Season 12: Minsk Hussars

Farm Club: Vitebsk Bears

GM: Igor Kirunov (only GM in team’s history)

Coach: Dave Tippett (replaced Guy Boucher, who replaced Lindy Ruff, who replaced Claude Julien)

Last season: 9th overall, (In playoffs, defeated Belfast; lost to Copenhagen)

Ins and Outs

(Season 11 to Season 12)

Out: Jacob Josefson (buy out), Ryan McDonagh (free agent), Gustav Nyquist (free agent), Kjetil Martinsen (free agent), Kris Russell (retired), Anton Lazarev (free agent), Derick Brassard (free agent),

In: Varey Price (free agent), Jake Gardiner (free agent), Bobby Ryan (free agent), Marius Holtet (free agent), Cam Atkinson (free agent), Cody Hodgson (free agent), Jack Callow (free agent), Jyri Marttinen (free agent), Renat Mamashev (free agent), David Krejci (free agent), Stefan Ulmer (free agent), Craig Smith (free agent), Patrik Berglund (free agent)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 12)

Simeon Varlamov, G; Maxim Chudinov, D; Aaron Ekblad, D; Jacob Josefson, C; Bo Horvat, C

Three Questions

1. Where were the Hussars strongest in Season 11? Minsk is known to have a top-caliber defense corps, with Maxim Chudinov, Michael Del Zotto and Aaron Ekblad stopping opponents and starting offensive plays with regularity. But another area in which the Hussars were sneaky good last season was on their powerplay. At an efficient rating of 22.9, they were tops in the league. Gustav Nyquist and Alexander Burmistrov were in the top 5 powerplay goal scorers in the EURO League with 16 and 15, respectively. When the Hussars had the man advantage, Minsk’s defensemen gave opponents too many danger points to cover last season and even with a change in personnel, the same will hold true this season. The Hussars lost Ryan McDonagh to free agency, but they gained powerplay specialist Jake Gardiner from Helsinki. That gives Minsk three defensemen in the top 30 all-time in powerplay goals scored by a defensemen. Del Zotto ranks 9th all-time with 46 PPG; Chudinov ranks 15th and Gardiner ranks 28th.

2. What new faces will make an impact in Minsk? There are plenty of new faces in Minsk, especially on forward lines 2 and 3. The competition for ice time will be spirited. We expect new face Craig Smith to make the biggest impression for a couple of reasons. First, Smith needs to make a positive impression or else an old face (Marius Holtet) waiting on the farm club will take his place on the left side of the third line and the second powerplay unit. Actually, the same could be said for new face Cam Atkinson, who is on his fifth team in five years. Another reason Smith could excel is that he is likely to be teamed with center Jack Callow, another new face, and right winger Nick Schmaltz. Callow and Schmaltz are probably the best pure passers on the team, and while Smith is also a pass-first thinker, it’s always good to play with excellent playmakers. Bobby Ryan is a newcomer who will be given a chance to play on the top line with Bo Horvat and Talgat Zhailauov; while Cody Hodgson, a playmaking center who has taken 225 or more shots on goal in each of the last five seasons, should start on the second line with a chance of pushing Horvat down a rung.

3. How is the goaltending in Minsk? Simeon Varlamov has been a starting goalie in the league since Season 2, but he toiled at the bottom of the league with the bad Oslo teams for years and to be honest, he suffered. Since he left the Outlaws after Season 7, Varlamov has been on better teams and he proved he was better than the 3.70 goals against averages he used to post in Norway. Last season, he won 36 games for the Hussars. In Seasons 4 and 5 together, he had only 32 wins, so the Russian is loving life and he seems determined to keep winning. Varlamov’s shining moment last season was when he helped Minsk knock Belfast out of the playoffs before the team bowed out to the eventual champions from Denmark. But Varlamov is 34 years old now and his averages (goals against and save percentage) have gotten worse for two straight seasons. Hoping that is an anomaly rather then a trend are General Manager Igor Kirunov, Coach Dave Tippett and all Hussar fans. If it is a trend, then this team is unlikely to win the franchise’s third EURO Cup. If the goalie can bounce back to top form, however, they have a chance.

History

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

Season 1 24 54 13.3 79.8 25.59 32.46 2.12 3.50 9.82

Season 2 19 74 15.1 81.9 26.40 31.21 2.71 3.41 10.29

Season 3 18 77 17.3 78.6 29.57 30.85 3.15 3.40 12.91

Season 4 7 106 19.0 83.4 33.55 28.05 3.24 2.67 12.18

Season 5 3 117 17.1 86.6 34.85 26.24 3.70 2.45 10.57

Season 6 1 144 20.1 84.2 35.04 25.32 3.96 2.13 9.96

Season 7 1 120 20.7 84.1 34.57 24.84 4.00 2.55 9.48

Season 8 1 119 19.3 84.4 36.04 24.96 3.94 2.49 9.37

Season 9 14 89 15.2 82.1 32.39 26.16 3.32 3.02 10.61

Season 10 10 92 13.9 81.8 33.50 26.18 3.41 3.10 8.84

Season 11 9 93 22.9 80.8 30.52 25.80 3.30 3.26 8.50

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Carey Price, G, current age 35. Games played: 746; Save Pct. 90.3

Season 2: Maxim Chudinov, D, age 28. GP 782; Pts 377; +175

Season 3: Valeri Nichushkin, RW, age 27. GP 662, Pts 258, +17

Season 4: Aaron Ekblad, D, age 25. GP 572; Pts 260; +141

Season 5: Kevin Clark, RW, age 27. GP 6, Points 0, 0

Season 6: Kevin Hayes, RW, age 28. GP 441; Pts 158, -91

Season 7: German Rubtsov, C, age 23.

