Introducing The Seattle Metropolitans

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This blog will start around halfway into the season. I was considering starting it earlier but didn't.

I started the 2016-2017 season as the newly formed Seattle Metropolitans. In a spectacularly ugly fashion, the poor Coyotes and matching Roadrunners organizations went defunct and all current contracts and rights of the teams were reneged (I basically sent all of the current players on both teams as free agents in the database editor and released all players rights).

In order to fill the voids left by the mission organizations, the NHL expanded its reach to the pacific northwest city of Seattle, Washington. The new team would be named the Metropolitans, in honor of the first American hockey team to technically win Lord Stanley's cup. Their AHL team would be located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (to match with the slick Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers logo I found online).

Players (excluding ex-Coyotes and ex-Roadrunners) and coaches were brought in from free agency to form both teams. I do not coach games personally, so I have tried to assemble the best coaching staff I can as well.

Now 52 games into the season, the Seattle Metropolitans are on pace for one of the worst NHL seasons in record. Despite a 4-4-2 record in their first 10 games (surprisingly not last in the Western Conference), the Metropolitans are now 10-36-6. The next closest team are the Ottawa Senators, who are 17-30-7. Frustratingly, many of the team's losses are one-goal close games. Team morale is at an all-time low, and only makes players play worse. Of particular note is the recent poor performance of the team's goalies.

Anders Lindback (who started the season well) has been pulled three times in his last ten games. Karri Ramo had a rough December and January, but has seemed to recover so far in February.

Jiri Tlusty leads the team in points, with 24 points in 49 games. Former Sharks first round pick Steve Bernier leads the team in average rating and +/- somehow averaging a 7.28 (0.35 higher than the next best player in that category, Chris Higgins with a 6.93) and an even +/-. He is second in the team in points with 21 in 43 games, and is tied with Tlusty with the team lead for goals with 10. Michael Raffl, a waiver acquisition, started strongly with the team, but has put up only 2 points in his last 15 games. He is third in the team in points with 20 in 52. Bottoming out the +/- losers is our top pairing defenseman James Wisniewski with -28. His partner in crime, Christian Ehrhoff is only a -16. Leading the team in penalty minutes is Brad Richardson (yes, he's an ex-coyotes player but I picked him up on waivers) with 56, and would be last on the team in terms of average rating with a 6.06 if you didn't count Jacob Markstrom. Markstrom, another waiver acquisition, is 5.67 throughout three games. I'll continue to let the three goalies duke it out up until the trade deadline, at which point I will most likely unload one of them for draft picks.

Speaking of the trade deadline, I will most likely fire-sale as many of the players as I can (making sure to stay above the salary floor). Ehrhoff will most likely leave the team, as will one of the goalies and potentially Steve Bernier. I have a big list going of who I want to draft, so I want to stock up on as many picks as I can. I am very tempted to trade away my high draft pick in return for a large amount of picks in the draft in order to build up my prospect pool.

On the upside, their AHL team is sixth in the Atlantic Division, just shy of a wildcard spot. The team was in fifth, vying for fourth place after a strong December and January, but have recently slumped, winning only two games in their last 10.

Cody Ferriero is 4th in AHL scoring with 46 points in 44 games and leads the league in +/- at +21, while Peter Trainor is sixth in AHL scoring with 45 points in 46 games, and is fourth in the league for +/- at +18.

Metropolitans roster/statistics:

Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers roster/statistics:

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Trade Deadline Moves

Seattle was a busy seller at this year's trade deadline, selling four players all in return for draft picks.

The first trade involved selling top defenseman James Wisniewski to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the Penguin's third and sixth round picks in the 2017 NHL entry draft. Wisniewski has since played bottom-pairing minutes with Brian Dumoulin, and is absent from the Penguin's powerplay. He has only two assists in 15 games, and is a minus 4. With Seattle, he registered 3 goals, 14 assists, and was a -30 in 57 games.

