GM: Svein Haugsmoen
Coach: Alain Vigneault
Last season: 5th overall. In playoffs, defeated Tallinn; lost to Helsinki
Ins and Outs
(Season 18 to Season 19)
In: Auston Matthews (trade), Nerius Alisauskas (free agent), Andres De La Garma (free agent), Nikita Zadorov (waivers), Alexander Nylander (free agent), Filip Chytil (free agent), Robby Fabbri (free agent), Tomas Jurco (free agent)
Out: Braden Holtby (free agent), Shane Wright (trade), Ryan Hartman (free agent), Andreas Johnson (free agent), Justin Schultz (free agent), Damon Severson (free agent), Reto Suri (free agent), Jake Dotchin (free agent), Travis Sanheim (free agent)
Potential Lineup
David Pastrnak/Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner
Michael Bunting/Nathan MacKinnon/Robby Fabbri
Henrik Haapala/Pavel Zacha/Jared McCann
Daniel Sprong/Filip Chytil/Alexander Nylander
Nerius Alisauskas/Matt Dumba
Neal Pionk/Roope Laavainen
Nikita Zadorov/Patryk Wajda
Andres De La Garma/Mackenzie Blackwood
A Question
Did the Giants just get closer to another Cup? Belfast placed 5th in the overall standings in Season 18, just like they did the season before. And like Season 17, they won a playoff series and then lost in the second round. Hanging around 5th place in the league seems like a great strategy. The next challenge for the Giants will be making it to the Conference Finals. Once they clear that hurdle, then they can worry about making it into the Cup Finals.
A few early moves this off-season by General Manager Svein Haugsmoen have the Northern Irish fans about as optimist as they can be.
May 29 (real time) was a great day for Belfast Giants fans. On that morning, the team announced it had renewed the contracts of Mitch Marner and Neal Pionk and signed David Pastrnak, 32, to a new, 3-year deal worth $8.3 million. The Czech puck wizard has had five seasons of 50 or more assists for the Giants. Last season, his point total matched his jersey number: 88.
At 9 a.m. on July 3 (real time) the commissioner interrupted the draft to tell us a trade had been made and Auston Matthews will be coming to Belfast this year to join Mitch Marner, Nathan MacKinnon and Pastrnak in the Giants lineup. Our first thought was can they fit his salary onto the payroll and stay under the cap? A quick look showed Haugsmoen could conceivably have $19 million left over to fill four forward spots. So, yes, it looked do-able. Fast forward to today and Belfast is right up against the cap but Haugsmoen’s got a lineup that includes 18 players with OV ratings of 78 or higher.
The pubs started to buzz with excitement. People got drunk twice each night instead of just once.
Then Andres De La Garma was signed. Should a goalie from Mexico cause the buzz to increase? No. Not usually. But this one should. De La Garma has four EURO Cups on his resume with Copenhagen and Helsinki and two seasons ago, he was named MVP of the playoffs.
The next bit of positive news was that coach Alain Vigneault and the team had reached an agreement that will keep the league’s top-ranked coach (tied with Brent Sutter of Helsinki, actually) in Belfast for the next three seasons.
The one thing this group might be missing is leadership. Pavel Zacha is captain and it doesn’t appear there are better choices, despite the big names. But make no mistake about it, the Giants will be gigantic in this league this season.
Rose’s Focus
“When you open the Belfast Giants lineup page on your desktop, tablet or phone screens, your eyebrows raise right away. Mine did. That’s because you are hit with the big names on the top forward lines. Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon were the first faces I saw. Then David Pastrnak’s and Mitch Marner’s. Wow. We all know Belfast will have lots of firepower up front, so I will take a closer look at the defense corps. At first blush, it’s not as impressive as the forward group, and there is no real superstar in the group. Mathew Dumba really flourished once he joined the speed skating team in Belfast. He went from 25 points with Bern the year before to 59 last season with Belfast. Nerius Alisauskas was an all-star when he was about 30 and playing in Helsinki, but his game isn’t quite what it used to be. There will be a lot of pressure on these six players and none will feel it more than a guy I like to call ‘My favorite Polish defenseman on the Belfast Giants.’ It’s a little nickname I have for Patryk Wajda. The former Stockholm blueliner has to make every shift count because there are a couple other young Giants who would love to take his place in the lineup. I have watched him play over the years and I think Wajda is an underrated asset. On the Giants team this year, he will have a few subtle but important jobs. One will be trying to keep partner Nikita Zadorov focused on playing his game. The big Russian who started his career with 7 seasons in Munich seems to have lost his way. In the next 7 seasons of his career, Zadorov changed teams 6 times. He has gone from a feared hitter to a guy who talks tough and doesn’t back it up. Wajda, on the other hand, is more like me. He prefers action over words. In his 334 career games, he has gotten into 25 fights, which is 25 more than Zadorov has in his 770 games. Neal Pionk, one of the better all-around defensemen on the Giants, has 18 career fights but with the minutes he is expected to play 5-on-5 and on special teams, he can’t be expected to be the team policeman too. That’s another task added to Wajda’s job description. Belfast will have no trouble going ‘north’ toward the other team’s goal, but someone has to disrupt the opponents when they get in front of the Giants’ net. Words alone won’t be enough but the toughness Wajda and Pionk offer could be.”
