Victory off-season and new season

A new team of sorts will take to the ice in the Amour division in this upcoming season. Whilst the Victory franchise remains, it is one that in all but name is very different to last seasons incarnation.

Seventeen players will don the Victory and Pirate jersey for the first time this season in taking up their places all across the rosters. Here we go through some of the changes that have been made in the offseason.


The pro team attack will be lead by an entirely new top line. Nathan Horton, Jason Spezza and Daniel Sedin in addition to once again crowd pleaser Bobby Ryan were all brought in on blockbuster trades which saw a raft of players shown the door including Martin St Louis, Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Plekanec, Nikolai Zherdev, Craig Anderson and Kris Versteeg. It is hoped that these changes will help the Victory find the twine more often with a greater emphasis on putting the puck on net and finishing off the rebounds rather than attempting to endlessly recycle the puck.

The bottom six forwards saw some changes too. Arron Voros was deemed to be too reckless and thus a liability to the team- his place on the checking line has been taken by new acquisition Scott Hartnell, signed to a bargain deal from free agency. Hartnell is expected to bring a touch more hockey nouce to the role to compliment what looks like an impressive shut-down line of Gaustard and Tarnasky.

It was felt that the bottom six was no place for a talented rookie to learn his trade and so Chatham sought some veteran experience to the roster with the signings of Mike Modano and Doug Weight. Some eyebrows were raised about the contracts they singed with many commentators expressing concern they were for too long and too much. But with no cap worries GM Buffon decided that he had to pick up the best of what was left in a vey slim free agency pool. The wing of this line is still up for grabs but insiders report that Joey Crabb is the current favourite to make his mark in the big time.

Defensively not much has changed on the pro team except the key acquisition of Rob Scuderi. The veteran blueliner brings the calm stable defensive mindset needed by a talented but often inconsistent defensive core. His talents will nicely compliment Dennis Seidenberg on the top line to form a rather menacing shut-down pairing. One noticeable absentee is the young Jack Johnson who has been sent down to the Portsmouth Pirates to give him more playing time. In his place, as partner to Toni Lydman on the third pair, is Kevin Klein, selected for his offensive upside to add an extra punch to the second power play unit on the point.

In goal the departure of Craig Anderson gives Andrej Pavelec the chance to shine. This promising youngster will battle it out will the able Jason Lebarbera in pre-season but it is expected that the majority of starts to begin with will be split.


Down at the Pirates there has equally been a large number of moves and acquisitions. Frans Nielson, traded for Kamil Kreps, will see a new role as centre of the top line rather than wasting away in the lower six of the pros. He will be flanked by the beastly Lisin acquired from the Stevenage Beefs and Chatham Victory’s highest entry draft selection Brett Connolly who will be given every chance to show the league what he can do.

Lower down the order Joey Hishon and Brett Bulmer will be given minutes to develop alongside the talented Lauri Korpikoski though opportunities may be limited. Mueller, McAmmond and Filtov offer established support up top whilst the demoted Vorros, Rypien and Lundqvist are assembled as another tough checking shutdown line. Veteran legends Jaromir Jagr, Alexi Yashin and Fedor Federov have been added on short term deals to inspire the youngster and plug the gaps where necessary.

Defensively the Pirates remain solid with the addition of Jack Johnson to lead the unit whilst draftee Pysyk will be given an important role on the second pairing and the special teams. Josh Harding is expected to blossom as the established starter whilst rookie Niellson will be there for support and to learn.


All in all the Victory enter the new season with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence. They will however keep in mind that it takes time to settle in so many new players and that in a tough division the ride won’t be made easy. An improvement on last year is a must and so scoring must be stepped up. If the solid D can hold up their end then the talent of Sedin, Spezza, Horton, Vermette, Connolly and Ryan should be enough to steam roll anyone. The goaltending is the only slight worry at the Victory due to the lack of games played by the tandem- but expectation are high.

The Pirates will hope to improve on a disastrous last season. At times they showed there worth putting together some decent runs. Again defensively the talent and experience is there- it is the forwards where the greatest concerns lye. The top line is adequate and the checking line decent but the middle groups are somewhat suspect. An over reliance on one or two lines could hurt the Pirates this year and so Harding will have to be at his best between the pipes for the Pirates to succeed.

Treat Modano well wont you