Notable Events
- Pylons Season Record: 53-21-8
- Rivermen Season Record: 38-29-9
- Owner wanted 55 wins… I didn’t reach that.
- Owner then wanted a strong playoff run… that didn’t happen either.
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- The first game of the season produced 3 points for young Zlobin and T. Giesbrecht’s 100th career goal!
- Lots of notable retirements including Kevin Bieksa and the Sedins!
Trades/Acquisitions During the Season
1. Signed free agent defensemen Robyn Regehr to a 3 year deal at $1.8-ish (84 overall, but 37 years old).
2. Trade Deadline: traded a 2020 2nd round draft pick to Anaheim for TWO 2018 2nd round draft picks.
Player Season Stats
| # | Pos | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIMS | +/- |
| 1 (+1) | LW | K. Smith | 82 | 52 | 63 | 115 | 93 | 54 |
| 2 (+1) | C | C. Pedlar | 82 | 37 | 72 | 109 | 79 | 41 |
| 3 (-2) | C | R. Johanson | 82 | 39 | 69 | 108 | 48 | 43 |
| 4 | LW | T. Giesbrecht | 82 | 31 | 53 | 84 | 169 | 43 |
| 5 | RW | J. Skinner | 74 | 16 | 37 | 53 | 8 | 19 |
| 6 (+4) | D | A. Pietrangelo | 82 | 11 | 35 | 46 | 79 | 48 |
| 7 (-1) | C | P. Bergeron | 82 | 14 | 26 | 40 | 8 | 1 |
| 8 (-1) | D | A. Edler | 79 | 6 | 38 | 34 | 51 | 49 |
| 9 | LW | D. Perron | 82 | 10 | 19 | 29 | 6 | 1 |
| 10 (+2) | RW | T. Rattie | 71 | 16 | 12 | 28 | 9 | 13 |
| 11 (+3) | C | F. Beauvillier | 62 | 12 | 14 | 26 | 18 | 17 |
| 12 (N) | C | E. Locke | 82 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 10 | 10 |
| 13 | RW | A. Zlobin | 82 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 4 | -1 |
| 14 (+6) | RW | G. Hofmann | 82 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 8 | 14 |
| 15 (+2) | D | M. Weber | 59 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 80 | 28 |
| 16 (+3) | D | D. Shields | 55 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 37 | 23 |
| 17 | C | B. Sonne | 50 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| 18 | D | S. Brookbank | 82 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 179 | 8 |
| 19 | D | Y. Alexeev | 32 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| 20 | D | B. Ferriero | 33 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 |
| 21 | D | R. Reghr | 59 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 89 | 24 |
K. Smith and C. Pedlar topping the list! Nicely done!
Goalies:
| Player | GP | GAA | W | L | GA | SV% | SA | SO | PTS |
| J. Allen | 25 | 2.44 | 15 | 7 | 55 | 0.906 | 588 | 3 | 0 |
| K. Pfeifer | 61 | 2.07 | 38 | 14 | 124 | 0.928 | 1714 | 9 | 5 |
Lineup Entering the Playoffs
Forwards
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
| K. Smith (PWF; 90) | R. Johanson (SNP; 96) | T. Giesbrecht (PLY; 91) |
| J. Skinner (SNP; 89) | C. Pedlar (TWF; 92) | T. Rattie (SNP; 84) |
| D. Perron (PLY; 88) | P. Bergeron (TWF; 88) | G. Hofmann (GRN; 82) |
| F. Beauvillier (PLY; 83) | E. Locke (PLY; 84) | A. Zlobin (PLY; 82) |
I love my fourth line! Look at those draft picks!!! 
Defense
| Left Defense | Right Defense |
| M. Weber (DFD; 85) | A. Pietrangelo (TWD; 88) |
| A. Edler (TWD; 85) | R. Regehr (DFD; 85) |
| Y. Alexeev / B. Ferriero (78/79) | S. Brookbank (TGH; 83) |
K. Pfeifer (96)
J. Allen (89)
The Playoffs
Oooh. This didn’t go so well this year. The Rivermen struggled to have a decent season and didn’t even make the cut. The Pylons, on the other hand, gave it their best shot.
Round 1: Chicago Blackhawks
This series wasn’t too bad, although it started off looking a bit grim. The Pylons lost their first 2 games to the Hawks but then won the next 4 in a row to redeem themselves.
