GM: Jory S
Coach: Joel Quenneville
Last season: 12th overall. In playoffs, lost to Madrid
Ins and Outs
(Season 14 to Season 15)
In: Morgan Rielly (free agent), Louis Boudon (draft), Noah Paixao (draft)
Out: Roman Josi (free agent), Beau Bennett (free agent), Brandon Sutter (free agent), Tomas Jurco (free agent), Cedric Paquette (free agent), Alejandro Hernandez (free agent), Martin Ruzicka (free agent), Sandro Zurkirchen (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Dylan Larkin/Anthony Cirelli/Valeri Nichushkin
Frank Vatrano/Derek Stepan/Viktor Arvidsson
Christian Dvorak/Pius Suter/Auguste Impose
Tanner Jeannot/Blake Lizotte/Ville Vahalahti
Colton Parayko/Morgan Rielly
Ryan Graves/Brandon Carlo
Alexei Bereglazov/J.J. Moser
Petr Mrazek/Noah Paixao
Three Questions
1. How good is Geneva at protecting their goalie? The Generals had no trouble putting goals into opposing nets last season. They were 7th in the league in that category. But team defense was their calling card. They were 4th-best in the league at limiting opponents’ shots and even better in penalty killing, where they were 3rd best behind London and Oslo. Thank forwards like Anthony Cirelli, Derek Stepan and Christian Dvorak and defensemen like Ryan Graves and Colton Parayko for that. But that wonderful aspect of the Geneva team could change. Defensive forwards Brandon Sutter, Cedric Paquette and Beau Bennett all departed in the off season. Replacing them, at least in pre-season games, have been a host of young forwards who might be in the lineup to gain experience points. They certainly haven’t been penciled in for their defensive work. Tanner Jeannot and Blake Lizotte are good defensive forwards, but both were on the farm club roster in pre-season. The team is under new management this season with Jory S at the helm, and he seems to be giving Coach Joel Quenneville all sorts of freedom to try new line combos.
2. Could you tell us about the defensemen? Geneva is fortunate to have a real find back on defense. Colton Parayko is big and talented and he has no flaws whatsoever in his game. On top of that, he’s developed into a pretty good leader. He always puts team first and recently refused to take penalties. Last season, the 6-6 Parayko played in 71 games and sat in the penalty box a total of 4 minutes. And that’s while he was dishing out more than 200 hits for the sixth straight season. The 18 goals he scored placed him 5th among EURO defensemen in that category. But one man does not a defense corps make. Geneva added Morgan Rielly to the team this off season and his passing ability will really help. He had more than 30 assists in each of the last three seasons, but don’t expect the same from him in Geneva. Getting the pucks to Smurf forwards gave him a better chance of scoring points than passing to Generals forwards will. Ryan Graves, Brandon Carlo and Alexei Bereglazov all return to their defensive spots again this season and they add good size, intensity and some other varied attributes to the mixture.
3. How about goals? Will they score often? Dylan Larkin will. The man is 28 now, super fast on skates, and was tenacious enough to score 30 goals or more in each of the last three seasons. Anthony Cirelli scored 27 goals last season as his point total jumped from 37 the previous season to 70. He will get prime ice time and he deserves it. Similarly, Viktor Arvidsson’s goal total went from 9 to 21 in a year. But while Cirelli and Arvidsson had a breakout years, Val Nichushkin had a breakdown year. Yes, he played fewer minutes, but his point total fell from 72 and 71 the previous two seasons to just 28 last year. Val, Geneva really needs you to keep your chin up and play, big guy. Prospect Matty Beniers will join the offense and he should help in all areas of the ice, including offense, once he gets his footing.
Rose’s Focus
“Ville Vahalahti totally intrigues me. His face reminds me of another VV from years ago named Vaclav Varada. I have a unique gift of being able to see a person’s face and link it with a doppelgänger from the past. Geneva General Manager Jory S, for example. The first time I saw his face, I realized he was a spitting image of the composer Bela Bartok. But back to Vahalahti for a minute. The Finnish winger has fantastic passing ability and is decent-to-good in all other aspects of the game except defensive awareness, yet his statistics in the league thus far have made me yawn. His highest assist total so far is just 26. He should be able to produce many more than that. Maybe he is afflicted with some strange kind of stage fright. Maybe the mobsters from Milan were paying him off not to connect on his passes. My guess is he was rarely put on a line with a goal scorer when he was in Copenhagen, Athens and Minsk. After he joined Geneva last season he had his best plus/minus ratings of his career, but still, his assist totals were uninspiring. I’ll be watching to see if Bela, or Jory, or whatever his name is can unlock the offense that I see bottled up in VV’s Finnish hands.”
