Pick 30: Marcel Blazik - C: Marcel is a puck possession beast and an offensive dynamo. He finished 5th in scoring last season with 91 points and absolutely carried his teammates offensively as the 2nd highest scorer on the Islanders is a whopping 35 points behind Blazik. The 19 y/o czech will surely go back and dominate the junior league next season as the Trident likes to take their time with their prospects. Since he is not good enough at taking faceoff to be a centerman in the pro league, he projects to be a top-6 winger in the LTLHL in 2 or 3 seasons. 

Pick 39: Caspar Reichelt - RW: Caspar "The German Monster" Reichelt is an absolute unit. At 6'10, 250 pounds, he is the tallest and the heaviest player in the draft. He has some good numbers but it will take a few seasons before he can make the jump. He could turn out to be a middle 6 scoring winger at the pro level. 

Pick 44: Erwin Haberer - LW: Haberer is a well rounded two-way winger that projects to be a middle 6 forward in the LTLHL. He will need a few seasons in the farm system, but he should see plenty of ice time with the Wolverines and should be paired with good enough teammates to see his offensive production take a step forward. 

The Trident had the 15th overall pick in the season 5 entry draft and they selected the Czech defenseman Lubos Gebauer. Playing with the Sherbrooke Raiders, Gebauer put up a very impressive season. Amongst the the 236 defensemen that played in juniors last season, he was 4th in takeaways (78), 16th in shots blocked (116), 28th in +/- (+11), 2nd in points (69) and 1st in goals with 21, which is a league record. He projects to be an elite two way defenseman. His play and attributes are very similar to a well known Trident supersar : Arnt Pfeffer. 

"We had Lubos very high on our list amongst other names, but the appeal of maybe having a 2nd Pfeffer in our hands was too tempting to pass up. We know Lubos is his own player, but we think having another young similar defenseman like Pfeffer in the organisation will be beneficial for his development as Arnt will be able to mentor him. We are really excited with our pick."

For the first time in their history, the Trident are finally making the playoffs this year. They finished the season with a record of 36 wins, 29 losses, 91 points, which placed them 2nd in their division, 4th in their conference and 10th in the whole league. A major part of their success can be attributed to newly arrived Jarred Kennelly (which finished the season with 89 points in 80 GP, placing him first scorer amongst rookies and 3rd amongst centers.) and Tsurayuki Shibahara (25W, .919SV%, 2.84 GAA). The Trident will face the Dockheads in the first round and will try to solve the dominant Cooper Fornataro, who is the favorite to win practically every goaltender awards this season.

First up, winger Valentin Lokhanov now becomes the Trident highest paid player as he signed a 5 year, 4.5M aav contract. Then all-stars Pfeffer and Shibahara both signed 4 year deals (3.7M for Pfeffer and 3.2 for Shibahara). Peltokangas also signed a 5 year deal for 2.8M aav and young goaltender Daulton Gammond inked a 3 year, 1.995M aav contract. 

"Of course we would've liked to sign Pfeffer to a 5 year deal, but with his great recent play and his all-star nomination, the 5 year deal was not appealing from his point of view and we understand that. We love him here in Miami so we agreed on a 4 year term instead. Shibahara is proably the best goaltender this year and he proved that he was the real deal, that he is part of the league's elite. He is a major part of our success this season and he more than earned his new contract. For Gammond, we firmly believe he has #1 potential but we dont want to put him in a spot that might hinder his development. We want him to be shelterd behind Shibahara for the next few years and play a 1B role, that is why we both agreed for a 3 year "bridge-deal" with him."

Next season, points leader Jarred Kennelly (46pts in 45GP), 2nd overall pick Silvan Haslebacher and defensemen Loren Converse will all need to be resigned. Hopefully the Trident will be able to keep them all with the newly announced 59M salary cap.

Now with 32 games played, the Trident currently sits 12th in the league and 3rd in the rough southeast division with a 14W, 13L and 5 OTL record. Major part of the Trident success is due to rookie Jarred Kennelly who leads all rookies with 35 points in 32GP. Newly acquired Tsurayuki Shibahara has also quickly become a fan favorite as his play has been absolutely stellar. He now has 10W and 7L with a GAA of 2.97 and a 0.920 save percentage (6th best in the league). Captain Koonts has also been playing very well, coming back from a slow year last season, he now has 25 points in 32GP (he only had 38 in S3). 

