After falling short in the Conference Finals last season, the Nordiques look to build on that success this season. Unfortunately for them, Mikko Koivu, the face of the franchise for many seasons has decided to hang up the skates and call it a career. The organization would like to thank him for his service and have a cermony planned to raise his #9 jersey to the rafters.
With Koivu's retirement the Nordiques management quickly went to work to try and secure a suitable replacement by adding someone to play alongside Nolan Patrick on the top line. They were able to land that piece with the acqisition of highly sought after Viktor Arvidsson. Included in this trade Quebec receive young D-man Connor Timmins. They had to give up several key assests to get Arvidsson(Necas, Liljegren, Duclair and a 2021 1st), but with the graduation of 3 forwards from the farm group, they felt this was the right move to allow these young guys a proper chance to play large minutes to further their development.
The moves didnt stop there. Heres a breakdown of whos in and out for the Nordiques organization this season:
In: Viktor Ardvidsson, Conor Timmins, Olle Eriksson Ek, TJ Tynan, Brian Elliot, Jan Rutta, Alex Gologoski, Josh Norris, Teemu Pulkkinen, Alex Chmelevski, Dustin Wolf(P), Jamieson Rees(P)
Out: Jonas Korpisalo, Jannik Hansen, Anthony Duclair, Martin Necas, Timothy Liljegren, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Mike Green
Heres how the lineup will look to begin the Preseaon:
Morand - Patrick - Arvidsson
Reway - Vilardi - Howden
Norris- Tierney- Greenway
Brouwer - Stajan - Clutterbuck
Hamilton - Valimaki
Rielly - Gologoski
Dillon - Rutta
Allen
Elliot