GM: Peter Ott
Coach: Dan Muse
Last season: 13th overall. In playoffs, lost to Lisbon
Ins and Outs
(Season 18 to Season 19)
In: Max Shabanov (free agent), Landon Slaggert (free agent)
Out: Nail Yakupov (trade), Miro Aaltonen (free agent), Andreas Borgman (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Emil Bemstrom/Connor Bedard/Robert Thomas
Michael Rasmussen/Matteo Gennaro/Arthur Kaliyev
Klim Kostin/Phillip Schultz/Josh Doan
Noah Ostlund/Ryan Poehling/Ivan Demidov
Mikhail Sergachev/Roger Karrer
Filip Hronek/Miro Heiskanen
Dennis Cholowski/Matthew Schaefer
Andrei Vasilevskiy/Ilya Samsonov
A Question
What could hurt Prague the most? Under new coach Paul MacLean, Prague Sparta blasted 8 places up the standings in Season 18. They went from 21st in Season 17 to 13th place and made the playoffs. But then MacLean left the Czech Republic when the season ended and took up with Jason Haupt in Gothenburg. Dan Muse takes his place and as coaches go, he’s quite a different animal. MacLean was more of an offense-first coach; Muse on the other hand, is better at defensive structure and setting up penalty killing units. It will be interesting to see how Prague’s players adapt to the change. Prague is still young and the players will get better naturally, even as soon as mid-season evolution occurs. The forwards’ average age is about 26 and the defense corps’ is about 28. They aren’t old dogs, so they should be able to learn Muse’s new tricks, as the saying goes. Mika Zibanejad isn’t young and we noticed he was on the scratch squad when we looked at the tentative lineup. He only played 39 games last season. Mika might be perceived as a spare part now; an expensive $7.75 million spare part at that. Then we noticed Prague has a big, big problem with the salary cap. It appears they will have to waive or trade a high-priced player – or even buy him out – to get a lineup in under the cap. But look at the young stars this team has accumulated! Connor Bedard, Ivan Demidov and now Matthew Schaefer, just to name three. It will be up to General Manager Peter Ott to find a solution and his options are limited by the fact he can’t trade for a veteran who makes a high salary. You can see he knows that by the fact he didn’t sign any free agents this off season. Prague improved last season but with a new coach and the salary cap problem, they are going to have to find a different way to get momentum going again.
Rose’s Focus
“What’s the world record for most consonants to start a word? Did you know the Czech word for excitement is vzrušení? I’m really having trouble getting to the second syllable when I try to say it. Twice already I have had to reset my dentures. Who invented this language? Why am I trying to say ‘excitement’ in Czech, you ask? Because I can foresee I will be making a lot of appearances in Prague in the coming years just to watch that team play. There is real optimism there, but I’m not even going to look up the Czech word for optimism yet because ‘excitement’ is giving me such problems. I bet ‘optimism’ in Czech is probably something like zvzrtklaneieieieiczwz or some equally impossible word. Give me French or Italian. Now those are good languages. The French word for excitement is easy to learn. It’s excitation, which I think is very courteous of the French. The German word for it is aufregung, which – no offense to Guybrush – is kind of dumb. I’m so aufregunged? No one says that. Anyway, back to Prague … When Nail Yakupov paid me his annual off-season visit to get pierogis and advice on how to lead his life, little did either of us know General Manager Peter Ott would trade his rights away. Now he has signed with Helsinki and he said he would like another pierogi meeting to figure out the best travel route from his home in Prague to Finland. I’m going to suggest something he never thought of: moving to a home in Helsinki. I might have to say it a few times for it to sink in. And I would advise Helsinki Coach Brent Sutter not to play Nail in games against Prague. He will pass the puck to that Sparta jersey every chance he gets because that’s what he was taught to do. I know the kid. I also know that even without Yakupov in the lineup, Prague games will offer much vzrušení.