The second trade sent starting Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers goaltender Leland Irving to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Columbus's 2nd round pick in 2017. We had recently claimed Jacob Markstrom off waivers. With Markstrom playing as a better backup than Anders Lindback, Lindback could be waived and sent down to SSM to replace Irving. Irving was sent down by Columbus and has put up a 2.64 GAA and a 0.893 SV% in the three games he has played. With SSM, he put up a 2.66 GAA and a 0.899 SV% in 41 games.

The third trade sent our other top pairing defenseman Christian Ehrhoff to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for the Jet's 3rd, 6th, 7th round picks, as well as the Maple Leaf's 5th round pick. Ehrhoff has 5 assists in 12 games for the Jets, and is currently playing on the top unit with Dustin Byfuglien in both even strength situations, power plays, and penalty kills.

Finally, Michael Raffl was sent to the Calgary Flames in return for the Flame's 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th round picks in this year's draft. While I might have been able to squeeze a third from Calgary (it was also in their initial offer), I like hoarding later round draft picks and have plenty of targets in mind for the draft. Thinking back, I probably should have traded for some later draft picks in the upcoming drafts too, not just this year. Raffl only has 3 points (1G, 2A) in 12 games with the Flames, and is playing on the second line of the injury-ridden Flames (Shinkaruk, Tkatchuk, and Backlund are all on IR).

At the end of the day, the current draft picks for the Metropolitans looks like this:

1st - Seattle
2nd - Columbus
2nd - Seattle
3rd - Winnipeg
3rd - Pittsburgh
3rd - Seattle
4th - Calgary
4th - Seattle
5th - Calgary
5th - Toronto
5th - Seattle
6th - Winnipeg
6th - Calgary
6th - Pittsburgh
6th - Seattle
7th - Winnipeg
7th - Calgary
7th - Winnipeg

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The 2016-2017 Season in Review
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First some news:

The Seattle Metropolitans have announced. All current staff members have been resigned with the exclusion of scouts Jim Hammett, Nick Polano, and Jeff Twohey, who were all released in mid-march. The coaching staff for the 2017-2018 season is expected to be: Bob Hartley as the head coach, Guy Boucher as assistant coaches John MacLean, Mike Kadar as the conditioning and skating coach, and Clint Malarchuk as the goaltending coach.

Tomas Fleischmann is the only regular Metropolitans player to be returning for the 2017-2018 season. He has signed a two-year, $3.5 million deal. Olli Jokinen has set his sights on retiring, after finishing the 2016-2017 with the Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers. Voyagers players under contract with the Seattle Metropoltans Danny Biega, Julien Brouillette, T.J. Foster, and Anders Lindback have either chosen not to resign or have not been offered contract renewals. Raman Hrabarenka and Cody Ferreiro have both been re-signed, and will stay under contract until 2018. Voyagers players under contract with the AHL team Cole Bardreau, Andrew Fritsch, Hunter Garlent, Cody McNaughton, Blake Pietitla, and Andrew Rowe are also unsigned for the 2017-2018 season. Finally, Indy Fuel player Anthony Beauregard who put up 75 points in 69 games has been offered a contract by the Seattle Metropolitans and is expected to report to the Voyagers for the upcoming season.
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So, as the 2017 NHL draft approaches, it's time to review the 2016-2017 season:

First, the Metropolitans players stats at the end of the season:


And the Voyagers stats:


