GM: Jason Haupt
Coach: Jay Woodcroft
Last season: 19th overall. Did not make the playoffs.
Ins and Outs
(Season 16 to Season 17)
In: Dillon Dube (free agent), Bartek Bison (trade), Pavel Dorofeyev (free agent), Adam Boqvist (free agent), Alexandre Texier (free agent), Nick Blankenburg (free agent), Tommy Novak (free agent), Denis Malgin (free agent)
Out: Ivan Provorov (trade), Markus Granlund (trade), Peyton Krebs (waivers), Matthias Asperup (free agent), Luke Kunin (trade), Travis Dermott (trade), Chris Martenet (trade), Christian Fischer (trade), Aliaksei Protas (trade)
Potential Lineup
Olli Palola/Jack Hughes/Andrei Svechnikov
Dillon Dube/Tommy Novak/Rickard Rakell
Max Jones/Mikhail Grigorenko/Oliver Wahlstrom
Bartek Bison/Nejc Kastelic/Denis Malgin
Danilo Tomasevic/Adam Fox
Adam Boqvist/Rasmus Sandin
Pierre-Olivier Joseph/Nick Blankenburg
Ilya Sorokin/Mackenzie Blackwood
A Question
Anything surprising about Gothenburg this year? Even though Gothenburg traded away Dylan Sikura, they still rose in the standings from 24th to 19th place last year under Coach Sheldon Keefe’s guidance. Where he really helped last year was in taking the league’s worst powerplay units and improving them six spots in the standings. But his one-year contract ran out and Websim gave him a new set of attributes normally reserved for a toad or piece of furniture, so he’s out this year. New coach Jay Woodcroft is supposedly also good at devising powerplay strategies, so there might not be any let-off in that area. But even with a great powerplay, the Frolunda have their work cut out for them if they want to make the playoffs. They will have to hop over Edinburgh, Dublin and then they will have to wade into Monster Territory and take out someone like London, Helsinki or Paris. Or they can simply concentrate on doing the best they can every game. Currently, the fuel for Gothenburg’s fire comes from the defense pair of Adam Fox and Danilo Tomasevic. All six of the team’s defensemen can skate well but those two seem to have extra talents not many blueliners have. The sly Fox, age 26, scored 17 goals two seasons ago and 11 last year. He was also 9th in the league in blocked shots. Teams playing Gothenburg need to know where he is at all times. Tomasevic, 23, is just getting his career going but he is confident and ready to add to the 15 goals he has already scored in his first two seasons. The top forward line of Jack Hughes, Andrei Svechinkov and Olli Palola kind of created more problems than points because they basically refused to come back and help the defense when the other team had the puck. Maybe Coach Woodcroft can impress upon them the need to backcheck. But Gothenburg has decent depth and when things start to click, they should get shots and points coming from various parts the lineup. It’s also worth mentioning the interesting move GM Jason Haupt made late in the draft. Knowing he had some players who might not help him long-term, he started making trades and collected a second-round pick and five third-round picks. Including his own three picks, Haupt was able to add nine prospects in that draft.
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Rose’s Focus
“Even Rose has her bad days. Last year, I forced Coach Sheldon Keefe to play Jack Hughes and Andrei Svechnikov on the top line and it turned out to be bad for all three of them. Keefe lost his job and the forwards had minus a million seasons. I must have missed something. Some factor eluded my observation. Factors can be really sneaky when they want to be. This year, I will simply let the new coach, Jay Woodcroft, make his own decisions and see what happens. I love the fact Gothenburg has two goalies of equal ability because it gives the coach a chance to give both Mackenzie Blackwood and Ilya Sorokin love and also to play the hot goalie while he’s hot. You should do that, Jay. And I think I might try giving Mikhail Grigorenko the chance on the first line he’s aways wanted. Has he earned that chance? I don’t think so, but I think you should do that anyway, Jay. Oh, and try to get those two guys from Minsk – Adam Boqvist and Bartek Bison – out there at the same time. I bet they learned some things with the Hussars that they can teach the other guys. Yeah, do that. But on road trips, definitely don’t let Oliver Wahlstrom room with Tommy Novak. They tend to get into trouble when they’re together. And fire your public relations director. She doesn’t even understand hockey. But you do what you want, Jay; it’s your team. I’ll stay out of it this year.”
