Off-season changes

After storming to the King's Cup the Grand Master Supremo kept changes on the pro team to a minimum. Dan Bylsma was given a new contract that will pay him $3.5m per season. Sergei Kostitsyn was signed to a 5 year contract that will pay him $2.6m a year, identical to his brother. That was until Andrei was shipped out. The elder Kostitsyn had battled with Matt Moulson for the third line right wing position last season but neither won the battle. Both were shipped out as part of a reshaping of the farm team. Enver Lisin, joining for his third spell at the club, is expected to fill the void.

The reshaping, part of Buff's plan to challenge the Baby Beefs and Roses for the Nandos conference title, included bringing in four new prospects of significance. PK Harvey joins the blue-line challenging Mark Pysk's status as the #1 dman for the Pirates after the promotion of Lace Pitlick and Bart Crashley to Chatham. Three forwards, Jesus Christie, Theo Fluery and Mario Lucia will round out the top six with Jeff Jopter and superstars Fosberg and Huberdeau. The biggest change however was a change in coach. Andy Murray was relieved of his duties after securing a play-off berth in 5 of his 6 seasons but never moving beyond the first round. His replacement is the renowned player developer Sergei Zubov, formerly of arch-rivals the Beefs, who will be paid a handsome $4m a season, more than any other farm coach.

Expectations remain high at the club. It is well documented that repeating victory at the pro level is nigh on impossible and considering Chatham have not strengthened their roster most pundits would expect that trend to continue. Indeed the fact that the Cherrypickers now have a management, the Rex have strengthened considerably and the Beefs are always tough opposition means the Victory will have their work cut out just to return to the play-offs. The Pirates will hope that the off-season efforts will translate into a first post-season series win, though management have reportedly let Sergei know that he has 2 years to achieve this.

A summary of the off-season changes

Out
F Matt Moulson
F Andrei Kostitsyn
D Logan Wolverine
F Alex Frylev
F Raymond Dangcow
F Saku Koivu (retired)
Andy Murray (coach)

In
F Enver Lisin
D PK Harvey
F Jesus Christie
F Theo Fluery
F Mario Lucia
F Ty Rattie (prospect)
Sergei Zubov (coach)