Farm club: Tampere (Finland) Tappara
GM: Jukka Tuominen (4th GM in team’s history)
Coach: Brent Sutter (replaced Doug Weight after Season 9) (Weight replaced Barry Trotz after Season 7)
Last season: 1st overall; (In playoffs, defeated St. Petersburg; then defeated Stockholm; then lost to Copenhagen in conference final.)
Ins and Outs
(Season 11 to Season 12)
Out: Corey Price (trade), Nicklas Backstrom (free agent), Phil Kessel (free agent), Stanislav Galimov (free agent), Jared Cowen (free agent), Jake Gardiner (free agent), Martin Hanzal (free agent), Brett Ritchie (free agent), Joseph Veleno (trade), James Wisniewski (retired)
In: Jonathan Toews (free agent), Zach Bogosian (free agent), Kari Ramo (trade), Charlie Coyle (free agent), Philip Larsen (free agent), Corey Crawford (free agent), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (free agent), Jack Johnson (free agent), Trevor Moore (free agent), Diego Kostner (free agent)
In Place
(Key players signed past Season 12)
Brock Boeser, RW; Brendan Gallagher, LW; Taylor Hall, RW; Kyle Connor, LW; Matt Dumba, D; Nerius Alisauskas, D
Three Questions
1. Helsinki was great last season? Why make any moves at all? The Jokerit finished the Season 11 regular season as high as a team could get in the standings and they were favored to win the Cup until Copenhagen knocked them out in the Conference Finals. So did they need to improve that much? Not one to rest on his laurels, GM Jukka Tuominen came flying out of the starting blocks for the Season 12 race and did the same thing he did a season earlier: he signed a half-dozen important free agents and traded for a better goalie. So if you look at last year’s Helsinki team and compare it to the new version, you see improvements in many key places. Carey Price is out and Kari Ramo is in as goalie; Nicklas Backstrom out, Jonathan Toews in as top line center; Martin Hanzal out and Anze Kopitar in as second-line center; Jake Gardiner out, Zach Bogosian in on the blueline. Those are four big, big steps forward for the league leaders.
2. How tough will it be to slow this offense? Last season, the team scored almost 4 goals per game and outshot their opponents by an average of 7 shots per game. The strong offense took a little pressure off the defense and the new goalie at the time, Carey Price, was great. Helsinki’s goals against average shot down to 2.56 per game. No wonder they won so much. With Zach Bogosian now on the team playing with Nerius Alisauskas on defense, more chances will come for the Toews and Kopitar lines. Toews scored 90 points with Bratislava last season with Tyler Toffoli and Zemgus Girgensons on his wings. Taylor Hall and Brendan Gallagher should be his new wings and the trio will surely be among the top all-around lines in hockey this season. If you are on the other team, you hope the coach sends someone else out against them. But even when your team gets down to facing the line of Alex Debrincat, Sam Bennett and Charlie Coyle, your defense will be gasping for air.
3. Where are they weak? They have to have a weakness. They do, actually, but you won’t see it often enough to counteract the talent at the top. Backup goalie Corey Crawford hasn’t played since he was 33 and he’s 38 now. He had to search YouTube for “How to put on goalie gear.” He will only get into 12 to 15 games this season and chances are they will be against Southern Conference teams. Crawford replaces Stanislav Galimov, who was really great for the team last year as a backup, but he and Helsinki parted company in the off season. Trevor Moore is a rookie forward who will – at best – work hard on the fourth line. But he will only see 5 or 6 minutes per game. He might be replaced by Juho Lammikko or a free agent, but either way, the fourth line will be a problem fort he Jokerit just as it will be on almost all clubs. Henri Jokiharju, 21, is the 6th defenseman and his play will alternately help and hurt the team this season. But Jokiharju is a slick puck-mover with a great future. He could be an important piece of the team’s future and the experience he gains now will pay off years from now.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 1 17 84 21.7 80.8 30.01 33.09 3.15 3.49 9.63
Season 2 14 89 17.5 82.9 30.43 31.93 3.01 2.99 14.48
Season 3 9 91 17.9 87.3 29.17 32.76 2.90 2.91 15.88
Season 4 13 83 18.8 83.3 29.43 32.65 2.96 3.13 13.60
Season 5 8 99 20.4 81.3 30.41 30.80 3.22 3.00 12.54
Season 6 9 91 14.6 85.7 29.96 29.48 3.18 2.98 12.87
Season 7 9 97 16.4 84.1 31.87 28.38 3.27 2.91 14.34
Season 8 14 85 20.3 80.5 31.82 28.95 3.50 3.68 12.96
Season 9 6 100 17.5 81.1 31.73 28.33 3.95 3.41 10.56
Season 10 9 97 19.1 84.4 33.72 26.50 3.80 3.10 9.38
Season 11 1 122 17.6 84.2 33.21 26.32 3.98 2.56 9.93
Top Draft picks
Season 1: John Tavares, C, current age 32. Games played: 895; points: 1,134; -27
Season 2: Nerius Alisauskas, D, age 28. GP 787; Pts 357; +144
Season 3: Cody Eakin, C, age 30, GP 598; Pts 263; +41
Season 4: Sam Bennett, C, age 25. GP 230, Pts 120, +45
Season 5: Adrian Kempe, LW, age 24. GP 8; Pts 0; -2
Season 6: Mitch Marner, C, age 24. GP 295; Pts 178; +14
Season 7: Tyler Jost, C/LW, age 22. GP 12; Pts 4; +1
Season 8: Ryan Hartman, LW, age 26. GP 163; Pts 35; +9
Season 9: Henri Jokiharju, D, age 21. GP 111; Pts 34; +37
Season 10: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, C, age 20. GP 114; Pts 22; +4
Season 11: Ville Heinola, D, age 19.
