Farm club: H.C. Bolzano-Bozen (Italy) Foxes 

GM: David Bell (2nd GM in team’s history)

Coach: Doug Weight (replaced Bob Boughner after Season 10) (Boughner replaced Ken Hitchcock after Season 9) (Hitchcock replaced Bruce Boudreau after Season 6, who replaced Randy Carlyle after Season 3)

Last season: 4th overall. (In playoffs, defeated Munich; lost to Bratislava.)

Ins and Outs (Season 11 to Season 12)

Out: Nick Bjugstad (free agent), Jake Muzzin (free agent), Lorenza Maas (waivers), Phil DiGiuseppe (free agent), Colin Miller (free agent),

In: Marcus Pettersson (previous draft), Luke Kunin (previous draft), Jonas Siegenthaler (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 12)

Danny Dekeyser, D; Ryan Pulock, D; Jaden Schwartz, C; Tyler Johnson, C; Matthew Tkachuk, LW; Par Arlbrandt, RW

Three Questions

1 Do finances matter in Websim? Milan General Manager David Bell, aka Don Vito Campana, seems to think keeping the team owner (the real head of the family) happy is a good way to keep his … job. If the big boss says keep your salary structure under $73.3 million, that’s what the GM is going to do even if the league salary cap is higher. Capish? Last season. Bell and his team exceeded expectations, finished second in the Southern Conference, fourth overall and and were upset in the second round of the playoffs. That happened with Bell keeping a close eye on finances. He finished 5th in the league in GM financial score. That kind of fiscal prudence pays off in future seasons when the boss allows the GM to spend more on hockey matters, like travel and player development. We’re sure Bell would love to squeeze Joel Armia and Alex Petrovic into the lineup, but one of those would bump the payroll into the danger zone. He probably has another important financial matter on his mind as well with star goalie Andrew Hammond, 32, on the final year of his contract.

2. Which Guerriero players will the media be watching closest? Since at least Season 9, Danny Dekeyser and Jake Muzzin formed one of the top defense pairs in the EURO. Last season, they both ranked in the top 16 in plus/minus among all defensemen in the league. But Muzzin has left for Dublin. He either couldn’t stand trying to speak Italian anymore, or he craved fresh Guinness. Or both. Ryan Pulock takes his place alongside Dekeyser. The 26-year-old Pulock has a bomb of a shot and observers will be expecting him to at least duplicate the 14-goal season he put up as a rookie with Milan. Pulock should be better offensively than Muzzin ever was, so look for him to drive an increase in Guerriero goals this season. Dekeyeser will have to be a little more defensive-minded this season to cover for Pulock when he joins the rush. Eyes will also be on the third forward line of Alex Tuch, Robby Fabbri and center Aapeli Rasanen. No one in Milan is concerned that the top six forwards will do anything short of very well. But that third line has to do the job if Milan is going to stay in Cup contention. Fabbri did his part last season with 23 goals, 45 points and a +7 ating. His linemates need to get up to his level.

3. Can the Guerriero keep momentum? If you look over the way some key Milan players have performed in recent years, it’s not easy to predict the year the Guerriero will have. But in general, Milan players are under 30 and should be still improving. Take Matthew Tkachuk, 24, who has been steadily improving the last three years and if he keeps that up, he could approach 40 goals and 90 points as a 25-year-old. On the other wing, Swede Par Arlbrandt keeps getting better every year and he scored 35 times last season. Josh Morrissey, on defense, has been consistent for the last 3 seasons in most stats, but his plus/minus keeps improving steadily. The oddest trendline has to be speedy Tyler Johnson’s. The little center’s season-by-season stats line looks like an EKG chart: OK, OK, Great. OK, OK, Great. He broke the rhythm last year when he reached career highs last season in points (93), assists and plus-minus. But Johnson is 31 now and it’s somewhere around that age when career declines begin. Fortunately for Italian fans, he still has the speed and stamina to put up another strong year. With the younger skaters expected to get better, the success of this team might rest on the performance of the 30-year-olds: Johnson, Jaden Schwartz, Mathis Olimb and Danny Dekeyser. If Milan can get good years out of those guys, there could be a team photo with the Cup in their future.

History

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

Season 1              7          101          19.8        85.6        31.23     27.30    3.74        3.15                11.41

Season 2              16          86         15.7        84.1       32.62     28.82     3.33        3.32                12.68

Season 3              22          62          13.3        81.3       26.88     31.39     2.72        3.71                11.62

Season 4              22         65          15.3        78.0       27.98      34.23    2.72        3.88               9.82

Season 5              23          58         17.7       80.1        27.56      31.96     2.45        3.52               7.80

Season 6              19          74        13.2        76.6       28.27      32.04     2.68     3.24               6.34

Season 7               11         89        15.9        83.9       29.18      32.01     2.98     3.04      7.28

Season 8               12         89        14.2        80.7       28.04      31.11     2.84     2.66      8.95

Season 9               12         94        13.2        83.9       29.95      29.99     3.09    3.04      8.38

Season 10              14         82       16.8        83.4       27.06      31.62     3.13    3.18      7.82

Season 11              4         109       17.0      86.1       30.59      28.74     3.39    2.74      9.60

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Gabriel Landeskog, LW, current age 30. Games played: 894; points: 891; +37

Season 2: Gerhard Unterluggauer, D, age 37. GP 489, Pts 183, +36. Retired.

