GM: Dave Franck
Coach: Joel Quenneville
Last season: placed 23rd overall. Did not make playoffs
Ins and Outs
(Season 12 to Season 13)
In: Luca Sbisa (free agent), Pavel Buchnevich (waiver), Martin Ruzicka (free agent), Michael Hutchinson (waiver), Frank Vatrano (waiver), Tomas Jurco (waiver), Christian Dvorak (waiver), John Leonard (free agent), Sven Baertschi (free agent), Pius Suter (free agent), Libor Hajek (free agent), Jake Evans (free agent),
Out: Nazem Kadri (free agent), Eric Gelinas (free agent), Pavel Zacha (waiver), Colin Wilson (free agent), Connor Brown (waiver), Bud Holloway (free agent), Marco Scandella (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Dylan Larkin/Martin Ruzicka/Tomas Jurco
Frank Vatrano/Victor Rask/Valeri Nichushkin
Cedric Paquette/Anthony Cirelli/Beau Bennett
Pavel Buchnevich/Christian Dvorak/Viktor Arvidsson
Colton Parayko/Luca Sbisa
Roman Josi/Brandon Carlo
Ryan Graves/Alexei Bereglazov
Michael Hutchinson/Ivan Nalimov
Three Questions
1. Where did Geneva improve over the off-season? The Generals used free agency and waivers to fill in some holes. There are a dozen new Generals this season and what they will all do, to a man, is solidify the team’s depth. None of the newcomers is the kind of flashy player who will draw crowds to the arena. Geneva lost one of those types of guys when Nazem Kadri walked away from Geneva after being the team’s leading scorer for the last 7 seasons. Twenty-six-year-old star winger Dylan Larkin couldn’t have been happy about that. But he is going to have to get open in different ways for his new center, Martin Ruzicka, 32, whose career high in points (68) came in Season 5 when he was with Prague. By contrast, Kadri’s lowest point total from Season 2 on was 74 points. But like we said, this team is built for solid depth, not flash. The top three lines all feature 80OV or higher players whose offensive and defensive skills are just about equal. Big Val Nichushkin is a good example. If you look at the right wing’s Websim attributes, you don’t see any small numbers. Not a lot of 90s, but no small numbers. That’s the kind of forward you will be going up against when you play Geneva. Expect a grinding game and hope you get an early lead on them because they will have trouble gaining ground.
2. Is their defense full of holes? No, it isn’t. Just like the forwards were built with balance in mind, so were the defensive pairings. Superb Colton Parayako is the best on the team. Geneva really has a gem in number 55. The 6-6 Canadian really cares about defense and his effort level is very high. He has recorded four straight seasons of 200 or more hits and 34 or more points. Coach Joel Quenneville will order Parayko’s new partner, Luca Sbisa, to mind the store in the defensive zone to allow Parayko to venture up ice more often to generate offense. The same arrangement exists on the second tandem: Brandon Carlo will stay at home while hometown favorite Roman Josi carries the puck up ice. Meanwhile the third pair of Alexei Bereglazov and Ryan Graves are big, tough players, but they will need the forwards to come back and help get the puck down the ice.
3. Where do they need to improve most? This is going to sound like a smart alec answer, but Geneva needs to improve in Switzerland. We are not just talking about games in their own arena. The Generals only won 5 games in their division last season. That means they were losing often to their Swiss neighbors in Zurich and Bern. The Generals have to cut that stuff out. Those are effectively 4-point games and winning them would have them leapfrogging their neighbors. Easier said than done, we know. They also need to improve on the league’s third-worst penalty killing performance from a year ago. A big part of penalty killing is goaltending and that is where the team needs the most help. When Frederik Andersen was their goalie four seasons ago, Geneva placed 4th overall in the league. When he left, they flopped to the floor and have been struggling to get up ever since. GM Dave Franck hopes the answer is one of five netminders he has available to plug in between the pipes. One of them is young and still learning the craft, so he can be excused. Ivan Nalimov, 25, is hoping to gain experience from filling in when the veterans need a rest. Michael Hutchinson, 31, was claimed off waivers and it looks like he will be the first one in the batting order this season. Hutch played in the Geneva system for four seasons before getting a year in with Lisbon H.C. last season. He had a 16-5-3 record and 89.8 save percentage, so there is hope he can get the job done. Darcy Kuemper, Aaron Dell and Cam Talbot are all ready to step in if they have to for the team.
Rose’s Focus
“All this talk about Dylan Larkin and the top line … hogwash. The key to the season for the Generals will be the players who won’t be up against the Toews, and Seguins, and Nugent-Hopkins of the world. Anthony Cirelli with former Trident Cedric Paquette and underrated Beau Bennett .. that’s who I want to see in action. They dog the puck like nobody’s business and I can easily see them frustrating opponents into making mistakes and then pushing the puck into the other team’s goal. And I’m kind of excited to see if Victor Rask will have success dishing off pucks to snipers Frank Vatrano and Val Nichushkin on Line 2. And Viktor Arvidsson and Pavel Buchnevich on the fourth line? This could get interesting.”