Highs: Several players had decent seasons. Jiri Tlusty came close to tying his season record for points and set a new personal record for most assists in a season, granted his previous records were set with less games played. Brad Stuart had his best season since the 2006-2007 season with the Bruins. He scored 6 goals and had 20 assists for a total of 26 points. His attributes in game really aren't that bad and I was considering trying to re-sign him for one more year. He was fuorth in the league in shots blocked with 172, just behind Zdeno Chara with 173, Francois Beachemin with 180, and Erik Karlsson with 190. Brad Boyes and Steve Bernier both had decent seasons, contuing their point paces from previous years. Finally, the relative success of the Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers is decent sign. Cody Ferreiro was definitely the team MVP, and is a great example of a player moving up the ranks in the league after being unsigned by his draft team and moving from the NCAA to the ECHL and finally to the AHL, putting up major points in each league.
Lows: The lows of the season are easily the performance of our centers. Not one put up a higher average rating than a 6.37, and were four out of the five lowest rated players on the team. Jiri Novotny, brought in and expected to be out number one center had several streaks of at least five games of a four or five rating. Our goalie performance was also nothing to note, although no goalie will play well when he's on the team who let in the most shots on goal, by more than 300.
In the rest of the league, the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup over the Edmonton Oilers in six games (who would have guessed).
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Finally, a quick report on the ex-Coyotes players playing around the world:

Oliver Ekman-Larsson was signed by the Edmonton Oilers and spearheaded their blueline with 49 points in 82 games with a cumulative 7.4 rating. Anthony Duclair also went to the Oilers and put up 62 points in 82 games.

Max Domi went to the Toronto Maple Leafs and put up 28 points (and a 7.73 rating) in 26 games before breaking his leg and being take out of action for five months. In game it reports he broke his thigh, which I assume means he broke his femur. Ouch. Radim Vrbata was also signed by Toronto and had 37 points in 82 games.

Jakob Chychrun went to Florida and put up 15 points in 72 games with a 6.93 rating.

Tobias Reider was signed by Carolina and put up a 44 point, 76 game season.

Mike Smith, Louis Domingue, and Martin Hanzal all went to Europe. Mike Smith played in the Finnish Liiga and had a decent season for Ilves. Louis Domingue went to Barys Astana in the KHL and also had a decent season. Martin Hanzal played for Dinamo Riga and had 36 points in 58 games and had a 7.79 average rating.

Finally, Nick Merkely, Clayton Keller, Christian Fischer were not signed this season and still are free agents.
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That's all for now! See you next time for the draft day post!

[colinrsmall]

NHL Entry Draft 2017 Special
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First some news:

Undrafted player Kameron Kielly, who was signed by the Seattle Metropolitans at the very beginning of the season, has returned from his loan back to the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL. Kielly put up 47 points in his fourth year in the Q. I'm not quite sure why he wasn't draft eligible, but I won't complain about a free prospect. In addition, a similar undrafted player Kord Pankewicz returned from his loan to the Lethbridge Hurricanes where he played with fellow Metropolitans prospect Tyler Wong (who is currently bugged and has been playing for both Lethbridge and Sault Ste. Marie simultaneously). Pankewicz, a playmaking defenseman, put up 47 points in 53 games.

Cody Ferriero of the Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers won the AHL's John B. Sollenberger trophy for the most points at the end of the regular season, with 76 in 74 games, and was named to the AHL's Rookie All-Star Team for the 2016/17 season after being snubbed from the regular season's All Star Game (none of my AHL players were named to the All Star Game). Ferriero also played in his first NHL game this year and scored his first goal in his first game.
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Unfortunately, we lost out big time in the draft lottery. Vancouver won the lottery, who are followed up the Senators, then Nashville, then Seattle. Vancouver owns Nashville's first round pick, and thus have both the fourth overall pick and the third.

Nolan Patrick was the first overall pick, with Ellias Pettersson going second overall to the Ottawa Senators. Gabe Vilardi was taken third, who also goes to the Vancouver Canucks and should develop well playing with Nolan Patrick. This leads us to our pick:

First Round - 4th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select left/right winger Kristian Vesalainen from Frolunda J20 of the Swedish J20 SuperElit league. This was a tough pick, as I was almost certain I would have been placed in the top three for the draft lottery. I really wanted to draft a center prospect. I was looking at picking up Eric St. Jean or Michael Rasmussen, both 5 star center prospects ranked in the top 10. The big questions will be what to do with Vesalainen for this upcoming season. I don't want to hurt his growth by playig him the NHL with poor teammates. He was drafted by the Flint Firebirds in the CHL import draft, so I will most likely let him play a year for them and get situated to North America.

