Team owner: Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, Queen of Spain. A former television journalist, she married King Felipe VI

Farm Club: HC Barcelona 

GM: Tony B (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Dan Bylsma

Last season: 11th overall. In playoffs, defeated Lisbon, lost to Berlin

Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)

Out: P.K. Subban (free agent), Gareth Roberts (free agent), Loic Lamperier (waiver), Milan Gulas (waivers), Christoph Korner (waivers), Benedikt Bruckner (waivers), Mats Rosseli Olsen (trade), Haydn Fleury (waivers), Jacob Larsson (free agent), Jamie McGinn (bought out)

In: Tyler Ennis (free agent), Brenden Dillon (free agent), Dylan Olsen (free agent), Radko Gudas (free agent), Dmitrij Jaskin (trade), Denis Hollenstein (free agent), Mike Iulianello (free agent), Ivan Huml (free agent), Balazs Goz (free agent), Ian McCoshen (free agent), Petr Zamorsky (free agent), Nick Seeler (free agent), Bobby Farnham (free agent), Colby Cave (free agent); Matthew Boldy (draft), Ryan Suzuki (draft)

In Place (Key players signed or restricted free agents past Season 11)

Robin Lehner, G; Evander Kane, LW; Tyler Ennis, RW; Sean Couturier, C; Nardo Nagtzaam, C

Three Questions

1. Is something going on in Madrid that we don’t know about? Season 10 ended with a hard-fought, 7-game loss in the second round of the playoffs and not long after, four Royals players announced to the world that they planned to leave Spain. In the switch from Season 10 in Websim 2.0 to Season 11 in Websim 3.0, no team besides Madrid had more than one player announce they were going directly to free agency. Is that a sign of discord in the dressing room? Could it be that the team’s only coach ever – Dan Bylsma – has lost his players’ attention? You can see why left wing Evander Kane would be willing to offer his services to the highest bidder. He is now tied for the league’s best OV rating at 92 which puts him level with greats Steven Stamkos and John Tavares. He knew he could make a fortune in free agency. In fact, he did: $10.6 million for 3 years to stay with the Royals. The other three – Chris Kreider, Gareth Roberts and goalie Darcy Kuemper – decided to leave out of anger because each was snubbed by Bylsma and management last season. Add the number of games all three played last season and it’s zero. They were teammates on the farm club in Barcelona the whole season.
2. Who can Madrid put between dynamic wingers Kane and Ennis? Evander Kane and newly acquired Tyler Ennis can both fly and pour pucks on net at great rates. Can they do that with Sean Couturier as their center? Couturier, 29, is known as a great defensive forward. He isn’t considered an elite offensive center. But guess what? Last season he scored 42 goals and 97 points. Only six players scored more than he did. And that was with Tomas Vincour and Olivier Roland on his right wing for much of the season. With Ennis in that spot, maybe bigger numbers are in store. Kane has scored 30 or more goals five times and Ennis has done it four times, including last season with Berlin. If your strategy is to have your best line simply score more than the Couturier line, they won’t be able to. All three of them – Couturier, Kane and Ennis – are accomplished defensive players. Madrid General Manager Tony B has assembled one of the best lines in the league this year.
3. How about elsewhere? Are there weaknesses? The most glaring weakness on the team is the fact Cam Atkinson is playing on the farm club in Barcelona to start the season, a victim of the salary cap. He had his best-ever season with 71 points at 18 minutes per game last season. Bylsma would love to be able to call his number again this year, but even without Atkinson, Madrid can put three good lines out there, although a couple young forwards might be exploitable. Robin Lehner has been a fixture in goal for Madrid over the years and at 29, there is no reason to think he can’t improve on his stellar career save percentage of 90.2. On defense, the loss of P.K. Subban to free agency will be felt, especially by Jonas Brodin who might have to bear more of the load. The addition of tough Brenden Dillon will help, but the defense corps has some holes. They are definitely a group of heavy hitters, but they could struggle in getting the puck up to their forwards. The fact most Madrid forwards are responsible backcheckers will be a huge help and perhaps a pivotal attribute for this team.