Round 2: Calgary Flames
The Pylons got off to a promising start by winning the first 3 games in a row, but then lost the next two. Thankfully, they won the 6th game of the series to move on to the next round!
Round 3: Edmonton Oilers
Guys. There’s no easy way of saying this. The Oilers swept us. They won 4 straight games in a row. Pfeifer had been in net for all prior playoff games up to this point, but I decided to pull him out (despite the fact he was doing well) and put Allen in net. We lost every game by 1-2 goals, so it was pretty close in each case, but the Pylons could not pull it together. I’m tempted to blame the massive hit to the defensive lines after last season to this pretty embarrassing result.
2018 Draft & Re-signings
The only player worth noting that I drafted this time around was right winger Vyacheslav Malkin, who I signed to a 3 year deal at $0.895. He’s a power forward, 73 overall, with potential in offense/defense/athleticism at B-/B/B- respectively. Hopefully he develops into something worth while!
I also decided to sign a draft pick from last year (6th round), LW Gabiel Sloan, since a lot of teams were showing interest in him. He seems to have developed in that year, now a 72B- up from a 71C previously.
I also re-signed:
LW D. Komachi – 3 years @ $0.550
G Wedgewood – 3 years @ $1.01
LW K. Smith – 5 years @ $7.090 (up from $5.320)
LW T. Giesbrecht – 6 years @ $7.575 (up from $5.410)
C C. Pedlar – 4 years @ $7.870 (up from $6.025)
D B. Ferriero – 4 years @ $0.705
And then, I looked at the free agents… I needed some defensemen. So I signed:
D Viacheslav Nikitin (82C overall; 25 years old; 3 years @ $0.550)
D Benn Olson (82D overall; 31 years old; 2 years @ $0.550)
D Barret Jackman (83E overall; 37 years old; 2 years @ $0.575)
Gee, does one of those names look familiar? BARRET JACKMAN WAS AN ORIGINAL PYLON! He was there in the first year! I traded him in the second year.
I did NOT resign…
G Bemstrom … backup Rivermen goalie. He was pretty useless.
D Pietrangelo … this was a HARD decision. Really hard. He was making $3.005 and wanted a raise up to $6.980. I just couldn’t do it. Why are defensemen always so greedy 
this, and Brookbank’s retirement, are the reasons why I decided to sign 3 new free agent defensemen. Hopefully it works out.
Notable Retired Players
Quite a few this year…
- Dany Heatley (CGY)
- Kevin Bieksa (CGY)
- Henrik Sedin (COL)
- Daniel Sedin (ANA)
- Andrew Ebbett (OTT)
- Andrew Alberts (TB)
- Sheldon Brookbank (KAM !!)
- Rick Rypien (VAN)
- Dennis Wideman (WSH)
- Patrick Sharp (CHI)
- Patrick Marleau (DAL)
Rookie Report
- C F. Beauvillier (2012 1st round pick)
- Hey, he’s got a full-time spot on the Pylons! No change, though. Had a decent season!
- RW A. Zlobin (2013 1st round pick)
- 82C (up from 81C)
- LW M. Rupert (2013 2nd round pick)
- No change 2 years running (77B-)
- C E. Locke
- Had his first Pylon season this year and actually did pretty well! (84C up from 83C).
- C S. Danyluk (2014 1st round pick)
- Up 76C- from 75C.
- LW D. Komachi (2015 4th round pick)
- Showed the most improvement! Now 77B- up from 74B-.
Hofmann is up 82 from 80; Alexeev is 79 from 78; Pinette is 80 from 79; Macqueen is up 78 from 77. Not a lot of other remarkable changes to mention, really.
Closing Remarks
With a weakened defense and a pretty much maxed out salary cap, I think the Pylons performed a little… well… inadequetely? I really did expect more out of them.
The lost of defenseman Pietrangelo (who has been with the Pylons since the first year), is going to be a huge hit. Hopefully signing those free agent defensemen will help fill that void. At least Weber, Regehr, and Edler seem to be doing their part to help out.
I’m REALLY shocked I was able to resign Pedlar, Smith, and Giesbrecht all without much of an issue. Pedlar was the most reluctant to resign, and I couldn’t get a longer contract out of him than 4 years. However, Pedlar is now the most highly paid player on the team… is he worth it? Should I trade him for a good defenseman, move Bergeron up to the second line and let Locke and Beauvillier up to 3rd and 4th line centers? This is a bit of a tough decision, but it’s something I’m definitely considering. A big name player trade may occur next season, that’s for sure.
