3.00 7.99
Season 4 16 81 16.2 81.5 29.68 31.62 3.12 3.40 8.61
Season 3 21 75 16.3 75.7 30.24 30.94 3.09 3.51 11.10
Season 2 23 56 16.2 77.2 26.96 34.29 2.66 3.84 11.24
Season 1 15 88 14.9 83.5 30.79 29.77 3.07 3.13 10.79
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Marc-Andre Fleury, G, current age 37. Games played: 523; Save Pct: 89.6
Season 2: Jimmie Ericsson, LW, age 28. GP 499, Pts 219, -89
Season 3: Braden Holtby, G, age 31. GP 530; Save pct: 90.6
Season 4: Martin Jones, G, age 29. GP 378; Save Pct. 90.4
Season 5: Artemy Panarin, RW, age 30. GP 432; Pts 215; +43
Season 6: Anders Lee, LW, age 29. GP 341; Points 133; +16
Season 7: Ryan Spooner, C, age 27. GP 260, Points 72, -57
Season 8: Jake Guentzel, LW, age 25. GP 236, Pts 79, +27
Season 9: Dominik Lakatos, RW, age 20. GP 162, Pts 180, +2
Season 10: Will Butcher, D, age 23. GP 82; Pts 20; +13
Season 11: Jonathan “Jack” Dugan, RW, age 21.
Trade History
Season 2
Traded Semyon Varmalov to Berlin for Andrey Bykov, Tim Erixon and 2014 Round 2 pick (Robert Hagg)
Traded 2016 Round 3 pick to Minsk for Tobias Stephan
Traded Tobias Stephan to Minsk for 2016 Round 3 pick
* missing two trades, one which sent Bykov to Oslo.
Season 3
Traded Tyler Seguin and Luca Sbisa to Oslo for Pavel Datsyuk and Shea Weber
Traded Braden Holtby to Stockholm for Sam Gagner, Michal Neuvirth and 2015 Round 1 pick (Nikita Kucherov)
Traded Shea Weber to Copenhagen for Kevin Shattenkirk, Teddy Purcell and Carl Gunnarsson
Season 4
Traded Zach Bogosian to Stockholm for Dmitri Orlov and Jake Muzzin
Season 5
Season 6
After Season 6 started:
Traded Erik Forssell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Adam Mascherin) to Berlin for 2018 Round 2 pick (Bern’s – Joonas Donskoi) and 2019 Round 2 pick (Stockholm’s) (Martin Necas)
Season 7
After season started: Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (Klim Kostin) to Berlin for Dion Phaneuf; signed Theo Peckham (free agent), Justin Braun (free agent), lost Ryan Spooner (waivers), lost Joonas Donskoi (waivers)
Season 8
Traded Dion Phaneuf and Michael Grabner to Lisbon for Damon Severson and 2021 Round 3 pick (Jet Woo)
After Season 8 started:
Claimed Jordan Caron (waivers)
Season 9
Traded 2021 Round 3 pick (Mac Hollowell) to Berlin for 2020 Round 3 pick (Eduard Zakharchenko)
Traded Jimmie Ericsson, Damon Severson and 2021 Round 2 pick (Jared McIsaac) to Prague for Justin Schultz and Martin Ruzicka
Season 10
Traded Yegor Milovzorov, Urho Vaakanainen and 2022 Round 1 pick (Tobias Bjornfot) to St. Petersburg for John Carlson
Season 11
Traded Rasmus Ristolainen to Dublin for Vince Dunn and Julien Gauthier
Traded John Carlson to Bern for Radek Faksa and 2022 Round 2 pick (Alexander Khovanov)
