Seattle Battle Cats - NHL18 32nd Expansion Team Franchise

[SeattleBattleCat]

FREE AGENCY

Trade News.

Big news for Seattle on the 1st day of Free Agency:

Seattle Trades RW Cam Atkinson 34yrs 85ovr Exact Top6F, D Travis Sanheim 27yrs 83ovr Exact Top4D & $4.188M in combined retained salary, to Tampa Bay for D Mikhail Sergachev 25yrs 85ovr Med Elite.


Although with still 2 years left on his contract, the Battle Cats have elected to get what they can now for 34yr old Right Winger Cam Atkinson and have coupled him in a deal along with Travis Sanheim and 4.188M worth of retained salaries for young defender 25yr old Mikhail Sergachev. This leaves a considerable hole in the Cat's top 6 however also fulfills a need of moving Sanheim on who was no longer happy at with the team.
Atkinson leaves the team with a Stanley Cup Championship ring from the 2021/22 season (and will be missed by the GM)

Rookie Signings (1st day of Free Agency):
No Rookies were offered contracts until Free Agency began, however that was due to needing to free up some space on the roster. The following Contracts were offered:
RW Eric Cleary 18yrs Low Elite 65ovr Sniper - Entry Level Contract - 3yrs @ $.950M
LW Jose Horton 19yrs Med Top6F 69ovr 2 way Fwd - Entry Level Contract - 3yrs @ $.950M
C Kenny Pecker 20yrs Med Top6F 2way fwd 67ovr - Entry Level Contract - 3yrs @ $.950M
RW Sebastian Heinrich 19yrs - 81ovr Med Top6F - Entry Level Contract - 3yrs @ $.950M

2 Rookies to watch in Season 2023/24:
This season, a lot of ice time and faith is going to be put into two young skaters in particular. Sebastian Heinrich, a 19yr old German Right Winger, traded into the team on draft day, and huge surprise packet from pick 160 in the 2022 draft, Eddie Ciolfitto. Both youngsters will at this stage be playing full time on the Battle Cats roster, both without having played a single game in the AHL.

Free Agency Signings:

There were no big targets on the Cats radar for free Agency this year. Faith is instead going to be put into some of its younger players.

What was required were some players to fill roster spots for the Burnaby Aces, so the following 3 2-way contracts were signed.

2-way Contracts Signed
RW Caedmon Szwarz 19yrs 65ovr Low Elite
RW Logan Shaw 30yrs 75ovr Exact Bottom6F
C David Miller 26yrs High Bottom6F

Players on the Market
These were the significant players on the market for the upcoming season:

[SeattleBattleCat]

SEATTLE UNVEILS NEW ALTERNATE JERSEY FOR 2023/24


Seattle Battle Cats will be sporting an orange themed alternate jersey this season at selected home & away matches.
The big S adorns the front of the jersey in what is a very different look for the team compared to previous years.

[SeattleBattleCat]

SEATTLE BATTLE CATS PRE-SEASON REPORT


Game 1 vs Winnipeg: (I Played)
Pre-season was finally underway and the first opponent just happened to be the team that eliminated the Cat's in the 1st round of last season's finals, the Winnipeg Jets.

At home in Seattle, the Cats, were close to a full strength roster aside from rookie net minder, Len Frigon.
The game did not start well, going down 2 goals in the 1st period and had to play catch up the rest of the game. Filip Forsberg played well, scoring the 1st goal of the Cat's pre-season, then with 6:45 left in the 3rd, scored his 2nd goal to tie the game 4-4 and forced overtime.
Unfortunately the Cats could not hold on & were beaten early in Overtime. Rookies, Eddie Ciolfitto & Sebastian Heinrich did not really impact the game much in their debut's. The final Overtime Loss result - Winnipeg 5, Seattle 4. (I am really starting to hate these guys haha)




Game 2 vs St Louis: (I played)
It was time to bring in the invited rookies & 2-way contracted players to try out for the team as the Cat's played the St Louis Blues, again @ home.
Aside from new defender Sergachev, Rookies Heinrich & Ciolfitto, Veteran Center Zetterberg & Goalie Malcolm Subban in net, the rest of the side was made up from the up & coming talent stored at the Burnaby Aces.



In a close game, the shining light of the match was Left Winger Dwight Li (20yrs 75Med Elite Grinder) who scored the winning goal for the Cat's.
Li will certainly be pushing his case for a spot on the Battle Cat's roster around some point this season.



Game 3 vs Dallas: (simmed)
A near same line up was used to play the Dallas Stars, however the team was soundly beaten.


Game 4 vs Minnesota: (simmed)
The Cat's then moved onto Minnesota and won. Nick Suzuki, Sebastian Aho & Nikita Scherbak starred in this victory.


Game 5 @ Nashville: (simmed)
The Preds shut out a luckless Battle Cats side.


Game 6 vs Chicago: (Simmed)
Neil Yip & Filip Forsberg returned for the 6th pre-season game & the Cats hosted a thin lined Chicago who they soundly beat 7-1.


Game 7 vs Colorado: (Simmed)
With an almost full-time roster back on the ice, aside from rookies, center Hans Koch, Left Winger Nick Crosby & defender Cody Hensick the Cat's won a close one at home vs Colorado. The Cat's had a commanding lead after the 1st only to give most of it away in the 2nd & then tied in the 3rd, until a late goal from Neil Yip sealed the 5-4 victory.


