Season 12: Munich EHC Red Bull

Owner: Ralph Schwarz, from the Schwarz-Lidl discount store family, hockey and Alpine skiing fan extraordinaire.

Farm Club: Hamburg (Germany) Freezers

GM: Jared Smith (10th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Jim Montgomery (replaced Mike Babcock after Season 11) (Babcock replaced Paul Maurice during Season 11); Maurice replaced Mike Sulllivan after Season 9; Sullivan replaced Craig Berube after Season 6)

Last season: 17th overall, (In playoffs, lost to Milan)

Ins and Outs (Season 11 to Season 12)

Out: Sean Monahan (trade), Artemy Panarin (free agent), Patric Hornquist (free agent), Alexander Wennberg (free agent), Nikita Zadorov (free agent), David Krejci (free agent), Cam Atkinson (free agent), Mats Rosseli Olsen (free agent), Colin Wilson (free agent), Olli Malmivaara (free agent), Ossi Vaananen (free agent), Andrej Meszaros (free agent)

In: Derek Stapan (free agent), P.K. Subban (free agent), Thomas Powell (free agent), Jonos Holos (trade), Alexander Edler (free agent), Josef Vasicek (free agent), Nicolas Hague (trade), Casey Mittelstadt (waivers), Lawson Crouse (waivers), Liam Stewart (free agent)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)

Filip Forsberg, LW; Fyodor Malykhin, C; Clayton Keller, RW; Cale Makar, D; Joonas Korpisalo, G

Three Questions

1. Are long-suffering Munich fans bummed? In seven of the last eight seasons, the team has finished in the bottom half of the standings and Munich fans are starting to get used to seeing their team flirt with the playoffs and then turn away before the kiss comes. They have been good at the flirting part, but not so good at reaching first base. But last season, with Jared Smith at the helm, they got a peck on the cheek (4 games against Milan in the first round) and that seemed to excite the fan base. An average of 17,376 attended the team’s home games and they seem thrilled to watch their young stars work toward that next step. The team lists 21 players with PO ratings of 80 or higher. Red Bull fans are anxious to see their new stars shine and they hope someday to get a glimpse of rock legend Rod Stewart’s son (really) Liam, who GM Smith recently signed. And they are particularly anxious to see fellow countryman Moritz Seider get through his prospect training on the farm club and make it to the big team.

2. Will they make a jump up the standings this season, or later? The Red Bulls will probably improve a little this season, especially with the nice free agent signings they made in the off season, but that doesn’t appear to be Smith’s Plan A. A deadline deal that sent Artemy Panarin to Athens for young defenseman Nicolas Hague is a good indicator that Munich is still building for a later push. Add to that the fact older players on the last year of their contracts such as David Krejci, Cam Atkinson and Ossi Vaananen were basically put out to pasture last year, and you have evidence of a concerted youth movement underway in Bavaria. It will be fun and frustrating with all the inexperienced players flying around the ice, and leadership could be fragile this season. Brand new coach Jim Montgomery will rely on free agent acquisitions Derek Stepan and P.K. Subban – and second-year Red Bull David Perron – to mold the younger players into repsonsible teammates. Very soon, maybe at the end of this season, you should start to see this team make the kind of move Milan made in Season 11.

3. How does the lineup look? The first thing to look for is the guy between the pipes. Will Attila Andorjan take over the main role from Joonas Korpisalo? He might. Korpisalo, 26, came over from Bern last season and was 31-36-4 for Munich. Adorjan, 25, was 6-5-0 in relief and he had the better goalie averages. The defense will feature two newcomers on the top pairing in P.K. Subban and Jonas Holos, who are both skillful and tough veterans. Subban is the EURO’s all-time penalty minute leader. The blueliners on this team could compete as a speed skating team. Subban, Cale Makar and Ryan Gunderson all have 100 speed attributes. Alexis Vanier brings size to the blue line and Montgomery has lots of blueline talent in reserve on the farm club in Hamburg. Up front, the forwards will be led by two talented centers (Derek Stepan and Fyodor Malykhin) and two dangerous wingers (Thomas Powell and Filip Forsberg). Look for Clayton Keller to score a lot more than he has in his previous three seasons because it looks like his ice time will increase this season. There could be a problem when the opponents have the puck though. Stepan and David Perron have become excellent defensive forwards, but there are not a lot of other forwards who seem to take backchecking seriously.