Second Round - 31st Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select left defenseman Dmitri Samorukov from the Guelph Storm of the OHL. As a pointman, Samorukov should be able to spearhead our blueline in a few years. With good determinations and workrate, I suspect he'll be ready for the NHL in a few years. He contributed 13 goals and 17 assists in 64 games for the Guelph Storm.

Second Round - 46th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select goalie Olle Eriksson Ek from the Fjarestad J20 team of the J20 SuperElit. Olle, Joel Eriksson Ek's younger brother, should take a few years to develop, but will hopefully become our starting goaltender.

Third Round - 61st Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select center/right wing Scott Reedy from the U.S.N.D.T. of the USHL. Reedy is projected to develop into a defensive second liner, but will also take several more years to develop into an NHL ready player.

Third Round - 86th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select left wing David Sherman from the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL. Sherman was originally ranked 138th overall, so was a bit of reach by the Metropolitans. However, he was consistantly rated as a five star prospect by my scouts, even after extensive scouting. He is a big-bodied playmaking forward with creativity, anticipation, and speed.

Third Round - 89th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select center/left winger Brandon Saigeon from the Flint Firebirds of the OHL. Saigeon was originally ranked 31st overall, but for whatever reason fell down to pick 89 to us. We needed a strong center core to make up the team, and hopefully Saigeon should develop well. There is some concern over his potential, as he was only scouted twice by five scouts, but was rated as a five-star prospect by all, both times.

Fourth Round - 91st Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select right defenseman Trevor Young from the Islanders of the USPHL. Trevor young is another big reach for Seattle, after originally being ranked 167th in the final NHL entry draft rating. Young, an offensive defenseman, was consistantly rated as a five-star prospect by my scouts, and draws comparisons to Ryan Suter.

Fourth Round - 100th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select left wing Ilpo Pentikainen from the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL.

Fourth Round - 121st Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select defenseman Markus Engblom from IF Vellentuna BK of the Swedish First Division.

Fifth Round - 130th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select right winger Andrei Grishakov from the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL.

Fifth Round - 142nd Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select center Stephane Ward from the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL. Ward is an undersized prospect at only 5'9" 163 lbs, and fell to 142nd overall after being ranked 123rd for the entry draft. Ward was scouted as a five-star prospect by three of the five scouts who watched him, and has very strong mental and skating attributes currently.

Sixth Round - 151st Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select goalie Jake Oettinger from the USNDT of the USHL. Oettinger's ratings fluctuated between five stars and three stars almost every other scouting report. He will either develop into our star goalie, or should be a strong backup. He will be moving to the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and will play alongside fellow Seattle prospect Trevor Young.

Sixth Round - 160th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select left wing Kyle MacLean from the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL.

Sixth Round - 176th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select goalie Denis Godla from HC '05 Banska Bystrica of the Slovakian Tipsport Liga. Godla was on my shortlist for a long time, since spotting him when looking at the top performing goalies in the world. An older player at 22, Godla currently has very strong attributes and can step in immediately for our AHL team. Godla put up a 1.92 GAA and 0.931 SV% in the regular season, and a 1.42 GAA and 0.947 SV% in the playofffs.

Sixth Round - 179th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select center Patrick Khodorenko from the USNDT of the USHL.

Seventh Round - 181st Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select left wing Vladimir Tkachev from Admiral Vladivostok of the KHL. Tkachev is an older prospect who was looked over in last year's draft. He plays a very, very offense-first minded game, with unfortunately poor defensive attributes. He is also undersized at only 5'9" 154 lbs. This is a low-risk, medium reward pick. Worst case scenario, he will stay in Russia for his entire career. Best case, he comes over to our NHL (or AHL) team once his contract expires in 2018 and lead our offense and powerplay with his already very strong offensive attributes.