History

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

Season 10                 11          89         20.7      81.1    29.71        28.50      3.23        3.05       8.61

Season 9                 7          100         17.3      81.4    31.41        28.21       3.34        2.91        9.83

Season 8                 7          102         21.0       82.6      31.35        27.38        3.24        2.82        9.59

Season 7                4           111        19.8        79.7      32.07        27.33        3.82        2.99        8.09

Season 6                6           105        18.8        86.6      32.23          27.91       3.21         2.82       9.13

Season 5              11              92        19.7         82.10     31.13         28.98       3.17         3.09       9.27

Season 4              17             81         19.5         83.6       30.77      32.00        2.99         3.40       10.79

Season 3              8               94          18.7        78.0        33.35     28.30        3.51         3.28       9.45

Season 2              17            83         17.4         83.9        31.72      28.74        3.15          3.33       9.76

Season 1              9              95          22.6        80.3        30.85       29.05        3.68        3.29        9.01

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Erik Karlsson, D, current age 31. Games played: 805; points: 535; +49

Season 2: Erik Ersberg, G, age 33. GP 122, Save Pct. 88.6

Season 3: Marko Dano, C, age 26. GP 427, Pts 245, -74;

Season 4: Haydn Fleury, D, age 23. GP 32; Pts 2; -7

Season 5: Loic Lamperier, LW, age 26. GP 319, Pts 93, +33

Season 6: MacKenzie Blackwood, G, age 23. GP 1, Save pct. 84.4

Season 7: Josh Manson, D, age 28. GP 244, Points 60, +34

Season 8: Eeli Tolvanen, LW, age 21.

Season 9: Filip Sveningsson, LW, age 23. GP 10, Pts 0, +2

Season 10: Danton Heinen, RW, age 23.

Season 11: Matthew Boldy, LW, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Max Pacioretty to Frankfurt for Round 7 pick (used to draft Slava Voynov),   Round 10 pick (later traded) (Trevor Daley) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Erik Ersberg)

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

Traded Sammi Pahlsson to Bern for Round 20 pick (Brandon Prust) and Round 22 pick (Mark Visentin)

Traded Michal Neuvirth, Nick Johnson and 2013 Round 1 pick (Martin Ruzicka) to Athens for Tomas Vokoun

Traded Henrik Sedin to Milan for Jordan Stall, Chris Kreider and 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Milan for Brian Rolston

Season 2

Traded Slava Voynov, 2014 Round 2 pick (traded later) (Robert Hagg), Round 1 pick (traded later) (Sean Monhan) to Berlin for R. J. Umberger, Brayden Coburn, Mikhail Grigorenko and a second-round pick(traded later) (Josh Morrissey?)

Traded Erik Ersberg to Berlin for Brian Campbell and 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano)

Traded Saku Koivu to Prague for Chad Larose and 2015 Round 2 pick (Jake Virtanen)

* seem to be missing one trade that probably occurred in here somewhere

Season 3

Traded Jeff Carter, Ryan Johansen and 2015 Round 1 pick (Nikita Kucherov) to Stockholm for Rick Nash and 2015 Round 2 pick (Haydn Fleury)

Season 4

Traded Tomas Vokoun and 2015 Round 2 pick (Nikita Scherbak) to Stockholm for Jonas Hiller

Traded Rick Nash, Fedor Tyutin, Braydon Coburn and Patrick O’Sullivan to Edinburgh for Derek Stepan, Chris Stewart, Dan Winnick and Francois Beauchemin

Season 5

Traded Marko Dano and 2017 Round 2 pick (Ilya Samsonov) to Copenhagen for Andrej Meszaros

Traded Jordan Staal to Minsk for Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Copenhagen for 2016 Round 2 pick (Reto Suri)

Traded Brian Campbell and 2017 Round 1 pick (Jean Gabriel Pageau) to Copenhagen for Brooks Laich, Andrew Cogliano and Nick Holden.

Season 6

Traded Nick Holden to Helsinki for Derek Roy and Carlo Colaiacovo

After Season 6 started:

Traded Lee Stempniak, Dan Winnik, Jonas Hiller and 2018 Round 1 pick (Michael McLeod) to Copenhagen for Nathan Gerbe and Colin Greening

Traded Nick Leddy and Chris Stewart to Moscow for Blake Wheeler, Marc-Andre Bourdon and 2018 Round 3 pick (Tage Thompson)

Lost Jonas Hiller (waivers)

Season 7

After season started: lost Roman Polak (waivers); signed Josh Jooris (free agent); signed Colin Miller (free agent)

Season 8

Traded Colin Greening, a 2020 Round 2 pick (Linus Hogberg) and a 2021 Round 2 pick (Cale Fleury) to Munich for Craig Smith and Josh Bailey; lost Bailey on waivers

Traded Yasin Ehliz to Belfast for Gabriel Bourque

After Season 8 started

Lost Luke Adam (waivers)

Season 9

Traded Erik Karlsson and Gabriel Landeskog to Belfast for P.K. Subban, Evander Kane, Nardo Nagtzaam, Jacon Larsson, Filip Westerlund and 2023 Round 1 pick

Season 10

Traded Danton Heinen to Zurich for Sandro Zurkirchen

Traded 2022 Round 3 pick (Braydon Tracey) to Lisbon for Mats Rosseli Olsen

Season 11

Traded Mats Rosseli Olsen and 2023 Round 3 pick to Munich for Dmitrij Jaskin