GM: Shalom Connell
Coach: John Stevens
Last season: 12th overall. In playoffs, lost to Kosice
Ins and Outs
(Season 16 to Season 17)
In: Athony Cirelli (trade), Juuse Saros (trade), Jaccob Slavin (trade), Brett Howden (trade), Jake Debrusk (trade), Shayne Gostisbehere (trade), Adam Henrique (free agent), Matt Dumba (trade), Oscar Klefbom (free agent), Braden Schneider (waivers), Thomas Spelling (trade), Lukas Dostal (trade), Tyson Barrie (free agent), Thomas Spelling (free agent), Arttu Paaso (draft), Joakim Nygard (free agent), Louis Boudon (trade), Zach Aston-Reese (free agent), Troy Stecher (waivers)
Out: Mika Zibanejad (trade), Karri Ramo (trade), Jake Dotchin (free agent), Kristian Kuusela (free agent), Christian Fischer (trade), Juraj Slafkovsky (trade), Phil Tomasino (trade), Tyson Foerster (trade), Luka Gracnar (free agent), Marian Studenic (trade), Olegs Sislannikovs (trade), Troy Stecher (free agent), Nikita Zadorov (free agent), Brett Pesce (free agent), Joonas Donskoi (free agent), Kyen Sopa (trade), Alex Petrovic (free agent), Justin Holl (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Jake Debrusk/Nico Hischier/Sebastian Aho
Henrik Haapala/Anthony Cirelli/Thomas Spelling
Maxime Comtois/Brett Howden/Christian Fischer
Jack Quinn/Dawson Mercer/Wyatt Johnston
Shayne Gostisbehere/Rasmus Dahlin
Jaccob Slavin/Matt Dumba
Thomas Harley/Timothy Liljegren
Juuse Saros/Lukas Dostal
A Question
Did the new GM make any new friends? You take over the Bern team and the first thing you do is trade Mika Zibanejad? The Mika Zibanejad that has been a star on the Bern team since Day One of the league 16 seasons ago? The Bern version of Taylor Swift? Forget that Mika was considering testing the free agent market, people in Bern and all of Switzerland finally wanted to fight. And they never fight. It made the Paris riots against Commissioner Chuck Massaro look like a book of the month club meeting. They wanted Shalom Connell run out town on a rail. So what did he do next? He shipped out the winningest goalie in league history (Karri Ramo). That’s all. Some call the moves bold. Others use different words. To save his neck, Connell traded some of the team’s future (young forwards like Juraj Slavkovsky, Tyson Foerster, Philip Tomasino and five draft picks) to bring in a whole bunch of guys, most notably Anthony Cirelli, Jaccob Slavin and Juuse Saros. So now we know Connell is not concerned with the past or the future; just today. Actually, those big three additions as well as Brett Howden, who was also acquired in a trade, are all between 27 and 31 years old so they could form a fantastic nucleus in Bern for the next three to six seasons. And they still have Rasmus Dahlin, Nico Hischier, Sebastian Aho and some other players who Bern fans have come to know and love. If these people really look at the new plan, and the deep and talented lineup Connell has cobbled together, we bet they will have an entirely different opinion. Connell should be able to breathe easier and maybe even walk around the city by season’s end because the new Bern Bears should find themselves anywhere in the Top 4 spots of the Southern Conference by year’s end. If Saros is on his game, the Bears could even make the Berlin Smurfs worry and pay less attention to their cheerleaders. For a short time. Maybe less than a day. Perhaps just a morning. OK, we know the Smurfs won’t. Let’s see what Rose has to say.
Rose’s Focus
“Wow. There has been a lot of movement into and out of Bern, thanks to new general manager Shalom Connell. As the person who takes care of players’ travel, I now have a major headache. It seemed every morning this off-season I was making copies of passports and sticking them in files. I even had to ask the commissioner to buy me a new filing cabinet even though I knew how much he hates spending money. What a tightwad. I actually lost track of Anders Lee. I hope he’s Ok. I hope I didn’t accidentally send him to Siberia. Let’s see, he started in Lisbon, was traded to Bern, then a few minutes later traded to Oslo … but he’s not there now. Oh my, I found him. He IS in Siberia! Well, practically. He signed a contract with Minsk … who waived him. He’s doing a one-month tour of the entire league. I wonder if he bumped into Alex Galchenyuk on his journeys. Galchenyuk started in Prague was traded to Bern and I think he was there the same 5 minutes that Lee was there. Then he was quickly shipped to Siberia … er, Minsk .. and somehow he’s in Liverpool now. Are there some secret tunnels in and out of Belarus I’m not aware of? I wonder if the commissioner will spring for GPS tracking chips for Bern players.”
