The Beefs off season

After back to back playoff runs that ended in the conference finals, both times being defeated by the eventual champs, the Beefs needed maybe a few changes. With little cap room there was always going to be some changes needed and that kicked off with the retirement of Andrei Markov. Mid season the Beefs re-acquired Duncan Keith with a mind to the possibility that Markov could retire and this turned out to be an important move. While the loss of Markov will hurt the blue line in the short term, it does allow some cap relief to re-sign Nugent-Hopkins who had a fantastic rookie season.

One move not many people expected was for the Beefs to move their leading goal and point scorer in Loui Eriksson. Since coming to the Beefs, Eriksson has been nothing short of spectacular, leading the Beefs revival into a playoff team. But with players like Stanley Cupp, Jeff Skinner and Austin Watson banging on the door of the pros a decision had to be made. The Beefs decided the best return would come from trading Eriksson as opposed to Heatley or Hossa and just hours before the draft a deal was struck between the Beefs and Buttercups.

In return the Beefs picked up a young superstar in the making in Alex Khokhlachev and the Buttercups 6th overall pick which they used to select Alex Bunistrev. The two are likely to line up alongside each other this season for the Baby Beefs. Also in the trade was the Beefs 3rd round pick going to the Buttercups while the Buttercups send their year 8, 2nd round pick to the Beefs.

The move suggests that Stanley Cupp will finally get his shot with the pro team. He had a taster last season but now looks to follow Oscar Moller and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in forwards who have made the jump.

With the trade the Beefs managed to free up a little more cap space and also get a bit younger while opening spots in the farm for the next wave of future talent.

There is still much work to be done with a number of players needing extensions however management has already confirmed that the team will be saying good bye to Miikka Kiprusoff, Tom Preissing and Petr Straka.

The Beefs have now completed their off season moves with another blockbuster trade. Saying goodbye to Stevenage is David Krejci as he heads to Boston in exchange for Tyler Seguin, Colby Armstrong and a 2nd round pick in year 8.

In one single off season the Beefs have completely changed their look trading away 2 of the teams top scorers. The Eriksson trade was a necessary trade given the cap and young guys knocking on the door but the Krejci trade wasn't something the team went looking for. What they got however was a young superstar in the making as well as an improvement to the depth on the wing. GM Homer hopes this makes the team a better team top to bottom this season while also ensuring the future is extremely bright for the Beefs.

Going forward the Beefs top 6 includes just 2 players over the age of 26 and with ready to go replacements in the farm already the team does not have to worry about what the future may hold.

The Beefs also signed young goalie Yutaka Fukufuji to a 3 year contract giving the team 3 promising young goalies.

The other change made was the signing of John Tortorella to coach the Baby Beefs and hopefully bring them the Princes Cup for the first time. GM Homer would not comment on speculation the change was forced by an admin error that saw former coach Sergei Zubov walk.