Team owner: Neil Patrick Harris, American actor and Smurf fanatic
Farm Club: Kolner Haie
GM: Guybrush Threepwood (only GM in team’s history)
Coach: Adam Oates (replaced Dale Hunter after Season 2)
Last season: 8th overall (In the playoffs, defeated Madrid, defeated Paris, defeated Bratislava, lost to Copenhagen in Finals)
Ins and Outs
(Season 11 to Season 12)
Out: Ryan Murray (free agent), Stefan Ulmer (free agent), Alexander Edler (free agent), Jared Spurgeon (free agent), Ryan White (retired), Jiri Tlusty (free agent), Tyler Motte (free agent)
In: Shea Weber (free agent), Morgan Rielly (free agent), Colin Wilson (free agent), Tamir Ganbold (free agent), Eric Gryba (free agent), Nikolai Kulemin (free agent), Richard Panik (free agent), Jhonas Enroth (free agent), Pierre Engvall (free agent), Gemel Smith (free agent), Brian Gibbons (free agent), Curtis McKenzie (free agent), Michael Bournival (free agent)
In Place
(Key players who can be signed past Season 12)
Calvin Pickard, G; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C; Vadim Shipachyov, RW; Staffan Kronwall, D; Aleksander Barkov, C
Three Questions
1. The Smurfs know winning the conference isn’t the end of the season, don’t they? We’re not sure. After making it to the Finals in Season 5, the Smurfs made it there again in Seasons 9, 10 and 11. But like the Buffalo Bills in the NFL, they are now 0-4 in the Big Game. So how do they get better and take that last important step? Well, that’s going to happen natutrally to some extent because all their key players are still young enough to be on their way toward the prime years. Right now, the majority of their starting forwards are ages 27 to 29. All of them have a chance to reach their career highs if everything goes right for them. It is encouraging for Berlin fans that last season, the team dropped 15 points and 5 places in the standings from the year before and they were still able to reach the Finals. We see no reason they shouldn’t have even a better chance this season.
2. How good are the top Smurf forwards? There was a time in this league when players like Steven Stamkos, John Tavares and “Damn” Malkin were dominating the scoring list. In recent years, Tyler Seguin of Oslo, Matt Duchene of Belfast, and Berlin’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have been pushing past them. RNH centers the Smurfs’ top line and Aleksander Barkov takes faceoffs on the second line and last season, both lines were forces. RNH’s wingers Eli Sherbatov and Vadim Shipachyov have blazing speed and they can deal pucks like a Vegas blackjack dealer deals cards, but it’s Barkov’s line that was superior last season. Nugent-Hopkins’ line faced top checkers more often and they played in the -14 to -22 plus/minus range. Coach Adam Oates would like them to do better. Meanwhile, Barkov was +30 and his wingers Jan Kovar (+26) and Anders Lee (+35) helped the line produce almost as many goals as the RNH line in less time. Lee, a big American, had a breakout season if there ever was one. His previous best season came as a second-liner in London when he scored 40 points and 16 goals. Last year, he took 228 shots, scored 31 times and totaled 68 points.
3. The team’s defensive averages got worse last season. Is that a concern? No. Berlin has always been among the best defensive teams in the league and the year before last was one of their best seasons. It was difficult to match those numbers, so a slight slip from that level is no big deal. The Smurfs have the same goalie – Calvin Pickard – as they have had see he took over from Jimmy Howard in Season 7. And Pickard is just 28, so his best seasons could be ahead of him. The blueline corps is dealing with a shift in personnel, however. Rugged Staffan Kronwall is still there for the Smurfs, but his Season 11 partner Ryan Murray left through free agency and has been replaced by Morgan Rielly, a former Oslo Outlaw who never got top minutes there because of the strong blueline lineup ahead of him. Rielly is offensive minded and very good with the puck. But last year’s second pair of Stefan Ulmer and Alexander Edler is gone now. Fans will be keeping a close eye on the new second pairing of promoted Filip Hronek (+7 turnover ratio on the third pair) and veteran Shea Weber, who was coaxed by Berlin’s golden boy Erik Forssell to return to the team. Weber, who has never stayed on one team for more than 2 seasons is 37 now, a good leader, and he still has a Howitzer of a slapshot. On the last pair are 4-year veteran Roger Karrer and rookie Dante Fabbro, who will struggle. Oates will also have Mongolian veteran Tamir Ganbold to call up when he can. Ganbold isn’t spectacular in any area, but he plays a solid game and in his four full seasons with Minsk and Edinburgh, he was a plus player each time.
