Storm lift the Newcombe-Todd Cup for the 3rd straight year and the 4th time in 6 years after winning a hard fought series against Bullies 4 games to 1.
Storm looked like a team in transition. Despite a strong regular season, Storm made a series of movements to provide the team with more depth and flexibility going forward.
- Key contributors to the 2013 - 2014 champsion team, James Sheppard, Travis Moen, Johnny Boydchuk and Paul Martin were not resigned.
- Top line C Nicklas Backstrom was traded to Bombers in exchange for rugged winger Milan Lucic and talented winger Tyler Toffoli.
- Promising C Derick Brassard was moved to Aviators for young winger Matt Nieto and a 3rd round pick
- Young forwards Nazem Kadri and Rickard Rackell and Prospect Brendan Perini were traded to Gunner for top 4 dmen Danny Dekeyser and Justin Schultz.
- To make room for Justin Schultz, Jake Gardiner was traded to Sheep in exchange to gritty veteran Rich Peverley and young power forward Hudson Fasching - Peverley turned out to be a key acquisition provided depth a C.
- Unwilling to let Nick Foligno walk via free agency at the end of the year, he was moved to Worgs along with recently acquired Milan Lucic, D Mike Kostka and Prospects Valentin Zykov and Jack Glover in a mega trade and brought back intriguing but inconsistent forward Zach Kassian, rugged dman Erik Gudbranson, and talented forward Brayden Schenn.
As the trade deadline approached, Storm remained near the top of the league. As such, management decided to make a couple of trades for another long cup run. F Troy Brouwer and D Dennis Seidenberg were acquired to provide additional depth.
The 2014 - 2015 team was led offensively by C Logan Couture and W James Neal. The defensive corp was deep and dynamic with the likes of Erik Karlsson and John Carlson. In goal, Marc-Andre Fleury was simply dominant. MAF led the league in save % and shut outs.
As we move into the offseason, tough decisions will need to be made:
- Jordan Staal, Ryan Johansen, Tyler Toffoli, Matt Fraser, and Jacob Markstrom are RFAs
- Will the team resign UFAs Artem Anisimov and Troy Brouwer?
- It is not likely that Dennis Seidenbery will be back with the glut of young talented dmen in the system.
- There are already rumblings that F Patrick Sharp, D Justin Schultz, and D Christopher Tanev may be available for trade.
That's a wrap...