Season 8: Nick Suzuki, C, age 21. GP 27; Pts 6; -15

Season 9: Tim Bozon, LW, age 26. GP 151; Pts 25; -12

Season 10: Adam Boqvist, D, age 20.

Season 11: Vasily Podkolzin, RW, age 19.

Season 12: Yaroslav Askarov, G, age 19.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 4 pick (used to draft Brent Burns) to St. Petersburg for Round 6 pick (used to draft Patrik Berglund) and 2013 Round 1 pick (Thomas Powell)

Traded Round 8 pick (traded later) (Andrej Meszaros) to Oslo for Round 17 pick (Zac Rinaldo) and 2013 Round 1 (Alex Galchenyuk)

Traded Round 12 pick (Dan Winnick) to Bern for Round 14 pick (Matt Cllen), Round 25 pick (later traded) (Dan Paille) and 2013 Round 3 pick (Nathan Beaulieu)

Traded Matt Cullen to Athens for Round 15 pick (Stefan Elliott)

Traded Matt Hunwick Round 25 pick (Dan Paille) and Round 25 pick (Alexei Emelin) to Edinburgh for Nick Bjugstad

Traded Vernon Fiddler and $1 million to Geneva for Alex Chiasson

Traded Round 21 pick (Raffi Torres) to Geneva for Brian Dumoulin

Traded Round 10 pick (Mikael Granlund) to Belfast for Round 11 pick (Romas Josi) and Round 15 pick (Andrej Sekera)

Season 2

Traded Andrej Sekera to Prague for Nicklas Grossman and 2015 Round 3 pick (Jon Merrill)

Traded Brayden Schenn and Kyle Clifford to Helsinki for Alexander Burmistrov

Traded Tobias Stephan to London for 2016 Round 3 pick (later traded)

Traded 2016 Round 3 pick (from London – Erik Forssell)) to London for Tobias Stephan

Traded Jonas Holos to Frankfurt for 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Viktor Fasth)

Traded Patric Hornqvist and Mathis Olimb to Berlin for 2015 Round 1 that was later traded in Aaron Ekblad deal and used to pick (Sami Vatanen).

Season 3

Traded 2014 Rd 2 pick (Hunter Shinkaruk) to Helsinki for Sven Baertschi

Traded Roman Josi and Alexander Galchenyuk to Prague for Zach Parise

Traded Andres De La Garma to Copenhagen for 2015 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Julius Honka)

Traded Zach Parise to Gothenburg for Milan Lucic, 2016 Round 1 pick (later traded to Zurich in Patrick Kane deal – Sandro Zurkirchen) and 2017 Round 1 pick (Kevin Hayes)

Traded 2015 Round 3 pick (Brandon Montour) to Helsinki for Nick Spaling

Season 4

Traded Nick Bjugstad, Magnus Paajarvi and 2015 Round 1 pick (Sami Vatanen) to Frankfurt for 2015 Round 1 pick (Aaron Ekblad)

Traded Valeri Nichushkin, Sergei Kostitsyn and Ilya Nikulin to Geneva for Michael Del Zotto

Traded 2015 Round 2 pick (Julius Honka) to Stockholm for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Munich in Mark Giordano trade and used to pick Calle Jarnkrok)

Traded Jon Merrill to Bern for 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Munich and used to pick Travis Dermott)

Traded Jakub Voracek, Nathan Beaulieu and 2016 Round 1 pick (Sandro Zurkirchen) to Zurich for Patrick Kane

Traded Patrik Berglund and Nick Leddy to Madrid for Jordan Staal

Traded Renat Mamashev to Dublin for 2017 Round 2 pick (Pavel Zacha)

Traded two 2017 Round 3 draft picks (used to pick Calle Jarnkrok and Oliver Kylington (by Gothenburg)) to Munich for Mark Giordano

Season 5

Season 6

Traded 2017 Round 2 pick (Mathew Barzal) and 2017 Round 3 pick (Evgeny Svechnikov) to Lisbon for 2017 Round 2 pick (Colin White)

After Season 6 started:

Traded Dmitrij Jaskin to Zurich for Janne Niskala

Traded Kevin Hayes, 2018 Round 2 pick (Brandon Davidson) and 2019 Round 2 pick (Jimmy Vesey) to Edinburgh for Olivier Roland and 2018 Round 3 pick (Yegor Korshkov)

Claimed Jimmy Hayes off waivers

Lost Mark Giordano and Matt Martin off waivers

Season 7

Season 8

Traded Colin Wilson to Athens for 2019 Round 2 pick (Denis Malgin) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Erik Kallgren)

After Season 8 started:

Signed Tyler Kennedy, Sergei Kostitsyn and Colin Greening (free agents)

Claimed Michael Keranen (waivers)

Claimed Luke Adam (waivers)

Season 9

Traded 2021 Round 2 pick (Michael DiPietro) and 2023 Round 3 pick to Copenhagen for Henrik Lundquist

Season 10