GM: Dennis Lee
Coach: Scott Arniel
Last season: 12th overall. In playoffs, lost to Helsinki
Ins and Outs
(Season 17 to Season 18)
In: Victor Olofsson (trade), Robin Grossman (trade), Kaapo Kakko (trade), John Gibson (free agent), Wyatt Kaiser (draft), Cole Koepke (draft), Maxim Tsyplakov (draft), Adam Edstrom (draft)
Out: Matt Duchene (free agent), Brendan Gallagher (free agent), Matt Coronato (trade), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (free agent), Michael Del Zotto (free agent), Radko Gudas (free agent), Rudy Rigoni (waiver)
Potential Lineup
Timo Meier/Pierre-Luc Dubois/William Nylander
Sam Duggan/Dominik Pas/Val Nichushkin
Nazem Kadri/Logan Stankoven/Alexander Radulov
Victor Olofsson/Pius Suter/Kaapo Kakko
Robin Grossman/Ryan Graves
Nick Leddy/Zach Whitecloud
Wyatt Kaiser/Erik Andersson
Alex Nedeljkovic/John Gibson
A Question
What needs to happen for Dublin to surge upward? The Guinness Chuggers made it into the playoffs of the tough Northern Conference last season, making their fans in Ireland pretty proud. This season, Oslo is rebuilding and is expected to tumble in the standings, so teams like Dublin, London and others have an opening they haven’t seen in recent years. It seems Dublin has been especially mindful of limiting opponents’ shots against lately. They reduced their shots against from 32.25 to 31.33 last season and while that might not seem like a lot, improvement in that area was desperately needed in Dublin. They acquired Ryan Graves to anchor the defense last season and this season, they picked up Robin Grossman in a trade. The Swiss Grossman has transformed his game recently to a more defensive style and he offers tremendous speed and skating along the blueline. Graves and Grossman could form a barbed wire thicket in front of goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and free agent signing John Gibson. Nedeljkovic played in his third all-star game last season and seems to be the main man in goal, and we will see how Gibson accepts his first stint as a backup since Season 10. He was a starter for Zurich for four straight years but has not gotten into a EURO game in the last three seasons. The Dublin offense is dependent on the success of two of their stars. Right wing William Nylander is a wonderfully dangerous skill player who suffered a decline last season at age 30. He had hoped he could improve on the 42 goals, 98 points and 252 shots he had the previous season, but instead, an injury surely affected him. He failed to hit 200 shots for the first time in five seasons and managed 79 points, which was good enough for second on the team behind Pierre-Luc Dubois’ 83 points. Dubois was one of the biggest breakout stories in the league last season. He played just 3 minutes more per game from the previous season, but his points total rose from 44 to 83. His shots went from 187 to 250. The problem these last two seasons was that when Nylander was hot, Dubois was cold and then it was vice versa the next season. Chuggers fans are dreaming of a season when both are chugging along on all cylinders. If that happens, Dublin could really climb the ladder.
Rose’s Focus
“As you can imagine, I get invited to a lot of gatherings. Being the accountant and secretary of the world’s best hockey league has its perks. Our Director of Player Safety and Discipline, Sepp Blatter, prefers that I don’t talk about how he conducts business for some reason so in return, he has purchased a lot of nice clothes for me. I now have a collection that rivals the women’s department at Peek & Cloppenburg, my favorite boutique here in Vienna. Why am I going on and on about my great clothing collection? Because when I try to envision Dublin’s line combinations, it reminds me of the varied clothing options I have to choose from when I get ready to go out for the evening. The Guinness Chuggers forwards are versatile. They can play multiple positions and they offer different skill sets, therefore they can be mixed and matched virtually at will. Would I like newly acquired Victor Olofsson to add a flashy, lace-fringed top to the first line, or would the sexy, plunging neckline that is Timo Meier look better next to Pierre-Luc Dubois and William Nylander? Kaapo Kakko and Dominik Pas are both versatile pieces that can play all over the lineup and I can’t decide if they would work better with the intricate patterns or the solids – the Alexander Radulovs or the Val Nichushkins. And that Nazem Kadri is really worn, but I just can’t seem to throw it in the discard pile. Anyway, that’s not up to me to decide. I’ll let Coach Scott Arniel pick out what to wear as he prepares for the big dance that is Season 18.”
