The EURO League is almost 10 games into Season 15 now and fans have to be shocked at some of the things they’ve seen so far.
Like Petr Mzarek being 7-1 with super hero-like averages of 1.49 goals against and 94.3 in save percentage. So far, he is easily the best goalie in the league. Generals bench boss Joel Quenneville is riding him hard, with backup Noah Paixao getting just one game this season, but it’s a plan that has worked so far. Geneva is 2 points behind league-leading Paris in the standings. Mrazek is 31 and is signed through the end of Season 16 with a $6.2 million contract.
Jake Dotchin leads EURO defensemen in scoring
Another shocker is playing out in Switzerland, where Jake Dotchin of Bern is the league’s highest scoring defenseman. The 29-year-old only scored 18 points in 82 games two seasons ago and he’s already up to 10 points in 9 games. And that’s with the top line of Mike Zibanejad, Mark Stone and Sebastian Aho having sub-standard starts. That trio has accounted for just 5 goals so far this season. Chances are, Dotchin will fall quickly on list of defenseman scorers, but he can enjoy the fact that he has created some excitement in Bern so far this season.
In a league full of flashy offensive forwards, it’s surprising that a 36-year-old known as much for his defensive play as his offense would have a 5-point lead over all other players points. But Logan Couture, in his first season with Paris, has 20 points in 9 games. That’s 5 goals and 15 assists while centering the top line with Evander Kane and Ondrej Palat. Oh, and in case you were wondering if Couture has abandoned his defensive responsibilities, he also leads all EURO players in takeaways. Like Mrazek, Couture is getting ridden hard. He takes the faceoffs on the top line and on all four of Paris’ top specialty team units.
At the other end of the spectrum is Sam Reinhart of Edinburgh. The 29-year-old is getting $7.6 million per year and getting prime minutes (25 per game) and yet he has only produced an assist so far this season. He has scored more than 20 goals in 7 of his 8 seasons, and he’s had between 52-66 points those seasons, so we know he’s capable of it. But since his private, closed door meeting with London GM Isaac Schwartz, he’s played like a zombie. We don’t know what happened to the kid in there.
And as great as Mrazek has been, this has been a terrible early season for a lot of goalies. Three net minders who have played at least 4 games have save percentages of under 85.0. Philipp Grubauer (Amsterdam) is 0-4-1; Igor Shesterkin (Madrid) is 1-4; and Ilya Samsonov (Zurich) is 2-3. And Robin Lehner, who was acquired by Milan to lift the team up the standings, has the worst goals against in the league so far, giving up 15 goals in his 3 games. The Guerriero lost those 3 games.