Seventh Round - 190th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select defenseman Tom Torma from Orebro HK J20 of the J20 SuperElit league. Torma put up 47 points in 40 games for Orebro's J20 team. He is an offensive defenseman with decent current stats and very good skating attributes. His scouting reports are all over the place, four of the six scouts who watched him currently say he's a two-star prospect, while one more says he is a four-star, and the last saying he is a five-star. Earlier reports said he was a consensus five-star prospect.

Seventh Round - 206th Overall - the Seattle Metropolitans select center Timotee Calamoneri from the Shawinigan Cararactes of the QMJHL. Calamoneri was at one point a consensus five-star prospect, but is currently a consensus three star prospect. He is billed as a defensive prospect, but lacks strong mental stats which is a point of worry. I don't have much expectations for Calamoneri as a last pick.

[colinrsmall]

The 2017-2018 Season
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Time to introduce your 2017-2018 Seattle Metropolitans! The team has been revamped with the available free agents, seeing as many of my previous players left in the off season. No worries though, this team is much better than the one last year. I've actually simmed about a quarter of the way into the season. The biggest change now is that I have taken over coaching control of the team. The team is 7-12-3 so far, but I've had a lot of fun coaching the team.

The lines are the lines I have used for the majority of the season, with a few recent tweaks:

Kris Versteeg - Mikhail Grigorenko - Drew Stafford
Wojtek Wolski - David Desharnais - Johan Larsson
Marcus Foligno - Radek Faksa - Patrik Berglund
Marcus Sorensen - Sam Gagner - Lauri Korpikoski

Brian Campbell - Alexey Marchenko
Alex Petrovic - Matt Gilroy
Dennis Wideman - Mark Pysyk

Ben Scrivens/Jonathan Bernier splitting the starts

Metropolitans stas:
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Some notes:

When signed, Desharnais was intended to be our #1 center, but soon after coming to the team, Grigorenko easily solidified his spot on the top line. Versteeg started out strong, but has since dropped to only five points (3G, 2A) in his past 10 games, while Grigorenko has continued in fine form with 12 points in his last 10 games (4G, 8A). He leads the team with 22 points in 22 games. Stafford has had a rough start to the season, and only has 10 points in 21 games so far (7 of which are in the past 10 games, but has 3 two point games spread out among the 10 games). He only has 4 goals despite being second on the team in SOG with 43.

Our defense has been a bit troublesome. I originally played Matt Gilroy alongside Brian Campbell, but has since mixed up the defense corps since going 2-7-1 in our last 10 games. Our penalty kill has also really struggled, but I am attempting to acquire defenseman Brandon Davidson from the Montreal Canadiens after he was placed on the trading block.

Now, I really didn't want to cheese this game to give myself a bit of a challenge, but..... for whatever reason, the Blue Jackets decided to release Pierre-Luc Dubois' rights. I wasn't even aware of this until his agent offered his services to my team. I quickly signed him as a cheap prospect, but I don't have super high hopes for him. In addition, Logan Brown was placed on the trading block by the Ottawa Senators, and I quickly acquired him in return for our 2018 4th round pick, 2018 5th round pick, and 2017 fifth-round selection Markus Engblom whose scouting reports have gone from 5 star to 1 star for whatever reason. Both Brown and Dubois were returned to their junior teams. No other trades have been made, yet.
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The Sault Ste. Marie Voyagers

The Voyagers have started off the 2017-2018 season extremely well, and are second in their division with a record of 14-4-1. We have four players in the top 20 for goal scoring, including Marco Roy in 1st (13G in 19 games), Louick Marcotte in 4th (12G in 19 games), Tyler Wong in 12th (who is stilled bugged and is playing for both SSM and Lethbridge, 10G in 19 games), and Anthony Beauregard in 16th (9G in 19 games). Marco Roy is also 2nd in the AHL in points (26). Nine of our players are in the top 20 for +/-. Kristian Vesalainen is only getting second line minutes, but I'm not too concerned over his development. Center prospect Kameron Kielly leads the team in average rating, but sprained his MCL 13 games into the season (which is unfortunately right when David Desharnais was injured, and Kielly would have made a great short term replacement). I am very pleased with his development and should turn into a strong player for our team. Denis Godla and Devin Williams have been splitting starts, but I'd prefer if Godla started the majority for his development. He played a few games in relief for our NHL team, but was only okay and was soon returned to the AHL.

