GM: Jukka Tuominen
Coach: Brent Sutter
Last season: 1st overall. In playoffs, defeated Dublin; defeated Copenhagen; defeated Minsk; defeated Berlin to win the EURO Cup
Ins and Outs
(Season 17 to Season 18)
In: Connor McDavid (trade), Jacob Moverare (trade), Alexei Bereglazov (trade), Jeff Skinner (free agent), Logan Couture (free agent), Jakub Vrana (trade), Denis Malgin (trade), Gregory Beron (trade)
Out: Tyler Seguin (free agent), Sergei Mozyakin (free agent), Kyle Connor (trade), Nerius Alisauskas (trade), Erik Karlsson (retired), John Carlson (retired), Drew Doughty (retired), Craig Smith (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Patrik Laine/Connor McDavid/Brock Boeser
Ryan Strome/Jesperi Kotkaniemi/Mikko Lehtonen
Jeff Skinner/Logan Couture/Anthony Mantha
Connor Zary/Stanislav Vrhel/Jakub Vrana
Jacob Moverare/Henri Jokiharju
Noah Dobson/Alexei Bereglazov
Cam York/Gregory Beron
Andres De La Garma/Michikazu Hata
A Question
Is Helsinki in the race for another Cup? Season 17 was like a Formula 1 race for the Helsinki Jokerits: break-neck speed all the way. Running on worn tires and gas fumes, Coach Brent Sutter kept the accelerator pressed to the floor and was the first to the checkered flag. But after the finish line, a few tires fell right off. The top two scorers – Sergei Mozyakin and Tyler Seguin – left for free agency and Erik Karlsson and John Carlson both retired. It looked like the sleek Helsinki vehicle would head to the garage for major repairs. Two EURO Cups might be it for a few seasons. Even General Manager Jukka Tuominen hinted at a rebuild. What followed soon after put the reconstruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to shame. Connor McDavid, Jacob Moverare and Alexei Bereglazov are now new Jokerits in top line positions and they are better than what was there before in a lot of people’s minds. The lone area of decline is at center on the second line. Last season, Seguin was great there. At age 35, he scored 100 points and was +36. Twenty-six-year-old Jesperi Kotkaniemi is unlikely to match those stats, but veteran linemates Mikko Lehtonen and Ryan Strome will be there to help him, as things look now. And as things look now, with playoff MVP Andres De La Garma still between the pipes, you would not be a smart man or woman to count Helsinki out of the running for another cup.
Rose’s Focus
“Recently I kidded that Helsinki and Finland in general are boring. Then I fell asleep. I woke up on a train that had just stopped in Lahti. I started looking at the buildings there and fell asleep again. I coughed myself awake near Kotka and yawned so hard a filling came loose from one of my teeth. A fellow passenger was telling me I should see one of the great dentists in her hometown of Lappeenranta but I didn’t actually hear the name of Dr. Whaattevver because she made me snore. I really prefer the nightlife in Berlin to that of Tampere. But when the team that wins the Cup is from Helsinki and you’re the accountant and secretary of the league, who have to go to Finland and bail Sepp Blatter out of trouble. I am secretly hoping the next Cup ends up in Minsk, Bern, Copenhagen or just about anywhere else, but there is a decent chance I will be feeling drowsy in Turku and dozing off in Espoo a year from now. General Manager Jukka Tuominen was telling me he thinks the moves he’s made … in the off season give his … (yawn) team a … real chance to … (zzzzzzzzz).”
