Season 12: Copenhagen Tridents

Owner: Tommy Ahlers, founder & CEO of ZYB, a popular social media & networking site in Denmark.

Farm club: Malmo (Sweden) Redhawks

GM: Martin Sayle (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Ken Hitchcock (replaced Paul Maurice after Season 9. Maurice replaced Dave Cameron after Season 7; Cameron replaced Paul Maurice after Season 4; Maurice replaced Brent Sutter after Season 3)

Last season: 2nd overall; (In playoffs, defeated London, then Minsk, then Helsinki, then Berlin to win the Cup)

Ins and Outs (Season 11 to Season 12)

Out: Cedric Paquette (waivers), Tomas Jurco (free agent), Andreas Jamtin (free agent), Thomas Chabot (trade), Brandon Sutter (free agent), Josh Bailey (free agent),

In: Boone Jenner (trade), Brock Nelson (free agent), David Savard (free agent), Emerson Etem (free agent), Riley Sheahan (free agent), Andreas Eder (trade), Devante Smith-Pelly (free agent), Thomas Hickey (free agent), Chris Tanev (free agent), Phil DiGiuseppe (free agent), Lance Bouma (free agent), Jordan Caron (free agent), David Bolland (free agent), Matt Donovan (free agent), Louis Leblanc (free agent), David Schlemko (free agent), Tyler Kennedy (free agent)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 12)

Auston Matthews, C; Johnny Gaudreau, LW; Marko Dano, RW; Seth Jones, D; Andres De La Garma, G

Three Questions

1. Are the two-time champion Tridents due for a drop in the standings? Well, you can’t go too much higher than 2nd place, so a drop would not be out of the question, but bet on them making a very serious challenge for their third Cup in three years. The Tridents have a “Little Engine That Could” mentality and a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson body. After a Season 10 Cup win that surprised a lot of watchers, Copenhagen made significant improvements in almost all team statistics en route to their second Cup last season. They finished best in the league in both shots per game and shots against per game, and that’s a sure indicator that a lot is going right in Denmark. The biggest change in personnel in Season 11 was Vincent Trocheck moving up to the second line to replace Brandon Dubinsky and Trocheck obviously got the job done, leading the team in plus/minus during the season. Sorry, everyone else, but most of the Copenhagen team including Coach Ken Hitchcock remains in tact as Season 12 approaches. Notice we said “most.” More on that below.

2. What’s so great about Boone Jenner? We’re all about to find out. Copenhagen General Manager Martin Sayle gave up a lot to get Boone Jenner in an off-season trade with Moscow. Jenner, a 29-year-old Canadian LW, will have trouble sliding past Johnny Gaudreau on the team depth chart, but he is a significant upgrade over Tomas Jurco on the Simon Hjalmarsson line. We were going to call it the third line, but the Tridents’ biggest strength is their forward depth. Three of their lines act as top lines, it seems. The impressive production of Hjalmarsson (64 points last year), Joakim Hillding (52) and Jenner (61 with Moscow) really doesn’t fit into the third line category. Copenhagen will start the season with those three together, and they will have Auston Matthews, Gaudreau and playoff star Marko Dano on the top line, leaving a line with Vincent Trocheck at center and Craig Paquette and Jean-Gabriel Pageau on his wings. (Update: Paquette was later waived and claimed by Geneva.) Most of the names mentioned above have attained lifelong hero status in Denmark because of what they have accomplished the last few years. But this season, they have to keep the foot on the accelerator because all of them have capable teammates figuratively breathing down their necks waiting for prime ice time. Six forwards with OV ratings of 76 or better are either on the “fourth” line in Copenhagen or the farm club in Malmo. GM Sayle has some tasty trade bait if he needs it.

3. How do they keep winning with a Mexican goalie? The fact no team in the history of hockey has won a major championship with a Mexican goalie makes this really cool. Andres De La Garma has won the last two EURO Cups, posting a 121-53-7 record in those seasons. Ay Caramba! His save percentage hasn’t been great – about middle of the pack – but he and Copenhagen have proven goaltending isn’t all about save percentage. In De La Garma’s case, it has helped that the team in front of him has that certain something – that stick-togetherness that wins big games. The Trident defensemen are not all defense-oriented, so De La Garma faces the occasional open shooter, but the blueline group includes three elite players in Slava Voynov, Dougie Hamilton and ever-improving Seth Jones. Victor Hedman and Noah Hanafin have locked down lineup spots and Belarusian Nikita Voles has earned the right to start the season with them, although Copenhagen recently signed free agent blueliners Thomas Hickey and Chris Tanev. This team looks very strong again. We’re not sure where the weak link is.

History

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

Season 1 4 108 19.9 86.3 32.10 29.05 3.66 2.76 9.57

Season 2 1 114 18.2 86.3 33.13 27.65 3.72 2.59 8.89

Season 3 2 111 22.4 83.3 32.24 28.66 3.95 2.99 9.90

Season 4 12 90 21.0 85.2 33.11 27.41 3.30 3.00 10.23

Season 5 20 63 12.7 80.5 29.33 29.51 2.80 3.76 9.88

Season 6 23 55 16.9 77.6 28.29 31.46 2.60 3.95 8.02

Season 7 12 89 18.1 83.2 30.84 28.57 3.15 3.30 9.18

Season 8 4 109 17.7 83.9 34.22 28.15 3.48 2.80 8.84

Season 9 9 96 18.1 86.1 31.29 28.79 3.40 3.30 8.74

Season 10 4 (Cup) 111 20.4 81.9 33.21 26.83 3.74 2.71 8.79

Season 11 2 (Cup) 114 22.6 83.6 34.13 25.44 3.73 2.66 7.54

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Roberto Luongo, G, current age 42. Games played: 380; Save Pct. 90.0 (retired)

Season 2: Kevin Dallman, D, age 35. GP 703, Pts 347, -74

Season 3: Nikita Zadorov, D, age 26. GP 446, Pts 131, -72

Season 4: Nick Holden, D, age 34. GP 595, Points 182, -54

Season 5: Simon Hjalmarsson, C, age 29. GP 467, Pts 229, +48

Season 6: Johnny Gaudreau, LW, age 27. GP 489, Points 384, -145

Season 7: Auston Matthews, C, age 24. GP 324, Points 310, -61

Season 8: Gabe Vilardi, C, age 21.