History
Season Place PTS PP % PK % SPG SAPG GPG GAPG PIM
Season 1 16 87 18.3 81.1 30.56 28.84 3.17 3.24 6.37
Season 2 18 83 16.1 81.1 30.05 30.62 3.27 3.59 9.80
Season 3 3 107 20.7 83.8 34.32 27.62 3.74 2.95 9.82
Season 4 6 106 19.7 83.8 33.17 26.79 3.62 2.74 8.46
Season 5 2 128 19.6 89.1 34.96 26.10 3.73 2.50 7.80
Season 6 3 112 20.6 85.9 34.41 26.46 3.62 2.60 8.72
Season 7 7 101 19.0 84.8 28.04 28.43 3.13 2.88 11.99
Season 8 11 90 21.2 83.9 30.55 30.90 3.28 3.16 11.66
Season 9 3 110 18.6 81.0 33.96 27.21 3.79 3.01 9.51
Season 10 3 114 22.4 86.2 33.68 26.26 3.77 2.73 10.99
Season 11 8 99 19.2 85.7 32.40 27.45 3.34 2.78 10.56
Top Draft picks
Season 1: Logan Couture, C, current age 33. Games played 848; Points 974, -8
Season 2: Mikko Lehtonen, RW, age 29. GP 806, Pts 467, +195
Season 3: Aleksander Barkov, C, age 27. GP 600, Pts 318, +46
Season 4: Leon Draisaitl, C, age 26. GP 11; Pts 2, -1
Season 5: Christian Dvorak, C/LW, age 25. GP 330; Pts 70, -6
Season 6: Timo Meier, RW, age 25. GP 321, Pts 54, -2
Season 7: Adam Mascherin, C/LW, age 22.
Season 8: Klim Kostin, C/W, age 21.
Season 9: Filip Chytil, C, age 21. GP 82; Pts 14; -16
Season 10: Akil Thomas, C, age 21.
Season 11: Connor McMichael, C, age 20.
Season 12: Jake Sanderson, D, age 18.
Trade History
Season 2
Traded Mikhail Grigorenko, R.J. Umberger, Brayden Colburn and Round 2 pick later traded (Josh Morrissey?) to Madrid for Slava Voynov, Round 1 pick later traded to Stockholm in the Loui Eriksson deal and 2014 Round 2 pick (later traded) (Robert Hagg)
Traded Brian Campbell, 2014 Round 3 pick (Marko Dano) to Madrid for Erik Ersberg
Traded Colton Gillies to Helsinki for Jarkko Immonen
Traded Mikko Lehtonen and 2014 Round 1 pick (Madrid’s) (Sean Monahan) to Stockholm for Loui Eriksson
Traded Mikka Kiprusoff to Athens for Nathan Horton and 2014 Round 2 (Brian Flynn)
Traded Tim Erixon, Andrey Bykov and 2014 Round 2 pick (Robert Hagg) to London for Semyon Varlamov *Apparently missing some trades here, although that first trade with Madrid might actually be several.
