GM: Martin Sayle
Coach: Ken Hitchcock
Last season: 2nd overall. In playoffs, defeated Edinburgh; lost to Paris
Ins and Outs
(Season 18 to Season 19)
In: Matt Duchene (trade), Ryan O’Reilly (trade), Shane Wright (trade), Cedric Paquette (free agent), Kristaps Zile (trade), Zach Whitecloud (free agent), Erik Brannstrom (free agent), Sam Malinski (free agent)
Out: Auston Matthews (trade), Erik Forssell (free agent), Brandon Carlo (free agent), Tyler Ennis (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Alex Debrincat/Matt Duchene/Marko Dano
Boone Jenner/Anton Lundell/Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Nils Höglander/Shane Wright/Joakim Hillding
Philipp Kurashev/Michael McLeod/Ridley Greig
Jacob Trouba/K’Andre Miller
Nikita Voles/Alexander Weiss
Zach Whitecloud/Erik Brannstrom
Matt Murray/Devon Levi
A Question
Can they get over that hump? The hump to which we are referring is the second round of the playoffs. The Tridents stumbled in that round last season and fell to Paris. A year before, Helsinki eliminated them in the same round. Three seasons ago, Copenhagen made it to the third round, so they are going in the wrong direction and that’s a pattern General Manager Martin Sayle seemed ambivalent to at first. He was preoccupied … more concerned with a nasty bit of business called the league salary cap. But early on draft day, the league experienced bombshell announcement that Sayle had traded the face of the franchise – Auston Matthews – to Belfast in exchange for talented but young Shane Wright and a pick that they used to draft defenseman Ryan Lin. The 22-year-old Wright possesses speed and skill and in two brief stints with Belfast over the last two seasons, he’s come up with 15 points in just 13 games. He looks like he could be a third-line center for the Tridents this season and an all-star candidate a few years from now. The task of replicating Matthews’ production seems like an impossibility. Copenhagen added aging Matt Duchene in a trade but at 38, he has lost a few steps and gotten more fragile. He is one of just three new forwards and two defensemen in the Tridents’ lineup this season. But for sure, two of the changes are downgrades. How can you replace Matthews, a guy whose lowest goal production in his 11 seasons is 32 goals? That’s his down-year production! His best output was 53 goals in the midst of six straight seasons of 100 points or more. And with Wright taking Erik Forssell’s place on the third line, the Tridents lose a little in faceoff ability, a bit more in defensive ability, and a lot in charm and public relations. On defense, the loss of Brandon Carlo really hurts. He was +57 last year. So even though most of the names on the Copenhagen roster that finished first in the tough Northern Conference are the same as last year, there is some reason for the slightest bit of concern among fans in Denmark.
Rose’s Focus
“Marty – that’s what I call Martin Sayle, who is the Copenhagen Tridents’ GM – took me to Taco Bell for a nice dinner and we had a lovely evening. But he refused to open up about his plans for the team. I understand that his team is important to him and I suspect he has a hockey league secretary/treasurer in every port, so I wasn’t insulted. I guess I need to show a little more leg if I want to win his trust. The funny thing is I really trust Marty. He will put together a solid team just like he always does, even though names like Aitken, Matthews, Korpisalo, Carlo and Forssell (sorry about the poisoned cookies, Erik) are gone. The Tridents’ second and third lines have always been their secret weapons. Now, the second line is every bit as good as the first line. So is the second line the first line and the first line the second line? Are they both the first-and-a-half lines? Marty wouldn’t say. But come All-Star voting time, you could see Marko Dano and J-G Pageau fighting each other right wing votes and Anton Lundell ahead of Matt Duchene in the center position voting. It’s not a problem, just a weird thing. Many will think something’s fishy in the state of Denmark, but I’ll know that was the plan all along. They might also wonder why this team has 15 defensemen. I haven’t figured that one out yet, but I bet there’s a patented Marty reason. And look for youngster Shane Wright to erase all the questions and have a really nice year. Copenhagen forwards seem to do that. For me, the key to the season will be goalie Matt Murray. He’s still in his peak years and did you know that when he moved from Oslo to Copenhagen in a trade last off season, his goals against average went from 2.71 to 2.12 and his save percentage went from 90.6 to 91.9? The man was dialed in. So it looks like even though Marty kind of refused to share his thoughts with me, I was still able to figure out that the Tridents will be in the Cup hunt yet again. Yea me.”
