2021/22
NHL Draft #1: F Brennan
Othmann (CAN/SUI) joins the Montreal Canadiens. Last year's #1 Lafrenière made the all-rookie team and is a solid 2nd liner already.
July: We sign Lithuanian goalie Mantis
Armalis, who projects to be 2nd best in the league, for just $170,000 to a one-year deal. With that shored up on day 1, that frees us up to sign some skaters. First, LW Simon
Önerud joins from HV71; he promises to put up good points if he can stay on the ice (he missed most of last season with a knee fracture). RW Sakari
Salminen, who left the club to try free agency, also comes back on a 2-year deal, and I also pick up some other Finns: LW Eemeli
Suomi, who was Ilves' best player by stars last year, and from the NHL I manage to lure over C Kalle
Kossila, who played the whole of last season with the disappointing Coyotes after being traded from Toronto.
Shortly afterwards, winger Anton
Wedin signs - a steal 2.5* player at 125k. All in all, our roster is ranked as the league's strongest, which you'd almost expect after almost doubling the payroll and adding 20* in value. Skellefteå also mean business, as they sign NHL regular F Brandon
Pirri to a 3-year deal, and Luleå pick up G Marek
Langhamer from the KHL. Meanwhile Djurgården pick up Zach
Smith from Chicago, meaning they'll probably be the strongest team once they secure a second goalie.
Former Ilves player Matias
Maccelli signs with Arizona and is sent to the AHL, where he'll be the star goalscorer for Tucson. At least he's destined for better things than Liiga.
August: 1-0-0. Blockbuster trade in the NHL, the struggling Senators pick up LW Jamie
Benn for D Thomas
Chabot. The Sens also pick up Henrik
Borgström, whose development has stalled a little, from the Panthers. China give C Cory
Kane citizenship ahead of the Olympics, strengthening their team - maybe they can pick up an OTL somewhere. We've fallen to 4th in the positional rankings now, and with the backs looking a little thin we sign AHLer Calle
Rosén to a pretty expensive but hopefully worth it 3-year deal. Preseason is pretty horrible, but we round it out with a 6-1 win over Rögle to suggest the team is heading in the right direction. I accidentally thought the last game of August was also preseason, but no, it counted for points, and we pick up three points by thrashing Frölunda 6-1.
The Örebro squad. The top eight players are all new signings, pretty good free agency work IMO.