After what seemed to be a great start to the season, winning 4 of their first 6 games, the Trident then proceeded to loose 7 of their next 8 games. The most frustrating part in all this: Miami outshot their opponent 5 times in those 8 games. Is the issue in the net then? Shibahara is doing very well, posting a 0.917 save percentage (12th best in the league fow goalies with at least 5 games played) and rookie Gammond is holding his own with a 0.908 SV%. Where is the issue then? Eyes are starting to turn towards coach Fagerberg, as fans feel the management were more than patient enough with him...

The elite defensive defenseman Villiam Oikarinen was traded yesterday for a 1st and a 2nd round pick to the Atlanta Royals. 

"We want to have a more offensive minded team this season. We always had an issue with getting pucks on the net and scoring goals, so we want to give our offensive players more ice time. That meant that Oikarinen would not get the ice time he deserved. He will be a great fit with the Royals and we will surely miss him a lot, but major changes needed to be made for this season. We dont want to repeat the previous years."

There are also rumors that goaltender Parttyli Kruus would've played his last game as part of the Miami Trident, and he would be sent to a Northern division team, but nothing official has been announced yet...

Update: Goaltender Parrtyli Kruus has been traded to the Halifax Chaos for a 2nd round pick and Kellen Trayner. The Trident also acquired goaltender Tsurayuri Shibahara from the North Stars in exchange of the Royals first round pick that they previously acquired in the Oikarinen trade.

Shibahara has not played that much in the LTLHL (only 50 games played) but he's been brilliant when he did. He has a save percentage of 0.923% and a GAA of 2.60. Those stats are similar to those of the league's best : Lars-Bjorn Sundholm (0.931, 2.54), Andrew Wiewel (0.928, 2.77) and Cooper Fornataro (0.922, 2.77). Remains to be seen if Shibahara can keep posting those kinds of stats, as the Trident has consistently been a team who allows a lot of shots on net, but the gamble is definately worth it. 

With the Trident's good performance this season, GM Bouchard acquired two great veterans to help push the team in securing a playoff spot. First, 35y/o RW Leon Christensen is coming from the Voltage in exchange of Antonio Donohoe and a 3rd round pick. He will start on the first line with Koonts in order to try and spark things up offensivly. Then, the Trident went and got defenseman Yulian Mozgo for a 4th round pick and Harding Fremlin. He will get a lot more playing time on the Trident's roster on the 3rd pairing and on the pk. With these moves, the Trident got some quality depth without sacrificing their great future. There are some rumors that says that  the Trident might not be finished shopping and might be looking for a solid top 4 dman, depending on the next few games goes.

Young rookie defenseman Arnt Pfeffer has been playing lights out since the start of the season. Logging over 23 minutes of ice time on average per night, he is a main contributer of the Trident's success. With 21 points in 30 games played, he is currently 2nd in the league in shots on goal by defensemen, 3rd in points amongst defensemen, 12th in blocked shots and 3rd in points amongst rookie players. If he can stay healthy, he will surely be a front runner for the Calder trophy. With now 30 games played to the season, the Trident sits 10th in the league with 17 wins, 10 losses and 3 overtime losses.

The latest talent injection into the Trident's lineup is doing wonders for the team. Rookies Jansen (5 pts in 10gp), Haslebacher(6 pts in 10gp) , Peltokangas(9pts in 10gp) and Pfeffer (6pts in 10gp) were all given major roles by coach Fagerberg and they've all responded well. Players acquired last season have also been adapting well with the team. Centerman Urpo Schneider is currently leading the team in points with 4 goals and 6 assists in 10 games while also being very effective defensively. Young defensemen Loren Converse, acquired from the Blues late last year in exchange of Andrei Flatley, is also pulling his weight in defensively, logging over 20 mins per game on average. He's quickly becoming a solid core piece of the Trident's defense. Surprisingly, it's the usual suspects who are having trouble to hit the score sheet. Captain Koonts and assistant Marc-André Larochelle are having a pretty slow start to the season according to their standards.

"Yeah we are having trouble finding each other on the ice me and Marc but we are winning right now and that's what matters. We are having our best start to a season ever, thats the main takeaway here. I'm sure its only a matter of time before me and Marc find our groove again but I'm glad the guys are there to cover for us in the meantime."

