GM: Delwin Y
Coach: John Stevens
Last season: 11th overall. In playoffs, lost to Helsinki
Ins and Outs
(Season 18 to Season 19)
In: Braden Holtby (free agent), Anthony Duclair (free agent), Ryan Winterton (draft), Nikita Grebenkin (free agent), Emil Lilleberg (free agent), Cal Petersen (free agent)
Out: Filip Sveningsson (free agent), Filip Chytil (free agent), Carter Hart (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Nikolaj Ehlers/Jack Eichel/Denis Gurianov
Anthony Duclair/Joel Eriksson Ek/Jesse Puljujarvi
Matias Maccelli/Tobias Rieder/Sarah Nurse
Alex Laferriere/Kendall Coyne-Schofield/Jordan Eberle
Olli Maatta/Artur Cholach
Jeremy Lauzon/Brady Skjei
Markus Steinkasserer/Brandt Clarke
Braden Holtby/Cal Petersen
A Question
Is Delwin as good a guy as we think he is? The general manager of Stockholm H.C. has made lots of admirers in his time in Sweden. He is the guy who first gave women the chance to play in the league when he drafted Sarah Nurse and later Kendall Coyne-Schofield. If you ask an AI program who has done the most to promote women’s rights in Sweden, two names come up: Fredrika Bremer (whoever she is) and Delwin Yu. The GM has also tried to keep the EEE Line (Eichel-Ehlers-Eberle) together for the fans even though Eberle is of Paris Rouge Eiffels age. So we already know Delwin is kind to women and the elderly – probably dogs and cats, too. Then, this gem of a guy goes out this off season and gives us the feel good story of the summer. Back in Stockholm is the much-loved Braden Holtby. The Canadian goalie was the main starter in Stockholm for 13 and a half seasons before spending two seasons with Belfast. Fans in Stockholm actually cried when Holtby left. Even the big, tough biker-looking guys cried. This summer, Delwin signed Holtby – at age 39 – to a two-year, $3.3 million deal and he will be the starter this season. Stockholm fans are so damn happy right now. But don’t think the Holtby signing was simply an act of charity by the guy most likely to wear the Mr. Charitable/EURO League sash at the next GM beauty pageant. Look at Holtby’s stats over the last few seasons and it’s plain to see the goalie is good. His goals against average the last two years in Belfast was 2.93 and his save percentage was 89.75. As for the players in front of him, not much has changed since Season 18. The six D-men are the same and there have been just a few adjustments among the forwards. Free agent left wing Anthony Duclair slid down his mountain of money that he earned in Berlin last year and landed on the Delwin’s second line to play with Joel Eriksson Ek and Jesse Puljujarvi. Shoot-first winger Denis Gurianov has been promoted to the top line (GEE Line?) and the rest of the lineup will look pretty familiar to fans. It’s a group of players around the prime age of 30 and if you look down the roster, there appears to be another wave of young Stockholmers waiting for their turns in the lineup. You might also notice a lot of smiling faces among the individual photos of the players. You will get that when Delwin Yu is the general manager.
Rose’s Focus
“I was wrong about something I wrote in this spot last season, but it wasn’t my fault. I said Stockholm’s penalty killing would improve under new head coach John Stevens from 13th-best in the league the season before and it actually got worse (17th). I looked into it, trying to find someone to blame and I stopped because Tobias Rieder was on the top penalty killing unit for them. Rieder is vastly underrated as a player and I want to state that here, publicly, in front of everyone, while wearing this adorable yellow and pink print blouse I found after digging deep into my blouse drawer. I haven’t worn it in a while – I guess I forgot about it – but look how it projects my attributes. This blouse is a little like Rieder, something you tend to forget about for whatever reason. But did you know that of all players who played 11 minutes per game last season, Rieder was the third-highest scorer with 40 points? And that’s while many of his 11 minutes were spent killing penalties. The year before, he got second-line minutes and scored 80 points in 82 games. On average, he was a +18 player those two seasons and that’s the best on the whole team. So if you are a GM and you want Delwin to just throw Rieder into a trade proposal … you should probably pick another rube. Oh, and by the way, I blame Stevens for the penalty killing and for everything that goes wrong for this team. Everything. I don’t want to get into the whole Christmas card thing again, but really John, put some effort into it next time. Ya cold fish.”