History

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

Season 1 5 104 19.0 84.0 32.62 28.73 3.50 2.88 9.41

Season 2 4 104 21.4 82.9 29.95 30.85 3.22 2.63 11.82

Season 3 5 103 18.4 85.6 30.66 31.72 3.40 2.74 12.24

Season 4 21 70 17.0 83.0 26.46 34.98 2.96 3.51 12.99

Season 5 21 60 12.50 78.2 26.55 33.70 2.48 3.57 9.67

Season 6 10 90 18.3 84.2 28.74 31.72 3.13 3.09 9.54

Season 7 15 82 13.1 77.5 28.35 32.17 2.95 3.56 8.70

Season 8 20 67 18.70 79.40 28.70 31.66 2.80 3.35 8.23

Season 9 19 71 18.10 78.90 28.79 31.59 2.94 3.65 7.67

Season 10 18 76 17.70 80.80 27.83 31.21 3.12 3.62 7.59

Season 11 17 78 16.70 80.50 26.67 32.01 2.98 3.67 7.91

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Jonathan Quick, G, current age 36. Games played: 601; Save Pct 91.3

Season 2: Talgat Zhailauov, C, age 32. GP 791, Pts 550, -35

Season 3: Andrew Shaw, RW, age 30 GP 562, Pts 166, -11

Season 4: Radko Gudas, G, age 31. GP 473, Pts 134, -64

Season 5: Fyodor Malykhin, LW, age 28. GP 535; Pts 366; -37

Season 6: Jack Eichel, C, 25. GP 453; Pts 343; -21

Season 7: Clayton Keller, C, age 22. GP 246, Pts 119, -71

Season 8: Cale Makar, D, age 22. GP 33; Pts 16; -6

Season 9: Attila Adorjan, G, age 25. GP 128; Sv Pct. 89.7

Season 10: Jesper Bratt, LW, age 21. GP 1, Pts 0, -1

Season 11: Moritz Seider, D, age 19.

Season 12: Marco Rossi, C, age 18.

Trade History

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

Traded Round 8 pick (used to draft Tomas Fleischmann), Round 10 pick (James Wisniewski), and Round 16 pick (Nikita Nikitin) to Dublin for Round 9 pick (used to draft Joe Corvo), Round 11 pick (Milan Hejduk) Round 13 pick (Josh Bailey) and $10,000

Season 2

Traded Tomas Zaborsky and Brooks Laich to Copenhagen for Dany Heatley and David Bolland

Traded Anton Babchuk to Stockholm for Magnus Johansson

Season 4

Traded 2015 Round 3 pick (David Pastrnak) to Berlin for Ryan Wilson

Traded Dion Phaneuf to Copenhagen for Mark Giordano, Nikita Zadorov and Charlie Coyle

Season 5

Traded Jonathan Quick to Belfast for Cory Schneider and Filip Forsberg

Traded Mark Giordano to Minsk for two 2017 Round 3 picks (Calle Jarnkrok and (later traded – Oliver Kylington))

Transactions after the start of Season 5:

Lost Steve Downey (waivers)

Signed Francois Beauchemin (free agent)

Signed Denis Gribko (free agent)

Traded David Bolland and 2017 Round 2 pick (Petr Mrazek) to Copenhagen for T.J. Brodie and Gareth Roberts

Season 6

Traded Braydon Coburn and 2017 Round 3 pick (Oliver Kylington) to Gothenburg for Patrick Marleau

Traded Jack Eichel, Charlie Coyle and 2018 Round 2 (Sam Steel) pick to Stockholm for Sean Monahan, Craig Smith, Jindrich Barak, Cody Ceci and 2018 Round 1 pick (Alexander Nylander)

After Season 6 started: Claimed Miks Indrasis on waivers.

Season 7

Season 8

Traded 2020 Round 2 pick (Isaac Ratcliffe) to Lisbon for 2019 Round 2 pick (Nikita Zaitsev)

Traded Craig Smith and Josh Bailey to Madrid for Colin Greening, 2020 Round 2 pick (Linus Hogberg) and 2021 Round 2 pick (Cale Fleury)

After Season 8 started:

Signed Matt Irwin (free agent), Thomas Hickey (free agent)

Lost Jordan Caron (waivers)

Season 9

Season 10

Traded 2022 Round 2 pick (Peyton Krebs) to Lisbon for Alexis Vanier

Season 11