Season 3: Ben Bishop, G, age 35. GP 235, Save Pct. 88.4

Season 4: Tyler Johnson, C, age 31.  GP 642, Pts 471, -288

Season 5: Par Arlbrandt, RW, age 28.  GP 566, Pts 353, +42

Season 6: Andrew Hammond, G, age 32. GP 398, Save Pct 91.0

Season 7: Matthew Tkachuk, LW, age 24. GP 319; Pts 203, -9

Season 8: Owen Tippett, W, age 21.

Season 9: Aapeli Rasanen, C, age 24. GP 246, Pts, 94; +9

Season 10: Evan Bouchard , D, age 21.

Season 11: Marcus Pettersson, D, age 23.

Season 12: Seth Jarvis, RW, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 6 pick (used to draft David Perron), Round 21 pick (Mike Green) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Ossi Vaananen) to Paris for Round 3 pick (used to draft Dustin Byfuglien), Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 26 pick (Jeff Woywitka)

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

Traded Round 20 pick (Jonathan Bernier) and Round 22 pick (Jakub Kindl) to St. Petersburg for Round 18 pick (Brandon Gormley)

Traded Round 20 pick (David Steckel) to Bratislava for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Olexander Podbyedonostsev)

Traded Andrew Cogliano to Edinburgh for 2013 Round 2 pick (Gerhard Unterluggauer)

Traded Zbynek Michalek and Jaroslav Spacek to Dublin for 2013 Round 2 pick (Niklas Danielsson) and $1.35 million

Traded Jordan Staal, Chris Kreider, 2013 Round 2 pick (Jonas Brodin) and $250,000 to Madrid for Henrik Sedin

Traded Brad Boyes to Athens for 2013 Round 3 pick (Magnus Johansson)

Traded Nik Antropov, 2013 Round 2 pick (Olexander Podbyedonostsev) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Matthew Dumba) to Helsinki for Jamie McGinn

Traded Viktor Stalberg, 2014 Round 1 pick (Cam Atkinson) and $1 million to St. Petersburg for Daniel Alfredsson

Traded Brian Rolston to Madrid for 2013 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Eliezer Sherbatov)

Traded Dustin Penner to Oslo for 2014 Round 3 (later traded) (Samuel Morin)

Season 2

Traded Antoine Vermette to Prague for Jay McClement and 2013 Round 2 pick (Dimitrios Kalyvas)

Traded 2013 Round 2 pick (Eliezer Sherbatov) to Helsinki for Mikkel Boedker

Traded Jason Garrison to Moscow for Vaclav Prospal and 2014 Round 2 pick (T.J. Brennan)

Season 3

Traded Dustin Brown and 2014 Round 2 pick (Marcus Foligno) to Stockholm for Kyle Okposo and 2014 Round 1 pick (Brendan Gallagher)

Traded Dustin Byfuglien to Athens for Marcus Kruger, Joel Armia, 2014 Round 1 pick (Ben Bishop) and 2015 Round 2 pick (Alex Stalock)

Traded Mike Richards and 2015 Round 2 pick (later traded to Madrid – Jake Virtanen) to Stockholm for Jaden Schwartz

Traded Ryan Callahan to Berlin for Matt Read and 2014 Round 2 pick (Josh Morrisey)

Traded Matt Moulson to Copenhagen for Tomas Zaborsky

Traded Dimitrios Kalyvas to Athens for Johnny Boychuk

Traded 2014 Round 3 pick (Valentin Zykov) to Athens for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Bratislava – Brendan Guhle)

Traded Gerhard Unterluggauer and Matt Read to Berlin for Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb

Traded Magnus Johansson to Stockholm for Thomas Hickey

Traded Antti Niemi to Gothenburg for 2015 Round 1 (Dan Dekeyser) and 2015 Round 3 pick (Alex Tuch)

Season 4

Season 5

After the start of Season 5:

Signed Sean Bergenheim (free agent)

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

Season 6

Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (Brendan Guhle) to Bratislava for 2018 Round 3 pick (Andrew Copp)

After Season 6 started: Traded Mikko Rantanen to Belfast for Robby Fabbri and 2019 Round 3 pick (Zurich’s) (Drake Caggiula)

Claimed Alex Killorn on waivers and then lost him on waivers

Signed Patrick Thoresen (free agent)

Season 7

Traded Niklas Danielsson to Lisbon for Nick Bjugstad

After season started: lost Chris Tanev (waivers)

Season 8

Traded 2019 Round 3 pick (Carter Hart) to Stockholm for 2020 Round 3 pick (Dylan Samberg)

Seasons 9-11

Season 12