Young goalie Patrick Carlyle has also been playing very well, posting a 0.921 save percentage and 3 wins in the 5 games he started. This is an important season for him as he is currently in his last contract year and he is competing with Gammond and Lord (who are both playing with the Wolverines this season) for future 1B (maybe even a 1A) spot.

The Trident are currently 7-3-0, ranked 5th in their conference and 7th in the league. 

A couple weeks back, seeing that the season was again heading down the drain, the Trident traded veteran center Thomas Braaksma and a 2nd round pick for prospect Brandt Mackaness. Last week, after long negotiations with Las Vegas, the Trident traded their newly acquired prospect for Urpo Schneider.

“We liked Brantt a lot but we also want to be competitive as soon as possible. With all the young guys that will likely move up in the organization as soon as next season (thinking of Jansen, Peltokangas, Pfeffer, Lord, Gammond and Kennelly in the juniors), Mackanness was the odd man out. We wanted to acquire a player that could fill a middle 6 spot for the foreseeable future and we feel that Urpo might be the perfect fit. Schneider will be an important part of the team next season and will likely move to the center position.”

After a disastrous start to the season with only 1 win in their first 13 games, the team really needed to shake things up. First to go were defenseman Kody Holles and right winger Jayce Petrie in return of Garland Newkirk and Abdel Sznajder. The Trident get a younger and more defensive minded winger in Garland and a 3rd pairing defenseman with Sznajder. After that, the biggest trade to date in the Trident's history: Dwitght Robichaud and Kory Nestor are sent to the Harfang in return of 21 y/o defenseman Reece Leinweber, 25 y/o left wing Dan Strom and 23 y/o center Jochen Sieger. 

"Robichaud never really lived to our expectation unfortunately and while Nestor was great for us, he was needed in that trade for us to get what we wanted".

To replace Nestor, GM Bouchard then turned to the Laval Redbulls and traded their 3rd round pick for 26 year old defenseman Zachary Rothschild. 

"The goal was to trade assests without touching players in our farm system as they are doing really well right now and we didn't want to stunt any players progression by calling them up and playing them less than they would with the Wolverines. We really think we can turn this season around. Kruus has been tremendous, with a .928 save percentage and a 2.79 GAA, its a wonder how we were not able to win more games." 

With all those trades, here's what the Trident's lines looks like:

Lokhanov - Koonts - Larochelle

Schmidt - Flatley - Newkirk

Upton - Braaksma - Cyncar

Lenn - Juna - Tae-Gyong
 

Oikarinen - Rothschild

McChesney - Sznajder

Coombes - Girouard
 

Kruus

Carlyle

With the poor inaugural season the Trident had last year, GM Bouchard had a lot of issues to tackle this offseason. One of the major problems to address was to get more shots on goal as Miami was one of the teams that had the fewest shots per game the previous season. Obviously, the young Russian sniper Valentin Lokhanov will surely help with that. Karl-Johan Schmidt and defenseman Leroy Girouard were added to the team to boost the team's offense. Andrei Flatley also got the call he’s been waiting for, promoting him to the big league. He had an excellent first season with the Kamloops Wolverines playing on the first line, recording 22 goals and 30 assists in 55 games. He will start the season on the 2nd season where he will be reunited with his teammate and mentor, Stanley Cyncar who also got the call up. Another significant addition to the lineup will be the young Pascal Lord, who dominated the farm last year, posting a 0.927 save percentage and 2.09 GAA. He will start as Kruus’ backup, but could very well steal the starting spot during the season. Other notable free agent signatures for the Trident aside from Girouard would be Slavomir Juna and Byeon Tae-Gyeong. 

Here are the projected lines for the season opener against the Port City Privateers:

Lokhanov - Koonts - Larochelle
Flatley - Braaksma - Cyncar
Schmidt - Robichaud - Petrie
Upton - Juna - Tae-Gyeong

Girouard - Oikarinen
Nestor-Holles
McChesney - Coombes

Lord
Kruus

The Rochester Rockstars who won the draft lottery and, after careful deliberation, decided to select Orlando Wey from the Gainsville Gators. At 21 years old, he already seems like a superstar in the making. The Trident had the 2nd overall pick and turned to Russian Valentin Lokhanov of the Wichita Dragons.

“Lokhanov was very high on our list, even some of our scouts had him ahead of Wey. Obviously we will see what he can do in the next selection camp but it goes without saying that we may have found the left winger we were missing to complement Koonts and Larochelle.”

