GM: Jared Smith
Coach: Todd Reirden
Last season: 21st overall. Missed playoffs
Ins and Outs
(Season 13 to Season 14)
In: Ivan Provorov (trade); Jean-Gabriel Pageau (waivers), Noah Hanifin (trade); Ryan McDonagh (free agency), Tomas Nosek (free agency), Andrew Dickson (free agent), Roni Hirvonen (draft), William Stromgren (draft), Gage Goncalves (draft)
Out: Joonas Korpisalo (trade), Lawson Crouse (free agent), Nick Bjugstad (free agency), Pavel Zacha (waivers), Jindrich Barak (waivers),
Potential Lineup
Filip Forsberg/Fyodor Malykhin/Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Miks Indrasis/Tomas Nosek/Clayton Keller
Caset Mittelstadt/Nick Paul/Alexey Toropchenko
Jesper Bratt/Jason Brancheau/Mathieu Joseph
Ryan McDonagh/Cale Makar
Ivan Provorov/Robin Grossman
Noah Hanifin/Alexis Vanier
Andrew Dickson/Ilya Sorokin
Three Questions
1. What is this team’s strength? Under General Manager Jared Smith, Munich has constructed what could be the best young group of defensemen in the league. Seeing all the high PO ratings along the blueline brings us back to the old Paris team that won it all in Season 2 and always buzzed around the top of the league; and the Minsk Hussars who captured two Cups. Smith recently traded for Ivan Provorov and Noah Hanifin while already having Cale Makar and prospect-turned-attributes player Moritz Seider. That foursome has PO ratings between 85 and 94. Then, as free agency began, there was also Robin Grossman, Alexis Vanier, Travis Dermott, Jindrich Barak, Tobias Bjornfot and Linus Hogberg, with their glossy 80+ PO ratings. That’s 10 defensemen who could and should play full-time with any team, and all of them were vying for 6 spots. Something had to give. Bjornfot and Seider can safely go back and forth from Munich to the farm club in Hamburg, so they are safe. Barak, the oldest of the group at 28, was waived and ended up in Athens. A bigger problem for Smith will come in about 3 seasons when his superstar defensemen’s agents start demanding sky-high salaries.
2. Why did they finish 21st? They are a very young group. Those cagey veterans from Berlin, Lisbon and Paris used their smarts to embarrass the Red Bulls the last couple of years, but revenge is best served cold, and hockey is played on ice, so look out for Munich, guys. Expect the Red Bulls to move up the standings, perhaps at a pace that’s slower than they want, but there is no reason this group of young talent can’t improve each season. The next order of business for the coach is to fix the league’s second-worst powerplay and the third-worst shorthanded units. The 5-on-5 play, which was about third-worst in the league last season, should fix itself as the players gain experience. An odd problem that faces Munich GM Jared Smith is the fact he has too many good players watching from the press box. The lineup has too many promising players that no GM would want to waive in an attempt to send them to the farm club. Oliver Bjorkstrand, Connor Brown and a couple of the defensemen we mentioned earlier are currently stranded on the scratch lineup and may rotate with others currently in the pro team lineup.
3. Where do the Red Bulls need to get better to succeed? The addition of Ivan Provorov should get Munich some extra wins all by itself. The Russian defenseman was 25 with Paris last season when he experienced a breakthrough year. He scored 46 points to shatter his previous best of 20, and his +24 rating was his best ever by far. He will play on the powerplay and he’ll penalty kill. But Munich will still have its shortcomings this season. If you look over the attributes on this team, you realize there are a few areas where Munich needs to improve. The age column is one area. If only they could all turn 3 years older before the season begins, they would have more experience and that would help them win games. The addition of Ryan McDonagh and Jean-Gabriel Pageau helps a lot in that area. Munich has speed, they have a decent number of players with size, and they are good in all the skill areas. But we see a few shaky numbers in the defense column. Not enough to panic, but enough to keep an eye on. Getting Connor Brown on the ice for his defensive ability would certainly help the team, but would it? Brown is weak in other areas. Helping in one area might hurt them more in others. The Red Bulls have a lot of promise and if they get off to a fast start, they could be the Cinderella team of Season 14.
Rose’s Focus
“Andrew Dickson, who played street hockey in Belfast (Giants GM Chris Patton remembers him) before he ever got skates on his feet, bounced around the league for years before finally getting a chance to play last year in Moscow. But was being asked to play goalie for the 24th place team that great an invitation? It reminds me of when I was invited to the Threepwood household for a home-cooked meal. (Obviously, I declined.) But Dickson was a real trooper last season. He played in 63 long, long games, stopped 88.9 of the shots he faced, kept his goals against average under 4.00, and had 3 shutouts. Munich took notice of the yeoman’s effort and gave him a chance to play on a team with better defensemen in front of him. And they also picked up Ilya Sorokin to push him from inside the team and give him a good number of rests. I think Dickson will do well and justify the $2.8 million he’s being paid to guard the Red Bull goal in Germany.”
