GM: Dennis Lee
Coach: Scott Arniel
Last season: 21st overall. Did not make playoffs
Ins and Outs
(Season 18 to Season 18)
In: Jaccob Slavin (trade), Shayne Gostisbehere (free agent), Louis Crevier (draft), Max Jones (trade), Justin Hryckowian (draft),
Out: Niko Hovinen (free agent), Alexander Radulov (free agent), Nazem Kadri (retired), Jindrich Barack (free agent), Nick Leddy (free agent), Erik Andersson (free agent), Victor Olofsson (free agent), Zach Whitecloud (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Max Jones/Pierre-Luc Dubois/Val Nichushkin
Timo Meier/Luke Kunin/Kaapo Kakko
Jimmie Ericsson/Dominik Pas/Pavel Buchnevich
Sam Duggan/Pius Suter/Ryan Leonard
Robin Grossman/Shayne Gostisbhere
Jaccob Slavin/Ryan Graves
Louis Crevier/Maximilian Glotzl
Petr Mrazek/John Gibson
A Question
What needs to happen for Dublin to surge upward? The Guinness Chuggers tumbled down the standings last season from 12th to 21st place. This off season, the defensive corps really changed, at least for a while. All six starters had their Type 3 contracts expire after the season and the two best (Robin Grossman and Ryan Graves) were resigned before free agency started. In are Jaccob Slavin, Shayne Gostisbehere with draftee Louis Crevier positioned to get a starting position right away. Dublin did an interesting thing at the goalie position. John Gibson is still there and expected to get most of the starts – as he did for Dublin last season and for the previous four seasons in Zurich. But Czech Petr Mrazek – who didn’t play in the league the last two seasons – is poised to share the Guinness Chuggers net with Gibson. Mrazek’s lifetime goals against average of 3.24 with Copenhagen, Athens and Kosice was impressive enough to give General Manager Dennis Lee the notion he’s the man for the job this year. Up front, Lee has big plans. And by that, we mean big, physical players getting lots of ice time and hammering opponents into the boards. Max Jones was brought onto the team and if he plays on the left wing on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Val Nichushkin, opposing defensemen are going to tire quicker than usual and be pretty sore after games. The best thing Dublin’s big three and the rest of the forwards in Dublin can do this season is be more careful with the puck. Last season, the forwards had 110 more giveaways than takeaways.
Rose’s Focus
“Finally, someone else now knows what it feels like be the one who does all the work around the office. Pierre-Luc Dubois would have received the first annual Rose-like Contribution Trophy if the league’s geniuses would have had the forethought to create such an inspiring honor. Dubois scored 76 points in 82 games for the Guinness Chuggers last year and the next-highest contributors had just 47, 45 and 43 points. He fired off 270 shots on goal, which was more than 100 shots over what the Dublin player with the second-most shots had. He also had more than twice the number of takeaways than the next best teammate in that category. Talk about one guy carrying a team. I know I have the stamina/will power/whatever you want to call it to continue doing the lion’s share of work in the league office, but Dubois doesn’t have my genetics and he is going to need a little help the others wearing black and sometimes green. “