Season 12: Connor Zary, C, age 18.
Trade History
Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)
Traded Round 4 pick (used to draft Stephen Weiss) to Copenhagen for Round 5 pick (used to draft Paul Stastny) and Round 12 pick (Marc Staal)
Traded John Tavares, Ilya Bryzgalov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jakub Kovar) and $5 million to Edinburgh for Henrik Lundqvist
Traded Jamie McGinn to Milan for Nik Antropov, 2013 Round 2 pick (traded later) (Olexander Podbyedonostsev) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Matthew Dumba)
Traded Jakub Silfverberg and 2013 Round 2 pick (Olexander Podbyedonostsev) to Dublin for Boone Jenner
Season 2
Traded Alexander Burmistrov to Minsk for Brayden Scheen and Kyle Clifford
Traded Martin St. Louis and 2015 Round 3 (Jakub Vrana) to St. Petersburg for Jarome Iginla
*Colton Gillies was once Helsinki property but is with Paris now. Not sure if trade was involved.
Sorry Trevor, I seem to be missing some trades from this period.
Season 3
Traded Nick Spaling to Minsk for 2015 Round 3 pick (Brandon Montour)
Traded Sven Baertschi to Minsk for 2014 Rd 2 pick (Hunter Shinkaruk)
Season 4
Traded Kyle Clifford and Gareth Roberts to Frankfurt for Travis Zajac
Season 5
Traded Jacob Trouba to Zurich for Alexander Radulov
Traded Wojtek Wolski to Oslo for 2016 Round 3 pick (later traded to Stockholm-Ryan Gunderson)
Traded 2016 Round 1 (Later traded to Gothenburg – Olli Palola) pick to Moscow for Nicolas Ehlers
Traded 2016 Round 2 pick (Connor Bleackley) and 2016 Round 3 pick (Ryan Gunderson) to Stockholm for Nikita Scherbak
Signed Stanislav Galimov (free agent)
Signed Peter Budaj (free agent)
Signed Patryk Wajda (free agent)
Signed Marc-Andre Bergeron (free agent)
Season 6
Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Johan Larsson) to Stockholm for Pavel Datsyuk
Traded Derek Roy and Carlo Colaiacovo to Madrid for Nick Holden
After Season 6 started:
Traded Mitch Marner to Moscow for Brock Boeser
Season 8
Traded Eliezer Sherbatov to Berlin for Alex Debrincat
Season 9
Traded Brayden Schenn and Nikolaj Ehlers to Stockholm for Brendan Gallagher
Traded 2022 Round 3 pick (traded later to Minsk (Kirill Marchenko)) to Lisbon for Ryan Kesler
Traded Cody Eakin to Dublin for 2021 Round 2 pick (Joe Veleno)
Season 10
Traded Boone Jenner and a 2021 Round 3 pick to Moscow for 2021 Round 1 pick (later traded to Stockholm (Ryan Merkley))
Traded Jack Johnson to Geneva for 2021 Round 2 pick (Bode Wilde)
Traded 2021 Round 1 pick (from Moscow) (Ryan Merkley) and 2021 Round 2 pick (Veini Vehvilainen) to Stockholm for 2021 Round 1 pick (Jesperi Kotkaniemi)
Traded James Neal to Geneva for 2022 Round 3 pick (later traded to Stockholm (Matias Macceli))
Season 11
Traded Ryan Hartman to Berlin for Filip Chytil
Traded Blake Wheeler, Kyle Okposo, Filip Chytil, Adrien Kempe, a 2022 Round 3 pick (Geneva’s, Matias Macceli) and a 2023 Round 3 pick (Daniel Torgersson) to Stockholm for Aleksi Heponiemi, Andrew Ladd, Michael Grabner, a 2022 Round 1 pick (later traded to Zurich (Oskar Lindblom)) and 2023 Round 2 pick (Jacob Perreault)
Traded 2022 Round 1 pick (Oskar Lindblom) to Zurich for Carey Price and 2022 Round 2 pick (Cam York)
Traded Alexander Radulov, Tyson Jost, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Jarret Anderson-Dolan and 2023 Round 2 pick (Shakir Mukhamadullin) to London for Taylor Hall and 2023 Round 3 pick (Adam Beckman)
Season 12
Traded Carey Price, Joseph Veleno, 2025 Round 2 pick and 2026 Round 2 pick to Lisbon for Kari Ramo and 2026 Round 3 pick.