Final Pre-Season Record - 4-2-1

Division Standings After Pre-Season:

Spoiler

Pre-Season Player & Goalie Stats:

Spoiler

There were a lot of skaters put on the ice this pre-season:

1st Game of the Season Looms
And it promises to be a big one. The Battle Cats will play the Jets at home (I play this).
The Winnipeg Jets eliminated Seattle in 6 games in last seasons playoffs in round 1.

[SeattleBattleCat]

ROMAN JOSI NAMED CAPTAIN

Versatile veteran d-man Roman Josi, 33yrs old, was today named as the new Captain of the Seattle Battle Cats. Josi who joined the Cat's 3 years ago has shown great leadership skill through out his time with the Cat's and seemingly emerged from nowhere when he took on the Alternate Captaincy part-way into last season.



Crane named Alternate
Steven Crane, the Battle Cats other prized D-man was today given the big A to pin to his chest. The young defender is in his 4th year of playing in the NHL since being picked up at number 2 in the 2019/20 Draft.

[SeattleBattleCat]

BREAKING NEWS

Godla & Schmidtt Traded

Just days prior to the start of the regular season, the Battle Cats management have made a trade which see's Goalie Denis Godla (29yrs 79ovr Exact Fringe Starter) & Nate Schmidtt (30yrs 78ovr Exact Top6D) bound for Boston.
In the deal, the Battle Cats receive 3rd line Center, Devin Shore (29yrs, 80ovr Exact Top9F) & AHL Goalie Dan Vladar (26yrs 75ovr High Backup).
The Battle Cat's recognised their weakness particularly in the 3rd/4th line at Center with Hanzal moving on and also there was a need to keep developing Len Frigon, which would have been limited if Godla was still in the mix.
Devin Shore, 29yrs, hopefully ties up that requirement on the 3rd/4th line, and will likely be paired with veteran James Van Reimsdyk on the left wing
and either Rookie Eddie Ciolfitto or Grinder Tom Wilson.
D-man Nate Schmidtt moves on with the hopes of getting back to full time NHL duties, the 30yr old defender fell out of favour last season and spent most of 2022/23 in the AHL with the Burnaby Aces.



PROJECTED LINES VS WINNIPEG - 12TH OCTOBER 2023

* Purple - New to Seattle in 2023/24

The record against Winnipeg over the last few seasons has been quite average, however they are on Seattle's turf first so hopefully the home crowd can push the Cats to a win.

[johnstone1987]

Digging that Alternate Jersey

[SeattleBattleCat]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnstone1987

Digging that Alternate Jersey

Thanks! I do enjoy changing it around from season to season.

[SeattleBattleCat]

End of October Report

Overall Record 6-4-0

Leading Points: Mathew Dumba - 10
Leading Goals: Tom Wilson 5
Leading Assists: Mathew Dumba 8

Player Stats:

Spoiler

Goalie Stats:

Spoiler

Rookie Watch:

Spoiler

Wrap up - A Beautiful Season Start Followed by Disaster:
Opening Night:
The Battle Cats faced one of their biggest nemesis's of the last couple of seasons, the Winnipeg Jets, in the home opener in Seattle. In what was an amazing start to an NHL career, rookie Sebastian Heinrich scored not once, but 3 times with a huge 1st career hat-trick which bought the house down!
Eddie Ciolfitto also played his 1st game, unfortunately he was stuck in the shadow of Heinrich's pinnacle, however he did play a solid 1st game.
The Battle Cats came away with a 5-2 victory which is a huge psychological step forward given the last few losses previously against the Jets.






Disaster: Injuries to Star Players
October 2023 will be a hard month to forget. Mikhail Sergachev was injued in the 1st game of the season against the Jets & missed the next 2 games. However on the 21st October, Nick Suzuki suffered a shoulder injury against Dallas, which will see him out for 4 weeks. Then to turn the team completely on its head, on the 31st October versus Buffalo, Filip Forsberg went down with a hip injury and will be out for the next 5 games. Then in even worse news yet to come, franchise prospect, Neil Yip, suffered a broken leg in the 3rd whilst attempting an around-the-net shot on Buffalo goalie, Pekka Rinne. Yip was blindsided whilst he was in the motion of swinging round to shoot and was crunched hard by defender Miro Heiskanen. Yip landed badly and sustained a fracture to his left tibia. Yip will be out until the 1st February, which will see him miss 40 games of the season. For such a rising star this is a massive setback and hopefully this will not impede on his future development (or even see him lose his Franchise potential - I am going to be very upset if this happens haha)


Dumba Leads the way:
29yr old Defender Mathew Dumba currently leads the Battle Cats in scoring with 11 points from 10 games. Hopefully he can keep this up.

Injuries
Mikhail Sergachev injured 12th October - Knee injury - missed 2 games
Nick Suzuki - injured 22nd October - Seperated Shoulder - Currently Returning 21st November.
Neil Yip - injured - 31st October - Broken Leg - Currently returning 1st February 2024
Filip Forsberg - injured 31st October - sore hip - Currently returning 12th November


Called Up
C Denis Malgin - 26yrs 76ovr High Bottom6
LW Dwight Li - 20yrs 75ovr Med Elite
With severe shortages, Malgin and Li were called up. Next game against Arizona will be Dwight Li's 1st NHL career game. He is the 3rd rookie to get a start this season.

Projected Lines @ Arizona Coyotes 2nd November:

The team is seriously backed into a corner, with arguably its best 3 forwards missing from the lineup, including its 1st line and 2nd line Centers. However we will put faith into new recruit Devin Shore and 43yr old veteran Henrik Zetterberg to take the bigger roles in the middle.