GM: Brett Warbeck
Coach: Sheldon Keefe
Last season: 22nd place overall; did not make playoffs
Ins and Outs
(Season 12 to Season 13)
In: Nick Schmaltz (waiver), Darnell Nurse (waiver), Vince Dunn (waiver), Ryan Murphy (waiver), Robert Rooba (free agent); Sven Andrighetto (free agent); Yegor Sharangovich (Season 13 draft); Tim Stutzle (Season 12 draft), Janne Kuokkanen (Season 13 draft), Eetu Luostarinen (Season 9 draft), Nathan Bastien (Season 13 draft), Morgan Geekie (Season 12 draft)
Out: Alexander Salak (trade), Artturi Lehkonen (free agent), Jakub Petruzalek (free agent), Kyle Palmieri (free agent), Elias Lindholm (free agent), Jordan Binnington (free agent), Andre Burakovsky (free agent), Zack Smith (free agent), Troy Stecher (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Max Pacioretty/Ryan Johansen/Mikko Lehtonen
Linus Klasen/Nick Schmaltz/Robert Rooba
Sven Andrighetto/Yegor Sharangovich/Christian Fischer
Tim Stutzle/Cody Glass/Ryan Donato
Jakub Krejcik/Darnell Nurse
Erik Andersson/Ryan Murphy
Thomas Chabot/Vince Dunn
Jake Oettinger/Andrew Dickson
Three Questions
1. What is the difference between the last Moscow team and this one? The goalies are gone. Alexander Salak and Jordan Binnington were both sent away. That’s a pretty abrupt difference. And of the top 8 scorers on the team last year, 5 are gone. Those two facts point to a very significant makeover in Moscow. General Manager Brett Warbeck inherited a team on its way down and he is preparing for a group rebound. But the “group” part of the rebound has to change and it won’t happen in Season 13. The fans will have to try to be patient this season. The team has tons of cap space to play with, but rather than speculate on trades – the NHL and Jack Eichel have made us a little sick of trade speculation lately – let’s turn some calendar pages and have a look at the Season 14 draft. Moscow will have three picks in the first round, two in the second and one in the third. And by then, one of their current prospects, Cole Caufield, should have his Websim attributes and most people expect his PO rating to be way up there. The team already has a prospect with fresh attributes in Season 12 top pick Tim Stutzle, a left wing for the Ottawa Senators, who will likely dress for his Maniacs debut when the season starts.
2. Where will this young team struggle the most? Goaltending is largely untested and inexperienced. The two on the roster right now have a total of 7 games played. So yeah, goaltending looks like a problem. The blueline won’t be. Moscow has a decent defense corps in place already and it will only get better. The team’s biggest problem on the blueline will be giving ice time to the younger players who could really use it. If you take a good look at the Maniacs defensemen you will see that they are all excellent skaters – that includes all of the top 7, not just the top 6. They have great speed and stamina. Their big Dmen play big and will deliver hits and take penalties; and their small Dmen compensate in other areas, like stickhandling, positional play and even leadership. This group of 7 players between 72 and 80 OV will do their jobs well and it will be interesting to see how new coach Sheldon Keefe uses them and where.
3. Who will provide Moscow’s shots and goals? Top line forwards Max Pacioretty and Mikko Lethonen will be the snipers on this team this season and the two players most likely to create chances for teammates are Ryan Johansen and Nick Schmaltz. Johansen, who spent 9 seasons in Stockholm, was the Maniacs’ leading scorer last season with 63 points, including 45 assists. He had 58 assists three years ago. Schmaltz, who can also play center, spent his previous 5 seasons as a Minsk Hussar. He didn’t get much ice time there but he’s a good passer with good hockey sense. We should be able to get a better picture of what he’s capable of this season when better ice time is more likely. Schmaltz was one of four players GM Brett Warbeck was able to get off waivers. Darnell Nurse, Vince Dunn and Ryan Murphy were the others.
Rose’s Focus
“Max Pacioretty interests me. (Not in that way! C’mon. Keep it clean, boys.) When I look at his stats card, I see a mystery and I feel like Angela Lansbury in “Murder, She Wrote.” Oh you’re all too young for that analogy I see. Anyway, if you look at Max’s Websim attributes, he doesn’t seem to have lost much ability, even though he’s 35. The only rating he has that’s below 70 is ST (strength) and that’s a 69, which, if you young kids don’t know, is just barely under 70. So he should still be able to compete, right? Last year, he had trouble with injuries for the second time in his career, but I wouldn’t necessarily call him fragile. But what puzzles me the most is Max’ turnover ratio and what has happened to it. The progression seemed normal as he went from young player to a cagey veteran. A minus turnover ratio guy transformed with experience into an impressive +41 as a 29-year-old. It was Pacioretty’s third season in Moscow after three in Frankfurt. Since then though, his turnover ratio, point total and plus-minus all started going downhill. The last two years especially, he hasn’t been the Max Pacioretty we all knew … but his attributes remained good across the board. I don’t get it. I’ll do some more investigating and see if I can get to the bottom of Max. Um, I mean to Max’s bottom, er, I will look into his bottom and see if I can get at it. Never mind, that’s not what I meant. You are too young to understand statistical analysis.”