Voyagers stats:

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We Have A Trade To Announce!

The Seattle Metropolitans have sent defenseman Colby Robak to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for defenseman Brandon Davidson. This will hopefully address some of our issues with our penalty kill and defensive ability in general. Robak had only played 7 games for the Metropolitans. Robak has since played only 4 games for the Canadiens, and has put up no points.

[colinrsmall]

2017-2018 Season Recap
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Apologies for the long delay! As the league prepares for the 2018 NHL entry draft, I thought I'd take some time to go over the Metropolitan's second season in the NHL.

2017-2018 Metropolitans Stats:


2017-2018 Voyagers Stats:


Highs of the season:
• The start of the season: The team started off the 2017-2018 season with a promising 7-6-2 record. Mikhail Grigorenko showed he was well deserving of the #1 center role on the team, placing in the top 10 scorers in the NHL for the beginning of the season. Grigorenko clicked on a line Kris Versteeg, who also had a very strong start to the season. Both players (and the whole team for that matter) really slowed down production by the half-way point in the season. After starting as close to PPG players, Grigorenko ended up going 0.66 PPG while Versteeg went 0.56. Grigorenko ended the season as the team leader in G, A, and P.
• Denis Godla: Out 2017 sixth round pick, Denis Godla quickly took over the #1 goalie spot for the team. With both Ben Scrivens and Godla were playing well, Jonathan Bernier was traded at the deadline to the Colorado Avalanche in return for Chris Bigras. I might have been able to get a better return for Bernier, but he was signed on contract until 2023, so I wanted to dump him while I still could. Godla is only 21. I'm not sure how he'll develop, but if I pick up a better starting goalie for next season, Godla will play as a strong backup.
• The SSM Voyagers: The Voyagers dominated their division in the 2017-2018 season, being first place in the division for the majority of (if not the entirety of) the season. They ran into a stacked Utica Comets team in the Calder Cup playoffs, and lost the series 4 games to 1. Louick Marcotte lead the team with 81 points in 68 games. I don't expect him to develop past being an AHLer, but he should be able to help the AHL team succeed in future seasons. Kameron Kielly played great in his first season out of Juniors, putting up 70 points in 59 games. He made his NHL debut this season as well, playing in 12 games for the Metropolitans on the third line when we got hit with the injury bug.

Lows of the season:
• The Metropolitans' performance past the first quarter of the season: Going into the quarter-mark of the season, I had high hopes that the Metropolitans would be at least somewhat competitive in the league. However, they quickly slowed down. Grigorenko, Versteeg, and our other top-six forwards struggled to put up points, and the team downright sucked for the remainder of the season. I couldn't find a working tactic for the team, and apparently neither did Bob Hartley (after letting him take over control of the games). He played with weird line combinations, so I switched to only controlling the lines and letting Hartley take over tactics. I might try controlling the entire team again next season.
• The contract situation: While the team has plenty of cap space, we currently only have three players whose contracts expire in 2018, meaning we won't have space to be players in free agency unless we trade away several players. We currently have 12 players signed through the 2022 season. While this includes several strong contracts such as Mikhail Grigorenko on a 3.27m AAV contract, it also includes players such as Sam Gagner, Drew Stafford, and Kris Versteeg who will all age and undoubtedly slow down considerably. I will most likely try trading as many of these players at the deadline as I can, but I don't want to disrupt the team structure too much. Gagner, Stafford, and Versteeg will all likely be traded though.