There was a lot of movement for the Trident during the draft, first, young dmanFrancois Prigione is going to the Razorbacks as well as picks 25 and 49 for the 15th pick. The Trident selects Arnt Pfeffer, an offensive-minded defenseman. “We believe Pfeffer could very well become a top defender for us very quickly. When we saw he was still available and the Razorbacks were looking to trade their pick, we knew we had to do everything in our power to acquire it.”

GM Bouchard was not finished. The Quebec Harfangs had shown interest in Stefan Gordon during the season and the recruiting team had another player in their sights. The Trident therefore sent Stefan Gordon, Tim Humonen and a 5th pick Y4 for picks 23, 112 and 115. With the 23rd pick, GM Bouchard selected Gordon Peltokangas. “We had a surplus of right wingers at the moment and unfortunately we had to part with the excellent Stefan Gordon, but that allowed us to get our hands on Peltokangas who was very high on our list. He will play with the Wolverines next season.”

Earlier before the draft, the Trident concluded another trade, this time involving the Portland Twisters. The Trident sent Blaize Bremmer for the 29th pick. “Blaize is an excellent player but we were unable to find his place in the lineup throughout the season. So we wanted to give him a chance elsewhere.”

It is the young center Jared Kennelly who will saw his name called as the 29th pick. “Jared is an excellent young center. He still has a little development to do in his career but he is only 18 years old. I see him being in the Trident’s top 6 very soon, I am sure.”

With 4 picks in the top 30 of an exceptional draft, the Trident is filling a very exciting bank of young prospects. Here's a summary of the Trident's other picks.

67th: LW Pierre-Olivier Jansen. Jansen is a pure 200-foot player. He is capable of contributing offensively, while also being excellent defensively. He will be a real swiss army knife for the Trident

73rd pick; G Daulton Gammond. Although he didn't have his best season with the Dragons, Gammond still has excellent potential. He could very well become a regular goalie in the LTLHL.

97th pick: D-Nathan Paasiaro: Nathan is certainly a project, but one that could pay off big. He is an offensive defenseman but with some development it would be very likely to see him as a 4th-5th defenseman in the LTLHL

112th pick: C-Michal Stellon: Stellon is a very balanced center who is very responsible defensively. He could do very well in the LTLHL right now, but management believes it is better for his development to leave him in the junior league where he will have the chance to dominate and gain confidence in his offensive game. He has the potential to be a 2nd-3rd center with the Trident.

115th pick: D-Acke Kronholm: Acke is a more defensive-minded defenseman but still has some offensive skills. He has good potential and his future in the LTLHL is practically assured to be at least a bottom pairing defenseman.

The Trident is now complete. Let’s go over some key members of the organization.

C - Lenny Koonts, 18 y/o

Obviously, the core of what GM Bouchard built starts with Koonts. The huge 6’8’’ center will be a major part of the team for years to come and with such leadership, don’t be surprised to see him become the first Trident’s captain.

D - Villiam Oikarinen, 25 y/o

The young Finnish defenseman is already elite defensively, and he has the ability to contribute offensively. Time will tell, but Oikarinen has all the makings of being a great #1-2 Dman for years to come in Miami

G - Patrick Carlyle, 19 y/o and Pascal Lord, 21 y/o

As for now, the starting goaltender position is locked to be Partyyli Kruus’, but after a few years of development, we could easily see the young tandem of Lord and Carlyle take over.

Paco Einhorn, Blaize Bremer, Thomas Braaksma, Leonard McChesney

What would be a team without veterans? Even if the Trident wants to be a young team, they could not be competitive without a good crop of older guys to mentor the young ones along the way. 

Coach Ibrahim Fagerberg, 55 y/o

Trident’s management spent big bucks when shopping for their coach. As the second highest paid coach of the league, GM Bouchard is more than happy with Fagerberg’s signing and feels he will be worth every penny of his contract.

On february 17th, the LTLHL held the innaugural draft and with the 3rd overall pick, GM Bouchard selected the young Lenny Koonts. While there were a lot of great players still on the board, the Tridents already opted for the future, by chosing the player with the better potential, according to the scouts team. 

"Lenny is already a good player but has the potential to be one of the LTLHL's best in just a few years. He is already extremely mature and will surely be a leader for years to come here in Miami"