GM: Bryan Camara
Coach: Kris Knoblauch
Last season: 15th overall. In playoffs, lost to Berlin
Ins and Outs
(Season 17 to Season 18)
In: Jakub Kovar (free agent), Staffan Kronwall (trade), Gabriel Landeskog (trade), Tyler Bertuzzi (trade), Andrei Kuzmenko (trade), Jake Middleton (free agent), Jakub Dobes (draft)
Out: Joel Hofer (trade), Kristian Kuusela (free agent), Alexey Toropchenko (free agent), Maxim Noreau (free agent), Jared McCann (free agent), Brandon Hagel (trade), Haydn Fleury (free agent), Mikhail Pashnin (free agent), Anton Forsberg (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Max Domi/Mat Barzal/Spencer Smallman
Artturi Lehkonen/Trevor Zegras/Tyler Bertuzzi
Gabriel Landeskog/Shane Pinto/Andrei Kuzmenko
Vladislav Saiko/Logan Cooley/Kyen Sopa
John Marino/Staffan Kronwall
Josh Morrissey/Brandon Montour
Jake Middleton/Joel Nystrom
Robin Lehner/Jakub Kovar
A Question
How much will the vets from Berlin contribute? Last season, Artturi Lehkonen made the move from Germany to Portugal to help Lisbon and he did in fact help (61 points and 239 shots as a second-line left wing). This year, Staffan Kronwall and Gabriel Landeskog followed him to Bryan Camara Land. Landeskog, the first overall pick in the league’s initial draft, is 36 now and he is instantly the team’s best defensive forward. That really says more about the makeup of the Lisbon team than about the Swedish forward. All 12 starting forwards lean toward offense and they love carrying the puck over the other blueline; Landeskog just happens to have learned how to play the defensive part of the game in these last 17 years. Lisbon will come right at you. Their “the best defense is a good offense” philosophy has worked fairly well for them. Well, at least the defense hasn’t seemed to have suffered. The team scored 3.54 goals per game and gave up a virtually identical 3.55 goals per game. They allowed one more shot than they took each game on average. We could see those numbers flipping this season, with fewer shots against thanks to the addition of Landeskog and Kronwall, who is still a top defenseman in this league. But the fans in Portugal really pay to see the flashy plays that Mathew Barzal, Max Domi and Trevor Zegras tend to orchestrate. At the other end of the ice, Lisbon’s goalie has to be ready in case those flashy plays break down and 10 guys start skating furiously his way. Robin Lehner is used to that, having backstopped Lisbon for two seasons and newly acquired veteran Jakub Kovar saw his share of shots for 12 seasons as Edinburgh’s starting goalie. Only Karri Ramo and Braden Holtby have stopped more pucks in their career than Kovar has (23,306). Lehner is 5th all-time on that list with (21,975). Both veterans should be unshakable in goal for the team. Lisbon diversified just a bit this season. Aside from the defensive prowess of Kronwall, Landeskog and Jake Middleton, they also added grit, something they didn’t have much of last season, with Middleton and trade acquisition Tyler Bertuzzi, who will add that element for about 15 minutes per game.
Rose’s Focus
“Lisbon General Manager Bryan Camara seems to be recovering from the disaster that occurred in Season 11. That season the team went from 7th in the standings to 24th. They rebounded quickly with two seasons in the Top 6 as legend John Tavares led the way and mentored those cute flashy youngsters Max Domi and Mat Barzal. I remember thinking Max and Mat are going to lead this team to glory someday. Especially with those two young studs on the blueline, Brandon Montour and John Marino. But for the 8th time in my life, I was wrong. So far, at least. (Yes, I have been keeping track of the times I have been wrong. I’m still way ahead of you, by the way). Now the team has leveled off, scoring between 82 and 86 points three of the last four years. Not exactly the glory I was predicting. But they will give it another go this season and guess what? Those four pillars are all at or close to their peak ages. In fact, so is almost everyone else in the lineup. This is shaping up to be a promising year for the team and if it was lacking Tavares’ leadership recently, they now have a similar leader to turn to in Gabriel Landeskog. If things go right, that will return me to being wrong 7 times in my life.”