Season 9: Eemeli Rasanen, D, age 22.

Season 10: K’Andre Miller, D, age 20.

Season 11: Philip Broberg, D, age 19.

Season 12: Anton Lundell, C, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 3 pick (used to draft Jimmy Howard) to Oslo for Round 5 pick (used to draft Andrew Ladd) and Round 7 pick (Alex Goligoski)

Traded Round 5 pick (Paul Stastny) and Round 12 pick (Marc Staal) to Helsinki for Round 4 pick (Stephen Weiss)

Traded Alexandre Burrows to Oslo for Round 8 pick (Andrej Meszaros) and Round 12 pick (Boyd Gordon)

Season 2

Traded Jonas Hiller and Darrell Powe to Stockholm for Mark Giordano and Matthieu Garon

Traded Andrew Ladd, Brandon Sutter and Kevin Dallman to Moscow for Alexander Ovechkin and Dave Bolland

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

Season 3

Traded Dave Bolland and Dany Heatley to Munich for Brooks Laich and Tomas Zaborsky

Traded 2015 Round 2 pick (Julius Honka) to Minsk for Andres De La Garma

Traded Kevin Shattenkirk, Teddy Purcell and Carl Gunnarsson to London for Shea Weber

Season 4

Traded Roberto Luongo to Zurich for Brian Elliott

Traded Colin Greening to Stockholm for T.J. Brodie

Traded Mark Giodano, Nikita Zadorov, Charlie Coyle and 2016 Round 1 pick to Munich for Dion Phaneuf

Season 5

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

Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (Michael Keranen) to Zurich for Martin Thornberg

Traded Shea Weber to Lisbon for Dougie Hamilton, Gareth Roberts and 2016 Round 1 pick (Morten Madsen)

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

Traded Dion Phaneuf to Berlin for Slava Voynov, Martin Erat and 2017 Round 3 pick (Linden Vey)

Traded Alexander Ovechkin to Belfast for Joe Pavelski, Jonathan Drouin and 2016 Round 1 pick (Ville Vahalahti)

Traded Martin Thornberg to Edinburgh for 2018 Round 2 pick (later traded to Paris- Radek Faksa)

Traded Matt Frattin and 2016 Round 1 pick (Morten Madsen) to Bratislava for 2017 Round 1 pick (Simon Hjalmarsson)

Traded Alex Goligoski to Athens for Brooks Orpik, Bryan Bickel and 2017 Round 1 pick (Ivan Provorov)

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

Traded Troy Brouwer to Bratislava for a 2017 Round 2 pick (Daniel Sprong)

After the start of Season 5

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

Traded Thomas Greiss to Bern for 2018 Round 3 pick (later traded to Lisbon – Max Jones)

Lost Bryan Bickell (waivers)

Traded Brian Campbell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Phil Di Giuseppe) to Milan for Jonathan Blum

Claimed Benoit Pouliot (waivers)

Claimed Clarke MacArthur (waivers)

Traded Angelo Nigro (formerly Chris Legge) to Gothenburg for 2019 Round 3 pick

Claimed Chris Kunitz (waivers)

Claimed Steve Ott (waivers)

Traded Nathan Gerbe and 2017 Round 2 pick (Ilya Samsonov) to Paris for Andre Burakovsky

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

Traded Clarke MacArthur to Lisbon for Jacob De La Rose

Season 6

Traded 2017 Round 1 pick (Ivan Provorov) to Paris for Jared McCann

Traded Joe Pavelski and 2018 Round 3 pick (Bern’s originally – Max Jones) to Lisbon for Kyle Brodziak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Jaccob Slavin)

Traded Steve Chalmers, 2017 Round 2 pick (Daniel Sprong) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Linden Vey) to Stockholm for Jeff Carter

Traded Dave Bolland, Martin Erat, Benoit Pouliot and 2018 Round 2 pick (originally Edinburgh’s – Radek Faksa) to Paris for 2018 Round 1 pick (Jake McCabe), Craig Paquette, Jordan Caron and Colton Gillies.

Traded Dennis Rasmussen to Belfast for Mathieu Perreault

After Season 6 started: Traded Nathan Gerbe and Colin Greening to Madrid for Jonas Hiller, Lee Stempniak, Daniel Winnik and 2018 Madrid Round 1 pick (Michael McLeod).

Bought out Chris Kunitz and Daniel Winnik.

Lost Ben Smith (waivers)

Signed Damien Brunner (free agent)

Season 7

Traded Josh Holden and 2018 Round 2 pick (Brett Pesce) to Edinburgh for Brandon Dubinsky

After season started: traded Ilya Nikulin and Lars Eller to Stockholm for Dalton Prout and Tomas Jurco

lost Damien Brunner (waivers)

Season 8

Traded Kyle Brodziak and 2020 Round 3 pick (reacquired in a trade) (Luke Martin) to Berlin for Jeff Carter

Traded Jaccob Slavin to Belfast for Victor Hedman

Traded 2020 Round 2 pick (Maxime Comtois) to Bern to 2020 Round 3 pick (Nikita Voles) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Luke Martin)

Claimed Ryan Wilson (waivers)