Farm Club: Bergen (Norway) Bandits 

GM: Carl Choiniere (4th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Paul MacLean (replaced Peter Laviolette) (replaced Dave Cameron, who replaced Dave Hakstol after 1 game of Season 8. Hakstol replaced Claude Julien after Season 6, who replaced Peter Laviolette after Season 3)

Last season: 5th overall; In playoffs, lost to Stockholm

Ins and Outs

(Season 11 to Season 12)

Out: Morgan Rielly (free agent), Anthony Mantha (free agent), Calvin De Haan (free agent), Craig Smith (free agent), Andrew Shaw (free agent), Brent Seabrook (free agent), Gabriel Bourque (waivers), Jordan Martinook (free agent), Patrik Berglund (free agent),

In: Henrik Lundquist (free agent), Kevin Labanc (waivers), Benedikt Bruckner (free agent), Frederik Gauthier (free agent), Sandro Forrer (free agent), Tage Thompson (free agent), Travis Sanheim (waivers)

In Place

(Key players signed past Season 12)

Tyler Seguin, C; Connor McDavid, C; Tomas Hertl, LW; Zach Werenski, D; Viktor Antipin, D; Shayne Gostisbehere, D; Matt Murray, G

Three Questions

1. What is Oslo’s greatest strength? The Outlaws are selling the arena out these days. A few years ago, that seemed like a dream for the far-off future. The team that occupied a bottom 5 place in the standings for seven straight seasons was 5th last season. A Cup is actually possible this season. Oslo has risen from the depths as a behemoth. The Outlaws are strong because they can haunt you with two successive waves of danger. Tyler Seguin followed by Connor McDavid; Zach Werenski/Viktor Antipin followed by Shayne Gostisbehere/Jacob Moverare. That means your team could be playing puck pursuit for 40 minutes of every game against the Outlaws. Those four defensemen used to be young and promising. No longer. Now they are all potential all-stars.
2. Is this Connor McDavid’s team yet? No, it’s Tyler Seguin’s. The 24-year-old McDavid is very good, but 30-year-old team captain Seguin is the best. He led the league in scoring (119 points), goals (50) and takeaways (159) and the league’s GMs voted him as the Best Player in Season 11. Seguin got a real workout last season, playing in all situations. Only two other players in the league got more ice time than Seguin did. He led the league in shorthanded goals and tied for 6th in powerplay goals. On top of that, only four regular centers in the league had a better faceoff win percent (58.6). Tomas Hertl and Nicklas Danielsson were Seguin’s wingers 5-vs-5 and they scored 36 and 35 goals, respectively, to make that trio a formidable force.
3. What dangers do the Outlaws have to look out for? This season, they need need to go full speed from start to finish, because at this time next year, they could be worse off. This year, they have the firepower, team balance and goaltending to win it all. But they are just $1.2 million from the league salary cap. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons goalie Jordan Binnington ($4.2 million) was waived and legend Henrik Lundquist ($2 million) was signed to be Matt Murray’s backup. If you look at the franchise’s contract page, you will see two flashing warnings light. Connor McDavid is on the last year of his $2.3 million contract and Zach Werenski is on the final year of his $1.8 million contract. That puts General Manager Carl Choiniere in win-now mode.

History

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

Season 1              10          93   17.6    80.8    31.83    29.71    3.66    3.35    10.80

Season 2              13         91  19.0    84.1    29.43    29.89    3.43    3.13    14.78

Season 3              21          75    16.2    83.4    27.82    33.43   3.07    3.66    12.21

Season 4              24         47    17.9     72.3   25.56    35.09   2.50     4.05   11.59

Season 5              24       41    10.9       78.5     23.34      34.59    2.22   3.83   8.71

Season 6             24        54     17.5      78.3      25.51      35.61     2.50     3.90   8.54

Season 7              20         67    17.6      80.9    25.00      35.32      2.65     3.54   7.65

Season 8            23         60      17.7      75.1     25.28     34.43      2.49      3.67  6.34

Season 9            20         69      19.9      76.2    25.85     34.98     3.00     3.80 6.70

Season 10            13         82      16.9      78.5    29.56     31.39     3.24     3.43 6.56

Season 11            5        108      19.5      82.2    29.93     29.17     3.83     3.12 7.66

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Shea Weber, D, current age 36. Games played: 778; points: 481; +196

Season 2: Fredrik Norrena, G, age 41. GP 71, Save Pct. 88.8 (retired)

Season 3: Elias Lindholm, C, age 27. GP 310, Pts 97, -16

Season 4: Tomas Hertl, LW, age 27. GP 508, Pts 341, -169

Season 5: Viktor Antipin, D, age 24. GP 488, Pts 106, -195

Season 6: Connor McDavid, C, 23. GP 338, Points 306, -72

Season 7: Shayne Gostisbehere, D, age 26. GP 307, Points 144,  -85

Season 8: Matt Murray, G, age 25. GP 205, Save Pct. 89.7

Season 9: Jacob Moverare, D, age 22. GP 131; Pts 35; -10 

Season 10: Ty Smith, D, age 19.

Season 11: Jordan Binnington, G, age 25.

Season 12: Dillon Dube, LW, Age 21.

Trade History

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

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

Traded Round 4 pick (Radim Vrbata) and Round 6 pick (Johan Franzen) to Bern for Daniel Sedin and Round 12 pick (Max Talbot)

Traded Round 17 pick (Zac Rinaldo) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Alex Galchenyuk) to Minsk for Round 8 pick

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

Traded Justin Williams to Geneva for Matt D’Agostini, 2014 Round 2 pick (Andrei Loktionov) and $250,000

Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Samuel Morin) to Milan for Dustin Penner

Season 2

Traded Thomas Vanek to Prague for P-A Parenteau

Traded Mark Giordano to Stockholm for Mark Fayne and 2014 Round 3 pick (Guillaume Latendresse)

Season 3

Traded Jimmy Howard to Berlin for Semyon Varlamov and Jarkko Immonen

Traded Pavel Datsyuk and Shea Weber to London for Tyler Seguin and Luca Sbisa

Traded Ryan Suter to Gothenburg for Morgan Rielly, Eric Gelinas and 2017 Round 2 pick (Brayden McNabb)

Season 4

Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (traded later to Stockholm – Ryan Gunderson) to Helsinki for Wojtek Wolski

Season 5

Season 6

After Season 6 started: Signed Devan Dubnyk (free agent)

Season 7 

Traded 2018 Round 1 pick (Patrik Laine) to St. Petersburg for Devante Smith-Pelly and 2018 Round 1 pick (Shayne Gostisbehere)

Season 8

Traded Semyon Varlamov to St. Petersburg for Kari Lehtonen and Anthony Mantha

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Traded 2023 Round 2 pick (Trevor Kuntar) to London for Artemy Panarin

Traded Artemy Panarin and Patric Hornquist to Munich for Chris Kreider and Martin Ruzicka

Season 12

Traded Elias Lindholm, Travis Sanheim and 2025 Round 2 pick to Moscow for Nick Leddy