Season 3
Traded Joakim Lindstrom and Mathis Olimb to Milan for Matt Read and Gerhard Unterluggauer
Traded Semyon Varlamov and Jarkko Immonen to Oslo for Jimmy Howard
Traded Ryan Wilson to Munich for 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak)
Traded Kris Versteeg to Moscow for 2015 Round 1 pick (Leon Draisaitl)
Season 4
Traded Matt Read to Edinburgh for Tony Martensson
Traded Slava Voynov, Martin Erat and 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Stockholm – Linden Vey) to Copenhagen for Dion Phaneuf
Traded 2016 Round 2 pick (Marc Peninou (name changed to Alexander Kerfoot)) to Edinburgh for 2017 Round 3 pick (Niklas Svedberg)
Season 5
Season 6
Traded Erik Ersberg to Stockholm for 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to London – Martin Necas)
Traded Brian Flynn and 2018 Round 2 pick (Tyler Benson) to Bern for 2018 Round 2 pick (later traded – Joonas Donskoi)
After Season 6 started:
Signed Tim Gleason (free agent); claimed Martin Havlat (waivers)
Traded 2019 Round 2 pick (later traded to Lisbon and then traded to Berlin (Filip Hronek)) to St. Petersburg for Stefan Ulmer
Traded David Pastrnak and 2018 Round 1 pick (Dennis Cholowski) to Prague for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (formerly Bern’s – Joonas Donskoi) and 2019 Round 2 pick (formerly Stockholm’s – Martin Necas) to London for Erik Forssell and 2018 Round 3 pick (Adam Mascherin)
Season 7
Traded Leon Draisaitl to Bratislava for Siim Liivik
Traded Aleksander Barkov to Prague for Calvin Pickard
Traded David Krejci and 2020 Round 2 pick (Joni Ikonen) to Stockholm for Jeff Carter and 2020 Round 1 pick (later traded to Prague)
Traded 2020 Round 1 (Stockholm’s) pick (Ryan Poehling) and 2021 Round 3 pick to Prague for Andrey Bykov
After season started: Traded 2019 Round 1 pick (Casey Mittelstadt) to Lisbon for Evgeny Kuznetsov and 2019 Round 2 pick (Filip Hronek)
Traded Logan Couture, Loui Eriksson, Alexander Edler and 2021 Round 2 pick (Evgeny Dadonov) to Athens for Vadim Shipachyov, Staffan Kronwall and Tomas Vincour
Traded Josh Gorges and 2019 Round 3 pick (Kole Lind) to Bratislava for Simon Despres and Dante Fabbro
Traded Dion Phaneuf to London for 2019 Round 2 pick (Klim Kostin)
Signed Matt Donovan (free agent), claimed Roman Polak (waivers)
Season 8
Traded Jeff Carter to Copenhagen for Kyle Brodziak and 2020 Round 3 pick (later traded to Bern for Shea Weber) (Eemeli Rasanen)
Traded Evgeny Kuznetsov and Klim Kostin to Prague for Aleksander Barkov
Traded Roman Polak to St. Petersburg for 2021 Round 3 pick (traded back to St. Petersburg later, then to Gothenburg (Jan Drozg))
Season 9
Traded Christian Dvorak to Dublin for Ryan Murray
Traded 2020 Round 3 (Copenhagen’s) pick (Eemeli Rasanen) to Bern for Shea Weber
Traded Tomas Vincour to Athens for 2021 Round 3 pick (Jack Drury)
Traded Alex Debrincat to Helsinki for Eliezer Sherbatov
Traded 2020 Round 3 pick (Eduard Zakharchenko) to London for 2021 Round 3 pick (Mac Hollowell)
Traded Talgat Zhailauov to Lisbon for 2021 Round 2 pick (Akil Thomas)
Traded 2021 Round 1 pick (Rasmus Kupari) and 2021 Round 3 (St. Petersburg’s)(traded later to Gothenburg and used to pick Jan Drozg) to St. Petersburg for Jan Kovar
Season 10
Traded Filip Chytil to Helsinki for Ryan Hartman
Season 11
Traded Andrey Bykov to Bern for Roger Karrer
Season 12
