GM: Stephen R
Coach: John Tortorella
Last season: 20th overall. Missed playoffs
Ins and Outs
(Season 13 to Season 14)
In: Andes De La Garma (free agent), Thomas Powell (free agent), Vincent Trocheck (free agent), Kevin Hayes (free agent), Tyler Myers (free agent), Jindrich Barak (waivers), Nikita Zadorov (free agent), T.J. Brodie (free agent), Michael Bunting (draft), Andrew Peeke (draft)
Out: Ryan O’Reilly (free agent), Anders Lee (free agency), Kevin Shattenkirk (free agency), Justin Schultz (free agent), Michael Stone (free agent), Petr Mrazek (free agent), Derek Forbort (free agent), Brendan Perlini (waivers), Marcus Kruger (free agent), Derek Forbort (free agent), Thomas Kuhnhackl (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Jake Guentzel/Logan Couture/Kevin Hayes
Andre Burakovsky/Vincent Trocheck/Thomas Powell
Jared McCann/Zack Smith/Evgenii Dadonov
Michael Bunting/Teddy Blueger/Zach Aston-Reese
P.K. Subban/Esa Lindell
Erik Cernak/Tyler Myers
T.J. Brodie/Jindrich Barak
Andres De La Garma/Peter Thome
Three Questions
1. Did this team lose key pieces to free agency? Yes. Several. In fact four former Gods are now playing in Bratislava. But we think Athens made out well by adding many good new parts with its more than $26 million in cap space. In Season 10, Thomas Powell scored 76 points for Minsk and he left the next season for Athens. Last season, Powell scored 74 points, again for Minsk, and again he left to spend the next season in Athens. Powell scored a career high 35 goals in his first tour of duty in Greece and Coach John Tortorella would love to see him do that again. Powell has scored 70 or more points in six seasons. He is a great puckhandler, a dogged forechecker and he doesn’t take a lot of risks, usually choosing the simple play over the fancy one. Workmanlike Logan Couture (5th all-time in EURO scoring) is back for another season and it looks like he, Jake Guentzel and Kevin Hayes will start as the top line for Athens. Athens also acquired two important parts of the Copenhagen Tridents machine that has been a force in the league for 5 or more years now. Cup-winning goalie Andres De La Garma and second-line center Vince Trocheck are in Greece now, along with Edinburgh’s second-liner Hayes and defensemen Tyler Myers, Jindrich Barak and T.J. Brodie. But before you go celebrating how much the defense corps has improved, realize the Gods lost former Best Defenseman Trophy winner Justin Schultz and two other starters to free agency. Fans are hoping all the dosey-doe-ing has resulted in a net gain and they are getting amped again.
2. Who can we expect to improve the most from last season? Athens is a solid mix of youth and experience. The lineup they ended the season with featured players mainly between 27 and 33 years old with a few exceptions. Coach John Tortorella has Andre Burakovsky, age 28, in the lineup to move the puck around. The Austrian winger is certainly not in there for his passive hitting and grinding skills. Last season, he only played in 59 games, but he showed a pretty good improvement in scoring over all his previous seasons. He scored 19 times and had 47 points. His previous high total was 33. On defense, big Erik Cernak has the tools to become an all-star. He was 23 last year and his point total jumped from 12 the season before to 23. It should go up again and the Gods need it too, with P.K. Subban getting closer to 40 than he is to 30. Points and offense aren’t even Cernak’s strongest suit. He plays a smart defense, is tough to beat one-on-one and impossible to beat along the boards. Look for him to start the season as Tyler Myers’ partner to give the Gods one of the largest defense duos in hockey.
3. Where do they need to improve most? If you analyze the team stats, the Gods need to improve everywhere. They rank in the bottom half of the league in all areas … except one area. That area is a key one that could be a key building block for the team. They were 12th in shots allowed per game and they weren’t too far from creeping into the top 8 in the league. That tells you team defense isn’t a major cause for concern. But that was when they had Ryan O’Reilly and Yanni Gourde, two excellent defensive players, on the forward lines. GM Stephen R was careful in free agency to insert only players with defensive capabilities into his revamped roster – at least along the blueline. Coach John Tortorella is probably going to use hard-charging Zach Aston-Reese in Gourde’s old roles, especially when the Gods are killing penalties. He will be a key player for Athens this season even though he won’t get a ton of ice time.
Rose’s Focus
“Esa Lindell. Good or bad? Or both? I am puzzled by him and I am trying to figure him out. Last season, he was an excellent shot blocker, but the rest of his play reminded me of the time I dropped a raspberry pie onto the floor taking it from the oven to the counter. A flop. The season before, he was good all over the ice. But his stats have been all over the place for 6 seasons now. If you can predict how he’ll play, well, you are simply lucky. But it’s going to be fun to see if the Finn can put it all together at age 28.”
