GM: Chuck Massaro
Coach: Lindy Ruff
Last season: 15th overall. In playoffs, lost to Paris
Ins and Outs
(Season 16 to Season 17)
In: Evander Kane (free agent), Travis Konecny (free agent), Travis Dermott (trade), Zach Bogosian (free agent), Sandro Zurkirchen (free agent)
Out: Connor Hellebuyck (free agent), Jonas Brodin (free agent), Gurkan Cetinkaya (free agent), Michael Matheson (free agent), Joakim Nygard (free agent), Talgat Zhailauov (free agent), Matt Roy (free agent), Mario Ferraro (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Victor Olofsson/Josh Norris/Evander Kane
Rhett Gardner/Troy Loggins/Travis Konecny
Tyler Johnson/Connor Korte/Zemgus Girgensons
Colin White/Leo Carlsson/Patrick Kane
Robin Grossman/Zach Bogosian
Dante Fabbro/Lucas Hughes
Will Butcher/Travis Dermott
Tanner Jaillet/Spencer Knight
A Question
Will Bratislava be better or worse this season? Good news, Eagles fans: they could and should be a little better. The original plan, before free agency, was to be a little worse. While other teams around them were making trades and signing free agents to improve their squads, Bratislava GM Chuck Massaro was not planning to do much. He wanted to give his younger players some experience. He traded to get Travis Dermott on defense, but decided to squander the long-term investment the team made in goalie Hellebuyck and let him walk away as a free agent. Truth is, the goalie never played as well as expected in Slovakia. When Troy Loggins, a Swiss Army knife of a center, opted to test the free agent market, it looked like a big loss for the team. But he ended up signing long-term with the team that’s had him since he won a Rookie of the Year trophy. So two big subtractions turned into one and then the team surprisingly added veteran right wingers Evander Kane and Travis Konecny. Coach Lindy Ruff is anxious to see how Loggins and Konecny work on the same line because they have similar tendencies, attitudes and energy. And he loves the fact Kane has learned how to play the defensive part of the game. Early in his 1,225-game career, that wasn’t the case. We’re thinking Bratislava will be better at limiting the opposition’s shots on goal. They weren’t bad last season (10th in the league) but with the additions of Konecny, Kane and defenseman Zach Bogosian, who Massaro had dreamt of acquiring for several seasons, they should improve in that area.
Rose’s Focus
“In EURO League headquarters in Vienna, we sometimes watch TV when we have downtime. Commissioner Chuck Massaro doesn’t do much in the office, but he does lead our little team in TV watching. Once, while watching the local news, he was commenting about all the snow we were getting and I suggested he buy a snowblower to make it easier for his wife to clear the driveway. ‘Our household budget is too tight,’ he said. Another time I told him about a sale on new hockey helmets and suggested he get one to replace his son’s cracked helmet. ‘Tape is cheaper,’ he said. Then, today, he saw a commercial for ‘I Farted’ T-shirts and within 2 minutes he had ordered six of them in six different colors at $36 apiece online, adding a Valerie Bertinelli cardboard cutout stand and four half-gallon bottles of Jovan Musk. I guess the household budget has room for his items but not for his wife or kids’. He showed that same impulse-buying in free agency. The team was looking to pick up a defenseman (they got Zach Bogosian) and a center (they resigned Troy Loggins) but no one else. Final word. No takebacks, the GM said. But Massaro left the free agent market with Evander Kane and Travis Konecny in his shopping cart. He wanted them, so forget the team plan. I guess the plan to get Kailer Yamamoto and the young defensemen more experience points will wait again this year.”
